President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, subscribed this week the changes to the Firearms and Explosives Law, which gives authorities more tools for gun control. “We are demonstrating with tools like these, that Costa Rica is capable of advancing to become a safer country with less impunity”, stated President Alvarado. The project was approved by the Legis...

The Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Migration in Costa Rica are working on the requirements to begin implementing a regulation for foreigners requesting their residence in the country to comply with the national vaccination program starting July 2019. According to Rodrigo Marín, director of Health Surveillance, every year the Migration office in Costa Rica receives anywhere be...

Costa Rican Social Security Service “La Caja” (CCSS) received the United Nations’ Public Service Award 2019 in the category “Promoting digital transformation in public sector institutions”, Good Health and Well Being for the implementation of Single Digital Health Records, a unique tool in primary medical care. “The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international rec...

Costa Rica is hosting the Central American Cruise Conference for the first time from May 22 through May 24. The biannual event, organized by the Florida and Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), has the participation of 250 cruise industry professionals and 16 executives from the world’s leading cruise lines. This is 5th edition, of this event meant promote a better understanding of the work of ...

Since March APM Terminals in Limón announced they now had the most modern container scanner in Latin America which helps verify all the cargos traveling to the United States and Europe as a tool to battle illegal traffic of weapons, drugs, cash radioactive materials, plagues, etc. The But.....In order to put the scanner to work the Government of Costa Rica has to invest in a monitoring center w...

The US Embassy San Jose announced the upcoming Consular outreach for U.S. citizens in San Ramon and La Fortuna. To RSVP for passport renewals, notary services, and federal benefits inquiries, interested parties must indicate their preference by writing to [email protected]. Any applicable fees must be paid in cash and colones. No checks or dollars. San Ramon WHEN: Wednesday, May 22, 2019...

This past Wednesday taxi drivers protested on the streets once again demanding sanctions against Uber and actions against this company and the drivers that work for it. Traffic police carried out operations at the Juan Santamaria Airport against Uber drivers also in response to protest by airport taxi drivers. Now the U.S. Embassy has received credible information that individual Uber driver...

Sachs Chemical, Inc. chose Costa Rica to become its distribution center in Central America with an investment over US$2,7 billion. Recognized as a leading chemical distributor serving the Puerto Rico and Caribbean markets, Sachs Chemical was founded in 1986, the company now has two operation plants of 8,400 square meters in Caguas and Carolina, in Puerto Rico. In Costa Rica, it currently has ...

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that Costa Rica does not comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards and has been assigned a Category 2 rating based on a reassessment of the country’s civil aviation authority. A Category 2 International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) rating means the country either lack...

Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas would be out of Real Madrid, affirms Spanish website Jugones. Navas apparently received the official communication from head coach Zinedine Zidane. The Costa Rican will headline his last match as part of “Los Blancos” this Sunday, May 19 when Real Madrid faces Betis at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Keylor Navas will say goodbye to Real Madrid after havi...

Midland Credit Management (MCM), a subsidiary of U.S.-based Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ECPG), inaugurated new offices in Costa Rica on Monday, May 13. The company will move its operations to the former Yaohan building near the Technological City of San José, Costa Rica. MCM arrived in Costa Rica in 2012 after an extensive site search across Latin America. The team began with 15 people ...

Costa Rican authorities received the alert from the US Coast Guard Service on a semi-submersible boat in waters of the Pacific; immediately the Costa Rican Coast Guard Service with the assistance of US Coast Guard Service organized the patrolling operation and after a chase they finally intercepted the vessel at 3 a.m. on Saturday close to Playa Llorona in Corcovado. “The weather conditions a...

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook Costa Rica the afternoon of this Sunday, May 12 at 1:24 p.m., its epicenter was in the South Zone of the country in Corredores, Puntarenas near the Panama boarder; this first movement was followed by several replicas with magnitudes of between 3.0 and 3.9; another important earthquake was registered at 7:01 p.m. with a magnitude of 4.8 on Richter scale, this one wi...

The third edition this year of the Art City Tour is scheduled to take place May 15, “Chepe de Moda” (“Chepe in Style”, Chepe being the way Costa Ricans’ refer to the capital city of San Jose)w will connect once again activities in different museums, galleries, cultural centers, historical buildings and open spaces in downtown San Jose, including the neighborhoods, Amón, Otoya, Escalante and Sabana...

