The prestigious international magazine The European chose CINDE as Latin America’s top “Investment Promotion Agency of the Year” in the recent ranking Global Banking & Finance Awards 2018. This is the second consecutive year that CINDE receives this award. CINDE also obtained first place as Business Innovation Hub-Latin America, thanks to the FDI’s dynamism during this year. Jorge Sequei...

The SICALAM Dog Show takes place this weekend at the Los Angeles School in Sabana Norte, San Jose; this event is one of the most important dog shows in Latin America and brings together 87 dog breeds from different parts of the world. The event includes competitions for best in show in different categories, and it is open to the general public who can also bring their pets. Tickets for the s...

The Board of Directors of the Social Security Service (CCSS) in Costa Rica approved this Thursday, November 29, the protocol of comprehensive attention for the transgender population, which means they will be able to receive hormonal treatment in the hospitals of the CCSS. Doctor, Roman Macaya Hayes, executive president of the CCSS, described the approval as a ¨historical decision¨ that settles...

The building of the Ministry of Treasury was the target of an attack with molotov cocktails (bottle bombs) the evening of this Thursday, November 29, confirmed the Ministry of Security, Michael Soto this morning, who also confirmed that the attackers left a note attached to the fence on the northern side of the building. The homemade bombs only caused one of the windows to break. ¨Its a cowa...

W Hotel Reserva Conchal by Marriott opened its doors this November 28th in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, this is the brand’s first hotel in Costa Rica and Central America. Elements of the Costa Rican culture are present everywhere in the hotel, “Plugged into and buffered from it all, standing tall between beautiful beaches and the mangroves, W Costa Rica brings a fresh spin to a Costa Rica adventure...

The Constitutional Chamber gave green light for Congress to vote on the fiscal reform, the Labor Court ruled for a second time the strike of educators as illegal, but the biggest labor union of the education sector, the National Association of Educators (ANDE) decided to maintain the strike while members of the Costa Rican Educators Labor Union (SEC) chose to go back to work, and APSE the third la...

The mayor of San José, Johnny Araya, announced the beginning of the holiday celebrations in the capital city of Costa Rica, the same will take place as of this Saturday, December 1. “In a year in which Costa Rica has faced different challenges and social conflicts, we have come to realize that these activities are an adequate scenario to recover optimism, hope, our smile and hopefully so we can...

The family of Carla Stefaniak a native of Venezuela who resides in Miami, Floria, USA, is desperate looking for information regarding the whereabouts of the 36-year-old woman who was vacationing in Costa Rica and was last heard of the evening of November 27. Stefaniak was traveling alone in the country, she arrived November 22 and apparently visited the Manuel Antonio National Park and on the l...

The public sector will go on vacation starting December 21 and through January 7, 2019. This will apply for institutions of the Central Government and all entities affiliated with the Ministries, as well as autonomous institutions, semi-autonomous and public companies of the State. When it comes to the Costa Rica's Attorney General of the Republic office, the Police bodies, institutions that...

The morning of this Wednesday, December 28, at 7 a.m. local time the Turrialba Volcano registered another eruption with a column of ash that reached close to 500 meters above the cater, 3,840 meters above sea level (12595.2 ft). The eruption carried on for a couple of hours, with ash reaching several areas of the Central Valley, including Santa Ana and Tibás in San José and San Rafael in Heredi...

The Labor Court of the Second Judiciary Circuit of San José, deemed the strike affecting the education sector in Costa Rica illegal; this is the second time the movement is declared illegal, in this occasion it was judge Victor Orozco Zárate who was in charge of the sentence. The strike of educators against the fiscal reform that began in September 10 and is going on 80 days, was first declared...

The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) announced that multinational company MSD, opened today the Pharmacovigilance Data Management Center in Costa Rica. This center will be processing information about adverse events from commercialized drugs and worldwide clinical studies. This is the fourth center established by the company at strategic sites to keep the research management uninter...

The United States announced economic sanctions against Nicaragua’s Vice-President and First Lady, Rosario Murillo and President Ortega’s National Security Adviser, Nestor Moncada Lau, for “engaging in rampant corruption, dismantling of democratic institutions, serious human rights abuse, and exploitation of the people and public resources of Nicaragua for private gain”, states the press release. ...

