(Archive image for illustrative purposes. OIJ photo) Nine Costa Rica police officers were arrested in a series of 17 coordinated raids by the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) on Thursday, accused of conducting multiple, violent home invasion robberies throughout the greater San Jose metro area. According to investigators, the officers are suspected in at least 10 violent home invasions, ...

(OIJ Photo) A former official of the Costa Rican Pacific Ports Institute (INCOP) along with three other men were taken into custody after a police raid on a farm in Mogos de Sierpe in Osa, Puntarenas Tuesday afternoon that led to the discovery of some two tons of cocaine, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MSP). Agents from the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) raided the prope...

Stock/Archive (Pixabay Commons) More than half of Costa Rica’s young and educated workforce wishes to emigrate to another country in search of better opportunities as well as to flee the country’s high cost of living and unemployment, according to the latest opinion poll by CID Gallup. More concerning, according to the poll, is that the largest segment of those wishing to emigrate is compri...

(Courtesy) COSTA RICA STAR BREAKING NEWS The passport belonging to Cody Roman Dial, a 27-year-old Alaska man who went missing in Costa Rica nearly two years ago, was found amongst human remains discovered in the Corcovado National Park on Friday, authorities in Costa Rica announced shortly before noon on Monday. Cody Roman Dial had been missing since July 22, 2014. The discovery of the r...

(Photo courtesy of the MSP) Authorities in Costa Rica have begun destroying a number of clandestine airstrips used by drug traffickers that were identified during overflights by Costa Rica’s Air Surveillance Service (SVA) over the last several months. The SVA said in April that it had managed to locate 33 such airstrips over a 5-month period alone, most of which authorities said are linked ...

(Archive / Delta Airlines) Some 534,000 foreign visitors arrived at Costa Rica’s Daniel Oduber International Airport (LIR) in Liberia during the first four months of this year, an increase of 30.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to information released by Coriport, the company which manages the airport. The significant increase represents the fastest growth in arriv...

Costa Rica’s public health and social security system, known as CCSS, will discuss the possibility of extending survivors’ pensions to same-sex couples in the coming weeks, the daily La Nacion reports. CCSS in May 2014 made a landmark decision to grant gay couples health insurance on the same terms as heterosexual couples, a move that was praised by the United Nations. “This is the next natu...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) The number of patients confirmed to be infected with the Zika virus in the popular coastal resort city of Jacó, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, has soared to 28 this week in the most serious outbreak of the Zika virus in Costa Rica to date. A total of 17 additional cases have been confirmed si...

(Photo: EFE via El Mundo) Colombian police Sunday said they had seized eight tons of cocaine from the country’s most active criminal syndicate, the Usuga clan. In a statement, police said they found the drugs hidden on a banana plantation near the border with Panama, in Colombia’s northwest Uraba region. "The biggest seizure of drugs in history. A hit against criminals," Colombian Presid...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) Costa Rica has witnessed a significant surge in the number of cases of both dengue and chikungunya so far this year, according to the latest statistics by Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health. The number of cases of dengue had spiked nearly 600 percent while cases of chikungunya had increased nearly seven...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) In the most serious outbreak in the country to date, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health confirmed on Monday that 11 individuals tested positive for the Zika virus in the central Pacific resort city of Jacó, Puntarenas, which had until now been unaffected by the virus. The patients include four children:...

(YouTube / ODN) Spain’s Minister of Justice, Rafael Catala on Monday proposed leaving some US $4 billion to $17 billion worth of gold and silver on the seafloor off the coast of Colombia in order to avoid conflict over its ownership. The treasure is the cargo of the legendary galleon San Jose, a Spanish ship that was sunk in 1708 near the coast of Cartagena of the Indies, which was discover...

The Italian man's vehicle was left with its doors wide open in a Walmart parking lot after police officers allegedly abducted the man. (OIJ photo) An Italian man remained missing in Costa Rica on Monday and authorities are releasing few details in the strange case of the man’s disappearance and suspected kidnapping from the parking lot of a Walmart in San Francisco de Heredia on Saturday. T...

(ICR-CRS Archive) The former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla (2010-2014) described U.S. Republican presidential candidate, Donald’s Trump campaign rhetoric as “dangerous” even if the billionaire does not win the general election, in an interview published Friday by the Mexican newspaper, Reforma. The biggest risk that Trump represents to Latin America is not that he is likely to w...

