Last week, Housing Minister Fernando Zumbado began his campaign to step up the fight against sub standard living and shanty towns, by spending the night with a family in one such area, known as Finca San Juan. He did this to raise a few eyebrows and to draw attention to this very real problem that gets overlooked time and time again.

There were many people who were pointing fingers, saying that he was merely putting on a show for the cameras as he spent the evening, and ate a meal of noodle soup with some of the locals. However, the minister who fronts the campaigns of President Oscar Arias brushed these comments aside, and stated that these peoples comments meant nothing to him, if it meant that action would be taken quicker, and children could finally crawl around their own homes a year earlier than if nothing was done now. This was in reference to the rocky dirt floors such as the one in the home that he was spending the evening in. Something needs to be done soon, in order to make sure that these areas are re-developed and poverty can become part of Costa Rica's history, not its future!

The Arias administration has began its mission against poverty, with an aim to elevate the living standards of half, around 20,000 families, of those living in shanty towns across Costa Rica by 2010. They plan to target legal developments first, before the illegal ones are tackled as these will take more work, as in most cases new sites will have to be found, as many shanty town developments are currently set on land that is privately owned, making the shanty town residents, 'Squatters' in effect.

After spending the night in the small shanty town of Finca San Juan, Zumbado presented the Rios Morales family and 15 of their neighboring families, with housing grants and began construction of new homes on their current land. All in all, 105 families in the area will receive grants, which will total 474.9 million colones, which roughly translates to $913,000, giving $8,654 per household.

Projects are also due to begin soon in the central valley towns of Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela, with work already having began in the Pacific Coastal area of Puntarenas for more than 3,000 shanty town residents. Lets hope they keep up the good work and meet their targets by 2010!!

A statement was released on Friday, stating that the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States will be reviewed by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), as requested by a group of legislators as they believe that it goes against the constitutional rights of Costa Ricans.

The group of 19 legislators, most of whom are from the citizen action party (PAC), asked, on may 24th, that CAFTA be reviewed by the Supreme Court due to parts of it being unconstitutional, the court now has 30 days to rule on this matter.