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Children welcome
members of the British 2nd Royal Tank Regiment as they arrive in
Basra, southern Iraq Saturday March 22, 2003. (AP/Wide World
Photo/Brian Roberts/ News of the World/Pool)
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Immigration cannot remove illegals
Authorities can only prevent undocumented
Immigration police were given a crippling
blow by the Sala IV this week - they cannot remove or deport illegals from the
country.
The situation stems from an action brought before the Constitutional Court last
December against four articles of the immigration laws. The Court accepted to
study the case on the 18th of February, but only notified immigration officials
last week.
According to immigration officials there is great uncertainty as what to do
after locating an illegal person. As it stands now, they only have authority to
take action to remove or deport anyone who had already been already deported and
re-entered the country.
The confusion is that a judicial process cannot
be applied to any action that is based on the articles being challenged and
studied by the court. Deportations are administrative acts, and could be
interpreted that the immigration police do not have the authority to make them.
Security Minister, Rogelio Ramos, made an
immediate request before the court for clarification on this matter.
206 deportations this year
In the first two months of this year there were 205 removals or what is
technically known as "deportation". Once deported, a person is
barred from re-entering Costa Rica for 10 years.
Any person found to have re-entered the country after deportation can face jail.
Immigration police can detain any such person, notwithstanding the Court's
decision.
According to immigration statistics,
in January there were 78 deportations (63 Nicaraguans) and 2.433 refusal of
entry (2.331 Nicaraguans) at the borders. February deportations were 128
(78 Nicaraguans) and 4.144 (3.990 Nicaraguans) refusal of entry.
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Security Minister offers Jacσ more police
La
Nacion
The community of Jacσ will count in April with 20
police more officials of the Fuerza Publica, Immigration and Drug Control agents
This it was the commitment by the Minister of
Security yesterday, Rogelio Ramos, to representatives of diverse sectors of
community of Garabito, Puntarenas, worried about the insecurity in Pacific
beach town.
Indeed, tens of community members marched
yesterday on the main route of the town to request more monitoring and to
protest against the violence, because since 2001 to recently three people have
been assassinated.
The last was Alexαnder Solano, 35, shot
inside a Jacσ disco at dawn of Monday 17 of March.
Costa Rica is preparing for
crisis in tourism
The 19th Edition of Expotur, the largest
annual commercialization of Central America, will be a great opportunity so that
the Costa Rican businesses can promote to wholesalers worldwide.
As the war in Iraq begins to
affect the national tourism, Costa Rica is preparing packages that will compete
very aggressively world-wide.
For that reason, the Costa Rican Association of Professionals in Tourism (Acoprot)
started several months ago to design a strategy to promote the Central American
region as a single destination, like as agencies in Europe and Asia do.
The fair, which is held every year, projects for this edition a growth of 91% in
number of foreign companies registered; 44 buyers have have confirmed their
attendance, surpassing 23 in 2002 at the same date.
Draft to U.N. Body Does Not Condemn Cuba
By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA - A resolution presented Wednesday to the
top U.N. human rights body does not include a condemnation of Cuba's record, a
rare move that immediately drew protests from rights campaigners.
The activist groups charged that just last week Cuba arrested scores of
dissidents, accusing them of conspiring with American diplomats in Cuba to
encourage opposition to the communist government.
The annual meeting of the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission has censured
the communist island for its lack of democracy and free speech every year over
the past decade except 1998.
But in wording that will likely draw U.S. protest as well, the draft measure
produced by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay simply asks Cuba to accept a
visit by a U.N. monitor appointed earlier this year by the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights.
Censure by the U.N. body brings no penalties but draws international
attention to a country's rights record.
A spokesman for the U.S. mission to U.N. European offices in Geneva said only
that the United States supported the efforts of the sponsoring nations to
address the human rights situation in Cuba.
In Cuba, at least 75 people, including independent journalists, been arrested
since the crackdown was launched last week, according to the Cuban Commission on
Human Rights and Reconciliation.
The arrests were made "while the international community has been
preoccupied with Iraq," Rory Mungoven, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch,
said.
The European Union on Wednesday condemned the crackdown against political
dissidents in Cuba and called for their immediate release.
In Havana, the wives of several arrested anti-government activists visited
their husbands Wednesday and said they appeared to be in good health.
Cuba insists its rights record is good. It says it respects human rights by
guaranteeing its people broad social services such as free health care and
education, and that rich nations that fail to protect the poor are in no
position to preach.
"The United States needs a resolution against Cuba like a fish needs
water," Perez Roque, the foreign minister, told reporters in Geneva last
week.
Washington is running out of ways to justify its 40-year-old embargo against
Cuba, which most other nations oppose, he said.
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