The quake's epicenter was 14 km southeast of Santa Maria de Dota, acording to OVSICORI. (OVSICORI) A moderate earthquake struck central Costa Rica at 11:59 a.m. on Friday, producing light to moderate shaking in many areas of the country’s Central Valley as well as the southern Pacific canton of Perez Zeledon.   According to the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory (OVSICORI)...

Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin America on Sunday. (Archive/Reuters) Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin American states on Sunday, May 8, according to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Iranian foreign minister’s 6-day-long visit to Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela a...

Agents with Costa Rica’s Drug Control Police (PCD) raided a marijuana grow house in Escazu on Thursday and arrested a 55-year-old Cuban national identified by the last name Ruiz. Agents said that the suspect was growing a highly potent variety of genetically modified marijuana plants, known in Latin America as “crippy.” The raid occurred around noon on Thursday. PCD agents confiscated nu...

Nelson Sanderson was returned to the United States in Wednesday in the company of agents of the U.S. Marshals service. He faces two life sentences if convicted. (Handout) A 75-year-old Florida man who had been on the run since a warrant for his arrest was issued in July 2012 on charges of child molestation was returned to Florida in the company of U.S. Marshals agents on Wednesday after being ...

A Russian T-72 battle tank, similar to those heading to Nicaragua. (CC) Russia will deliver 50 new T-72B1 battle tanks to Nicaragua this year, in a deal worth some US $80 million, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency and Nicaraguan media. The first batch of 20 tanks is ready for shipment, and the remaining 30 are to be delivered by the end of the year or early 2017, according to th...

A hoax, clear evidence of extraterrestrials, or something else? Watch the video above and let us know what you think in the comments! #OFFBEAT NEWS A remarkably clear video purportedly showing an unidentified flying object (UFO) hovering in the sky in Costa Rica began making its rounds on social media over the weekend. The video was uploaded to YouTube by at least two different users ov...

Female prisoners in Costa Rica visit with their children. (Photo courtesy of the OIJ. ICR-CRS Archive, 2013) Costa Rica’s National Institute for Women (INAMU), the ministerial-level institution charged with the protection of women in society, is urging lawmakers in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly to pass a bill that seeks to eliminate criminal records for women and greatly reduce them for me...

The small earthquakes late Saturday and early Sunday formed a line between the two volcanoes. (OVSICORI) A series of 75 small earthquakes that were recorded in a period of just 12 hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning in a nearly straight line between Costa Rica’s Irazu and Turrialba volcanoes have some people worried that the so-called “seismic swarm” could be the precursor to viole...

(CRS Archive) El Salvador has deployed a heavily armed special police force to hunt down gang leaders who have made the Central American nation one of the world's most violent and deadly places to live, leading to record numbers of Salvadorans seeking refugee abroad including here in Costa Rica, El Salvador’s government said Wednesday. The force includes 600 army commandos and 400 specially...

(Facebook / Mauricio Camareno) A group of local surfers in Boca Barranca, Puntarenas, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, rescued a baby pilot whale that had become stuck in the mouth of a river early Wednesday morning. Mauricio Camareno, one of the surfers who discovered the baby whale shortly after 5 a.m., said that they first noticed what appeared to be a “black lump” near the bank of...

(Illustrative image. ICR-CRS Archive) A reform that limits landlords’ ability to increase rent paid by tenants to that of the rate of inflation that came into effect on Wednesday after receiving the signature of Costa Rican president, Luis Guillermo Solis does not apply to commercial real estate, Rep. Edgardo Araya (FA) confirmed to the radio program, Nuestra Voz. The reform, which received...

(Illustrative image. ICR-CRS Archive) A reform that was passed into law late last month by lawmakers in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly that limits landlords’ ability to increase rent paid by tenants to that of the rate of inflation came into effect on Wednesday after receiving the signature of Costa Rican president, Luis Guillermo Solis. Until now, landlords who rent properties in colone...

(Illustrative image / Flickr) A U.S. citizen was one of four suspects arrested in a series of coordinated raids in Costa Rica on Tuesday to dismantle a criminal group that stole thousands of dollars from credit and debit card holders by cloning their cards, according to the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). According to an investigation, the suspects used devices known as “skimmers” to s...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health on Monday confirmed the first case of Zika virus in a child in the country. According to health officials, an 8-year-old child in Carrillo, Guanacaste has contracted the mosquito-borne illness, first displaying symptoms on April 7th. The child has seemingly recovere...