American Airlines will add, starting December 18, another daily flight from Dallas, Texas to two Costa R Rican destinations, the Juan Santamaria Airport and the Daniel Oduber Airport. Both flights will be scheduled during the evening (red-eye) and involve the use of a B737-800 plane with capacity for 172 passengers. “These new services between Dallas/Fort Worth and San Jose and Liberia, Gua...

Selina inaugurated another of its hotels in Costa Rica, this time in Nosara, Guanacaste, with the idea of offering surf lovers, backpackers and adventurers a laid back, modern environment where they can feel comfortable and enjoy the beautiful location. “Nosara, Costa Rica is paradise for surfers and yogis looking for a warm, sunny getaway. This popular retreat location is renowned for its unsp...

The DCILab of the Electronic Engineering School at the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (TEC by its Spanish acronym), has created the first RISC, 32-bit microcontroller completely designed and developed in Costa Rica, for a microcircuit with medical applications. A microcontroller is a microprocessor which, in addition to its processing units, has input-output interfaces and dedicated unit...

Located adjacent to The Retreat Costa Rica on Crystal Mountain and overlooking a tropical organic coffee plantation with Pacific Ocean views, the opening of a new 7,000 square foot Vida Mia Ayurvedic Healing Center and Spa is set to open proudly on Saturday, June 8, 2019. This will be the debut of the first Ayurvedic healing center in Costa Rica and will include a healer from Kerala, India special...

Embassy San Jose announced the upcoming Consular outeach for U.S. citizens in Puerto Viejo, Limón. The Consular staff will be on hand to provide routine services and answer any questions. To RSVP for passport renewals, notary services, and federal benefits inquiries, you must indicate your preference by writing to [email protected]. Any applicable fees must be paid in cash. No checks or doll...

With over 230 international purchasers, Expotur 2019 will kick off on May 9 in the Costa Rica Convention Center. These delegates represent companies from 35 different countries, where they will be promoting Costa Rica as a destination. The increasing flow of tourists to Costa Rica as well as the convenient visa process and existing air connections are determining factors for the committee that ...

Photo Credit: WSL / TIM HAIN Costa Rican surfer Leilani McGonagle took the first place of the Krui Pro 2019, WQS 1000 points in Indonesia. McGonagle got the win with a score of 14.84 (8.67 one of the highest scored waves in the competition and 6.17), beating Hawaiian contender Keala Tomoda who scored 13.76. "I am shaking right now!". "I know how good Keala has been surfing all week and I ...

Thermo Fisher Scientific celebrated the opening of its new distribution center in Coyol Free Zone, Alajuela, Costa Rica. This is the company’s third expansion in the country in the past 7 years. The new 15,000 square feet building has increased height which expands capacity by 52%. The additional space will be used to stock laboratory supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for cleanro...

The Costa Rican Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) confiscated $3 million USD in cash and detained five people in an operation carried out this Tuesday, April 30 in a building located in China Town in downtown San José. The building had experienced a fire last April 11, with the Fire Department called to put out the blaze. The third floor was engulfed in smoke, people out on their balconies t...

Two individuals from Costa Rica were sentenced to 25 and 20 years in prison this Tuesday, April 30, for their roles in a $10 million telemarketing scheme that defrauded primarily elderly victims in the United States from call centers in Costa Rica. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray of the Western Distric...

Air Canada airlines announced it will increase its flights to Costa Rica by extending the 2019 season into September and October. The season, which is beginning this month, was initially to be put on hold for these two months and resumed in November and December. However, the company decided to fly from April to December without interruptions. During these two additional months, Air Canada will fl...

Costa Rican company Vertical CR is currently waiting for permission from the Ministry of Health to be able to commercialize its health products based on medicinal marijuana. The company offers oils, lotions, pills, among other products for human use and even for dogs all of them using marijuana for medicinal purposes, eliminating THC, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychologic...

This Friday Costa Rica's Ministry of Labor and Social Security along with the company SYKES signed an addendum to an agreement that will train and hire hundreds of people in the upcoming months, thanks to the SYKES’ English Academy. From now on, SYKES will teach English to those who are willing to work but don’t have B2 or C1 English levels, which are required at the Services sector. The Emp...