The National Liberation Party (PLN) presented a bill in Congress that proposes the creation of a new holiday in the country, December 1, in commemoration of the Abolition of the Army. The initiative was supported by the Government, “The abolition of the army is one of the most relevant political decisions in our almost 200 years of republican life, it is an essential part of our national identi...

Over 10,000 local operations have been recorded in the six months following the inauguration of the San Jose Domestic Terminal, representing a total of 50,000 passengers arriving and departing from the terminal between May 14 to October 31 of this year. Starting in early November, the supply of regular local flights was strengthened by the launch of Costa Rica Green Airways, a Costa Rican-owned...

Thanks to the joined patrolling carried out by the Costa Rican and United States Coast Guard Service, a vessel was intercepted in waters of the South Pacific carrying 1,005 kilograms of cocaine which was hidden under the ship ‘s prow floor. The suspects of last names Vásquez Muñoz, 41 years-old and Orozco López, 26, both are second time offenders, they had been detained in December, 2013 with 4...

Costa Rica celebrates 70 years with no army this December 1st, and to commemorate this important date, the Government has organized several cultural activities, as well as audiovisual campaigns throughout this week. The Presidential House, the National Insurance Institute, the Supreme Electoral Court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Social Security Service will showcase the colors of th...

The Costa Rica National Stadium in La Sabana will host for the first time ever two of the Gold Cup 2019 group matches. The Gold Cup for the first time will have some of its games take place outside of North America; Costa Rica will host the first game of Group B, the male national soccer team will be playing at home against a rival yet to be announced, the date will be June 16, 2019. A site in...

The multinational company GSK opened today the fourth phase of its Business Service Center (BSC) at Terra Campus, Tres Ríos, Costa Rica. It plans to hire more than 700 people by the end of 2019 and looks forward to strengthening the variety of shared services offered from Costa Rica to the rest of GSK worldwide. The BSC, which began its operations in Costa Rica in 2013, has strengthened since ...

A BMW toy car is used in the Guapiles and Puntarenas Hospitals in Costa Rica to take small children to the operating room, this with the purpose of reducing the trauma caused at the moment the child is separated from the parents to undergo surgery. The control remote toy car drives the children to the operating room; according to doctor Iliana Musa, director of the Guapiles Hospital the effect ...

The Labor Unions in the education sector are the only ones that remain on strike since September 10 protesting the fiscal plan. They will meet this Monday to evaluate their options after the resolution of the Constitutional Chamber which gives green light to congress to vote the fiscal reform in second debate. After more than two months of strike, time in which they have continued to receive th...

Like every year, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) calls on small and medium size corporations to request their condition as PYME to be exonerated from the 2019 Yearly Corporation Tax, for this, the deadline to register and request the exoneration is December 3. This action is carried out following what’s established in Law 9428 “Corporation Tax Law” and its regulations wh...

Aerobell Airlines began operations as a domestic airline in Costa Rica back on July 24 this year, flying to seven destinations: Tortuguero, Tamarindo, Tambor, Quepos, Drake Bay, La Fortuna (Arenal) and Puerto Jimenez, and now, it has confirmed the inauguration of four new routes: Nosara, Liberia, Golfito in Costa Rica and Bocas del Toro in Panama. The Costa Rican owned company has over 30 years...

Former bass player and singer of the famous band Pink Floyd, legend Roger Waters, sold out the National Stadium in Costa Rica and the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado and the First Lady, Claudia Dobles were among those 46,000 people privileged to enjoy the concert but also among the very few to meet Waters in person, Alvarado is a known fan of the band and Waters since his teen years. “...

The holiday season is here and Avenida Escazu shopping center welcomes the month of December with the Wine Fest – Christmas Edition, scheduled to take place December 8 and 9, an ideal event for all wine lovers. In addition to the best wines, beer and gin-tonics the event will offer concerts, Christmas shows, delicious gastronomy and Christmas workshops. Tickets to attend can be purchased onl...

A special operation carried out by personnel of the Ministry of Environment (MINAE) through the Units of Control of the Corcovado National Park, the Environmental Operation Group of the National System of Areas of Conservation (GOA) and the Frontier Police, concluded with the arrest of 12 people who were carrying out illegal activities in the Park such as extraction of gold, illegal hunting and in...

Saturday, November 24th at 00:19 a.m. the Turrialba Volcano had another important eruption, which you can appreciate in the video included in this note. An impressive column of ash and incandescent material can be appreciated. “The Turrialba Volcano maintains important eruptive activity, which went from frequent events during the morning and the beginning of the afternoon yesterday (Friday),...