Michael Adrian Salmeron, the Nicaraguan man suspected of murdering 57-year-old U.S. expat, Dirk Beauchamp, his 38-year-old Costa Rican wife and three of their children in Costa Rica. (Photo: La Prensa/Nicaragua) Michael Adrian Salmeron, the 24-year-old Nicaraguan man accused of murdering 57-year-old U.S. expat, Dirk Beauchamp, his 38-year-old Costa Rican wife and three of their small children ...

12 kilos of cocaine were found in the house where the kidnapped pilot was being held. (OIJ Photo) A Canadian man is amongst seven foreigners who were arrested in Costa Rica on Thursday on charges that they kidnapped a pilot in order to force the pilot to fly a shipment of cocaine out of the country. The other kidnappers include five Colombian nationals and a Romanian, according to officials...

(VOA) The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Ecuador surged to 233 on Sunday, as daylight aided rescue and recovery efforts from the overnight devastation. The latest figures from the office of President Rafael Correa more than triple earlier estimates. Hundreds more people were injured when the the shallow 7.8-magnitude quake struck late Saturday along the South American country's...

The gunmen reportedly spent an incredible 25 minutes looting the store. (Image from Eurochronos web site) Four gunmen posing as customers on Friday conducted a brazen armed robbery during business hours of a jewelry store located in the Multiplaza shopping center in Escazu.   According to Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Security (MSP), the four gunmen entered the Eurochronos store, ...

Brian Pallister (R) is pictured here in 2014. (Mark Blevis / Flickr) A public records search of Costa Rica’s Registro Nacional reveals that Brian Pallister, the conservative Canadian politician who opinion polls suggest is leading the Manitoba election but who recently has come under fire for spending nearly 20 percent of his time in the legislature away at his vacation home in Costa Rica, own...

(Courtesy/USGS) Despite reports of significant shaking Friday morning, there were still no reports of significant damage or injury late Friday afternoon as the result of a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Central America, offshore of the Guatemala - Mexico border.   The quake struck at 8:11 A.M. local time on Friday morning, according to the United States Geolog...

The incident took place in Ciudad Quesada, San Carlos. (Archive/Wikimedia Commons) Authorities in Costa Rica are searching for a woman who sold her 10-month-old child - complete with birth certificate - for two US dollars to a stranger last week. The incident took place in Ciudad Quesada, San Carlos, according to authorities. Apparently, the mother – whose identity is known by authoritie...

Brian Pallister (R) is pictured here in 2014. (Mark Blevis / Flickr) A conservative Canadian politician who opinion polls suggest is leading the Manitoba election race, which is entering its final days, is facing tough criticism for spending too much time in Costa Rica since being elected to Manitoba’s Legislative Assembly in 2012. Citing public records, Brian Pallister, Manitoba’s Progress...

(Photo courtesy of the MSP) Costa Rica’s Air Surveillance Service (SVA) said this week that it has managed to locate 33 clandestine airstrips along the country’s Pacific coast in just the last five months. Authorities say they believe the clandestine airstrips are the work of drug traffickers, mostly linked with Mexican drug cartels. The airstrips range from 500 meters to a kilometer in ...

(CRS Archive) Some 760 foreclosed homes, lots, and commercial properties will be up for grabs this weekend, April 15-17, at the inaugural “Interbank Expo,” where the State-owned banks, Banco de Costa Rica, Banco Nacional and Banco Popular will join forces to remove foreclosed real estate from their books. The expo will be held at the City Mall in Alajuela, and attendees will find houses beg...

(FILE/ICR-CRS Archive) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) boosted its outlook for Costa Rica’s economic growth this week, forecasting that the country’s economy will grow by 4.2 percent this year. The projection is an increase of 0.2 percent from the IMF’s last projection of Costa Rica’s 2016 economic growth, made in October of last year. The new projection by the IMF matches exactly the...

(MSP Photo) A small aircraft crashed into the sea just two kilometers off the coast of Puerto Jimenez in the southern zone of Costa Rica during the early morning hours Tuesday, according to Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Security (MSP). The aircraft went down just two kilometers off Carate beach, while apparently coming in for a landing at a clandestine airstrip, according to authorities. ...