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world news Diamars 5 aPriL 2022

Ex-finance minister wins runoff to be Costa Rica’s president

(AP) — A former finance celebrating supporters. His While working at the bank,
minister who surprised inauguration is scheduled for he was accused of sexual ha-
many by making it into May 8. rassment by multiple wom-
Costa Rica’s presidential en, was eventually demoted
runoff has easily won the Figueres conceded defeat less and then resigned. He has
election and is to become than an hour after results be- denied the accusations.
the Central American gan to come in. He had led
country’s new leader next the first round of voting Feb. The World Bank’s adminis-
month while still fending 6, with Chaves in second that trative tribunal last year criti-
off accusations of sexu- day. Neither had come close cized the way the case was
al harassment when he to the 40% of the vote needed initially handled internally.
worked at the World Bank. to avoid a runoff.
The tribunal noted that an
With nearly all polling sta- Figueres congratulated internal investigation found
tions reporting late Sunday, Chaves and wished him the that from 2008 to 2013
conservative economist Ro- best, adding that continues to Chaves leered at, made un-
drigo Chaves had 53% of the believe that Costa Rica is in a welcome comments about
vote, compared to 47% for “deep crisis” and he is willing physical appearance, repeated Barahona said Costa Ricans’ ing fee he received after his
former President José Figue- to help it recover. sexual innuendo and unwel- lack of enthusiasm, as shown presidency from the tele-
res Ferrer, the Supreme Elec- come sexual advances toward by the low turnout, was the communication company
toral Tribunal said. Figueres, who was Costa Ri- multiple bank employees. result of the many personal Alcatel while it competed for
ca’s president from 1994 to Those details were repeated attacks that characterized the a contract with the national
More than 42% of eligible 1998, represents the National by the bank’s human re- campaign. electricity company. He was
voters did not participate, an Liberation Party like his fa- sources department in a letter never charged with any crime
unusually low turnout for the ther, three-time president to Chaves, but it decided to “In the debates they only and denied any wrongdoing.
country, reflecting the lack of José Figueres Ferrer. Chaves sanction him for misconduct heated things up in personal
enthusiasm Costa Ricans had served briefly in the adminis- rather than sexual harass- confrontations, mistreatment While Costa Rica has enjoyed
for the candidates. tration of outgoing President ment. of each other,” he said. “They relative democratic stability
Carlos Alvarado and repre- didn’t add depth to their pro- compared with other coun-
In his victory speech, Chaves sents the Social Democratic “The facts of the present case posals to resolve the coun- tries in the region, the pub-
called for unity to address Progress Party. indicate that (Chaves’) con- try’s problems. The debates lic has grown frustrated with
problems like unemploy- duct was sexual in nature and didn’t help to motivate the public corruption scandals
ment and a soaring budget Both men waged a bruising that he knew or should have electorate.” and high unemployment.
deficit. campaign. known that his conduct was
unwelcome,” the tribunal “For a lot of people it’s em- In the February vote, Al-
“For me this is not a medal Chaves’ campaign is under wrote. The tribunal also not- barrassing to say they voted varado’s party was practically
nor a trophy, but rather an investigation by electoral au- ed that in the proceedings, the for one or the other, and erased from the political land-
enormous responsibility, thorities for allegedly run- bank’s current vice president many prefer to say they won’t scape, receiving no seats in
heaped with challenges and ning an illegal parallel financ- for human resources said in vote for either of the candi- the new congress. At the time
difficulties that we will all re- ing structure. He also has testimony “that the undis- dates or simply won’t go to of that vote, the country was
solve,” he said. been dogged by a sexual ha- puted facts legally amount to vote,” Barahona added. riding a wave of COVID-19
rassment scandal that drove sexual harassment.” infections, but infections and
“Costa Rica, the best is to him out of the World Bank. Figueres has been questioned hospitalizations have fallen
come!” Chaves said before Political analyst Francisco over a $900,000 consult- considerably since.

UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’

(AP) — Temperatures on Earth U.N. Secretary-General Antonio is accord to keep global warming well
will shoot past a key danger point Guterres said the report by the In- below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahr- The rate of growth has slowed from
unless greenhouse gas emissions tergovernmental Panel on Climate enheit) this century, ideally no more 2.1% per year in the early part of this
fall faster than countries have Change revealed “a litany of broken than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahren- century to 1.3% per year between
committed, the world’s top body climate promises” by governments heit). Yet temperatures have already 2010 and 2019, the report’s authors
of climate scientists said Monday, and corporations, accusing them of increased by over 1.1C (2F) since pre- said. But they voiced “high confi-
warning of the consequences of stoking global warming by clinging industrial times, resulting in measur- dence” that unless countries step up
inaction but also noting hopeful to harmful fossil fuels. able increases in disasters such flash their efforts to cut greenhouse gas
signs of progress. floods, extreme heat, more intense emissions, the planet will on average
Governments agreed in the 2015 Par- hurricanes and longer-burning wild- be 2.4C to 3.5C (4.3 to 6.3F) warmer
fires, putting human lives in danger by the end of the century — a level
and costing governments hundreds experts say is sure to cause severe im-
of billions of dollars to confront. pacts for much of the world’s popula-
tion.
In other words, the report’s co-chair,
James Skea of Imperial College Lon- Such cuts would be hard to achieve
don, told The Associated Press: “If we without without drastic, economy-
continue acting as we are now, we’re wide measures, the panel acknowl-
not even going to limit warming to 2 edged. It’s more likely that the world
degrees, never mind 1.5 degrees.” will pass 1.5C and efforts will then
need to be made to bring tempera-
Ongoing investments in fossil fuel tures back down again, including by
infrastructure and clearing large removing vast amounts of carbon di-
swaths of forest for agriculture un- oxide — the main greenhouse gas —
dermine the massive curbs in emis- from the atmosphere.
sions needed to meet the Paris goal,
the report found. Many experts say this is unfeasible
with current technologies, and even
Emissions in 2019 were about 12% if it could be done it would be far
higher than they were in 2010 and costlier than preventing the emis-
54% higher than in 1990, said Skea. sions in the first place.