First Lady of Costa Rica, Claudia Dobles, was named by among the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine, she is the only Latin American in the top 15. “Dobles helped her husband, Carlos Alvarado, win the election in 2018 with a pledge to “decarbonize” Costa Rica by 2050. An architect and urban planner, she’s now in charge of turning that promise into reality—setting deadlines, brokering a...

The Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) detained a 14-year-old this Wednesday as the person responsible for threats made against students and personnel of the San Luis Gonzaga high school. OIJ searched the house of the suspect in Agua Caliente, Cartago and confiscated a computer, cell phones and USB devices as proof. The threat was made public on social media using a profile that was later ...

By Tradition April 20 is  “weed day” and for the consumers of marijuana it is almost an obligation to celebrate this day, smoking of course! But this year, an event was announced on social media that called the attention of many, even though, it also took place last year in 2018. LaCopaCR (Costa Rica Cannabis Cup) is the name of the activity that was being advertised through different social me...

Costa Rican boxer Bryan “Tiquito” Vásquez loss via Unanimous decisión against Puerto Rican Felix Verdejo the evening of Saturday, April 20 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Vasquez vs. Verdejo match was part of the preliminary bouts to the event headlined by WBO world champion Terence Crawford and challenger Amir Kahn. 25-years-old Verdejo, took the win with scorecards 97-93 X 2 and ...

Costa Rica will be adding its National Park number 29, announced the Minister of Environment and Energy, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez. The new protected area is located in Miravalles, Guanacaste, and it will be named after Jorge Manuel Dengo Obregón (1918-1922), founder of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), Vice-President of Costa Rica (1986-1990) and minister (1982-1986), expert in Natura...

In separate police raids, Costa Rican authorities confiscated almost three tons of cocaine this week with a street value of over 33 million USD. Police operations carried out in the South Pacific of Costa Rica concluded with a total 456 kilograms of cocaine seized and four men arrested. Public Police Force located a vessel carrying the load of drugs in the area of Dominical in the South Paci...

The joint efforts of public institutions, the community and private companies lead to the lifting of the sanitary restriction the Manuel Antonio National Park held, and with this the visitation to this park, the most visited in Costa Rica, was reactivated, for a maximum allowed of 2,700 people a day. “The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) managed to make improvements to the wastewat...

A mobile app to monitor waves and tides, an agreement to hire lifeguards, and a digital advertising campaign are part of the first stage of the strategy announced by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) to prevent drownings on beaches. The app "MIOCIMAR" (available in Play Store for Android or App Store for iOS) in English and Spanish contains seven-day forecasts of surf currents, wave forecasts...

The National System of Areas of Conservation (SINAC) has warned national and foreign tourists who are visiting the different Costa Rican beaches during this Holy Week to watch out for the presence of crocodiles. SINAC authorities explained that the presence of these reptiles in the area close to the estuaries is normal and recommend to stay alert and in the event of spotting one of these animal...

The Juan Santamaria Airport will have a terminal exclusively for private international flights which will operate under the name GAT SJO General Aviation Terminal and that will be managed by Universal Aviation Costa Rica and other local partners. Costa Rica’s main international airport received over 800 private flights in 2018 and this number is expected to increase to at least 1000 this year. ...

The governments of the United States and Costa Rica presented the Aerial Training Specialized Program directed to personnel of the Aerial Surveillance Service in Costa Rica; the program has the objective of strengthening the security and tools for the Ministry of Public Security. The program is part of multiple cooperation agreements between both countries. The presentation took place in Aerial...

The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE - Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo) has received the highest award given for attracting the best investment project to Latin America, against the backdrop of AIM Dubai 2019, the Annual Investment Meeting held in Dubai. The investment project is the recently inaugurated IBM Cybersecurity Center, which has allowed for a threef...

KLM has announced it ill expand its offer in Costa Rica, adding a flight to Liberia, Guanacaste, starting October 2019. Just after two years of having inaugurated its first direct flight to Costa Rica, KLM is ready to include four flights a week originating from Amsterdam, stopping in San Jose, and continuing to Guanacaste. The route is already available and the service will begin October 29...