Three weeks behind regular schedule, the National Insurance Institute (INS) in Costa Rica will begin collecting the 2019 Marchamo payment this Saturday, November 24 at 7 a.m. The delay this year was caused by a disagreement with the General Insurance Superintendency (Sugese) which had to authorize the amounts to be paid for the Obligatory Car Insurance (SOA) which this year will have an increas...

The Constitutional Chamber in Costa Rica (Sala IV) gave, the evening of this Friday, November 23, its resolution regarding the fiscal reform project; the judges concluded, unanimously, that they did not find vices in the procedure or form of the project giving green light to Congress to vote it in second debate. The resolution of the Constitutional Chamber provides the green light for the pr...

Orozco Aguilar (Costa Rican) as well as Silvia Sanchez Valverde, Priscilla Sibaja, Daniel Sibaja, and Elpelice Figueroa Rosales, all from Buford, Georgia, pleaded guilty back in September to conspiracies to commit mail fraud and money laundering for their roles in a sweepstakes scam that targeted the elderly. According to US Attorney´s Office of the Northern District of Georgia, the criminal a...

Lebanese-Canadian, Ziad Akl, was sentenced today to 12 years and 4 months of prison in Costa Rica Even through back in June Ziad Akl had chosen to go through an abbreviated process and accepted the charges on attempted murder, extortion, grievous bodily harm, deprivation of liberty, illicit association and aggravated robbery, and was facing a sentence up to 23 years in prison, the Criminal Cou...

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake was felt in most of the Great Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica the evening of this Thursday, November 22 at around 10:39 p.m. According to the National Seismology Network, the epicenter was 1km, East of Purral in Goicoechea. The movement was felt as strong in most of San Jose, Heredia and Alajuela. The origin of the earthquake is a fault of the Caribbean plate....

The beach town of Tamarindo will fill with glitter when it hosts the Glitters Festival November 30th through December 2nd in the first LGBTQ festival in the country. “Glitters Fest is born with the objective on promoting diverse tourism in Guanacaste and open spaces of entertainment for the LGBTQ+ community outside of the Great Metropolitan Area (GAM)”, explained Andrés Alpizar, organizer of t...

“It would be wrong of me to be concerned of my popularity when Costa Rica is living such a complex context, I am here to resolve the problems that Costa Rica has, and that’s what I’m doing”. With those words, the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado referred to the results of a recent survey carried out by the Center for Political Studies and Investigation of the University of Costa Rica (C...

A year and a half have gone by since the Solis Administration announced it had received the complete report regarding the technical viability for the international airport in Orotina, Alajuela, it also presented a few weeks later the much-awaited masterplan for the proposed project; this airport was meant to replace the Juan Santamaria International Airport which supposedly will be unable to meet ...

The Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) in Costa Rica continues to investigate the circumstances of the rafting accident that occurred back in October 20 in Naranjo River, Quepos that took the lives of five people, 4 US tourists and 1 Costa Rican tour guide. The company that provided the rafting tour service to the 14 US tourists is Quepoa Expeditions, according to the company’s website they ...

A small group of Hondurans living in Costa Rica gathered in front of the US Embassy the evening of Wednesday, November 21 to demonstrate their support to their countrymen who are part of the migrant caravan that intend to enter the United States. The group is formed by close to 30 people gathered in a peaceful manner. Police officers and security of the US embassy are also present to ensure ...

If you missed the opportunity to get tickets to the Roger Waters live performance in Costa Rica when they first came out, the promotion company Move Concerts is offering the last chance to get tickets to this highly expected event that will take place this upcoming November 24 at the National Stadium. When the tickets went on sale on April 30, in just the first day 25,000 tickets were sold, an...

It has been one month since they lost their sons in a tragic rafting accident in Costa Rica, the parents of the victims want answers and complain of the lack of regulations and controls in the adventure tourism sector in the country. Fourteen friends traveled from Florida to Costa Rica back in October 18 to celebrate a bachelor party, but only 10 of them went back alive, the other four tragical...

So far this year 7000 cases of measles have been reported in the American continent, and out of these, 72 patients have died; for this reason the Costa Rica Public Health and Social Security Administration (C.C.S.S) and the Ministry of Health urge parents to vaccinate their children against this virus. The alert is specially for children between the ages of 15 months and 10 years old. The Healt...