Microcephaly is a birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and brains. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) A group of Brazilian scientists on Monday released a study proving the relationship between the Zika virus and cases of babies being born with abnormally small skulls, a condition known as microcephaly which has increased exponentially in Brazil in recent mon...

Nicaragua’s Supreme Court decided Monday that it will not extradite 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) Nicaragua’s Supreme Court decided Monday that it will not extradite Michael Adrian Salmeron, the Nicaraguan man susp...

Alejo Leiva Lachner (Facebook) Two more suspects wanted in relation to the mob killing of a 21-year-old Costa Rican man who was on vacation during the Holy Week holiday in Playas del Coco, a popular beach town in Costa Rica’s northwestern province of Guanacaste, are now in custody after turning themselves in Friday afternoon, according to the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). The suspect...

ARCHIVE/FILE: Some 1,700 tons of cocaine is expected to pass through Costa Rican territory in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security) Eight members of a gang that smuggled up to two tons of cocaine per month through Central America and into the United States were arrested by police in an operation targeting four cities in Colombia, officials said Sunday. The gang's unident...

Illustrative image. (Flickr) A 57-year-old German man suspected of killing his Costa Rican girlfriend reportedly committed suicide in a holding cell of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) over the weekend, though authorities have yet to release an official statement on the matter as of early Monday morning. The man, identified originally as Karl Alwanmeyer though there is some ...

Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro is urging his nation's women to reduce the use of electric hair dryers. (Reuters image) Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro this week asked women in Venezuela to reduce their use of electric hair dryers in order to save energy, asking his nation’s women to reserve their use for “special occasions,” while making no mention of hair dryer use by men. Maduro...

Illustrative image. (Flickr) Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) identified the German man stopped Thursday morning while driving with his deceased girlfriend in the passenger seat of his car as 57-year-old Karl Alwanmeyer, and confirmed that the man is being held on suspicion of homicide. During a brief press conference on Thursday, the OIJ also identified the victim as 51-yea...

Illustrative image. (Flickr) UPDATE: German man suspected of killing Costa Rican woman identified as more details emerge   Costa Rican police officers made a grisly discovery in the early morning hours Thursday after stopping a suspicious vehicle in the area of La Virgen, in Sarapiqui.   According to preliminary information, residents of the area alerted authorities to a ...

The aircraft burst into flames after crashing shortly after takeoff. (MSP Photo) A single-engine aircraft crashed and burned around 5 p.m. Thursday evening near Nosara, in Costa Rica’s northwestern Guanacaste province, killing both of the aircraft’s occupants, officials have confirmed. The aircraft is believed to have had trouble gaining altitude shortly after takeoff from a clandestine air...

At least 50 people were injured, many of them seriously, Friday morning in the Pavas suburb of Costa Rica’s capital city, San Jose when two commuter trains slammed into each other in a violent head-on collision.   At least 50 passengers were sent to area hospitals and trauma centers, according to the Red Cross, many suffering from broken bones and head trauma.   Meanwhile, at...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega listens during an official meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an official state visit by the Nicaraguan president to Iran in 2007. (Iranian state media) Iran's Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi has announced plans to deploy warships and destroyers in Central American and Latin American waters, Iran’s semi-official FARS...

Colombian airline, Avianca is offering steep discounts on airfare to and from Costa Rica but tickets must be purchased by April 14th, the airline along with the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) announced on Monday. This year marks the fifth year for the airline’s “Discover Central America” promotion. While tickets must be purchased by April 14th, travel dates can be booked for anytime bet...

FILE/ARCHIVE image for illustrative purposes only. (MSP) Locals and tourists alike will soon be able to submit formal criminal complaints to Costa Rica’s Tourist Police rather than having to travel to the closest office of the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) in select coastal communities as part of an “experimental” pilot program that will begin next month.   Under the pilot pro...

(Wikimedia Commons) A 26-year-old Costa Rican woman is suing Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health, alleging she has been left partially paralyzed after receiving an injection of Gardasil, a vaccine which is intended to vaccinate against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus most responsible for cervical cancer in women, the daily La Nacion reports. According to the woman, Laura Navarro Calvo...

(Facebook / FP Garabito) A 38-year-old German tourist was killed in a violent head-on collision in the Quebrada Amarilla sector of Jaco, Puntarenas on Saturday, according to authorities.   The deceased was identified as Erick Eiseld, who had been in Costa Rica for several days on vacation, according to reports.   According to the initial investigation, Eiseld, for unknown...

ARCHIVE/FILE: Some 1,700 tons of cocaine is expected to pass through Costa Rican territory in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security) Two aircraft from Costa Rica’s Air Surveillance Service (SVA) were able to guide a Costa Rican Coast Guard vessel in recovering 607 kilos of cocaine that were spotted floating at sea, tied to a buoy, the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) said o...

Robert Allen Lopez had been on the run for nearly 20 years. (WFOR Miami / Screen capture / Fair Use) An American fugitive who has been on the run for nearly 20 years was deported to Miami from Nicaragua on Saturday, escorted by officers of the United States Marshals Service. Robert Allen Lopez, 49 was arrested by Nicaraguan authorities on November 14th, 2015, after entering the Central Amer...

(Facebook/OIJ) Officers with Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigate Police (OIJ) along with SWAT officers from the Special Tactical Response Service (SERT) conducted a series of raids beginning shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday, making five arrests in the murder of a 21-year-old man who was attacked by a mob of at least 20 people outside the popular Lizard Lounge bar in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste on...

Illustrative image. (Wikimedia Commons) Costa Rica’s infant mortality rate continues to fall, and reached its lowest level ever in 2015, according to a recent announcement by the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). Infant mortality in the country last year was 7.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, the lowest level ever recorded, and down from 8.01 deaths per 1,000 live...

Some 1,700 tons of cocaine is expected to pass through Costa Rican territory in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security) Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Security (MSP) and Drug Control Police (PCD) are expecting a record level of cocaine trafficking through the country and its territorial waters this year, due in large part to increases in production in the source countries of...

(Photo courtesy of the Costa Rican Coast Guard) Costa Rican Coast Guard officials were able to recover a significant amount of cocaine that was thrown overboard during the chase. (Photo courtesy of the Costa Rican Coast Guard) Acting on information provided by Costa Rica’s intelligence service, the DIS, Costa Rica’s Coast Guard were able to seize 875 kilos of cocaine after intercepting a s...

FILE/ARCHIVE image for illustrative purposes only. (MSP) A body discovered on a beach just outside Costa Rica’s Santa Rosa National Park in Guanacaste is believed to be a German tourist who had been missing since entering the park with friends on Monday, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MSP). The remains, which had been partially scavenged by wildlife, are believed to be those ...

(Illustrative image. ICR-CRS Archive) Lawmakers in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed into law a reform that limits landlords’ ability to increase rent paid by tenants to that of the rate of inflation.  Until now, landlords who rent properties in colones were allowed to raise a tenant's rent by 15 percent each year. Under the reform, rent can only be increased during the...

A green sea turtle that was seen tied to and being dragged behind a car in Limon, Costa Rica in a shocking online video on Tuesday was subsequently tortured and killed, according to the environmental activist and lawyer who uploaded the video. Alvaro Sagot told the Spanish EFE news agency that in the full version of the video, the sea turtle is tortured and killed in a “very cruel” manner after...

Costa Rican environmentalist Jairo Mora was murdered in 2013. (ARCHIVE / Photo courtesy of WIDECAST) This is a developing news story.  Stay tuned to The Costa Rica Star for updates. A criminal court in Costa Rica found four out of seven defendants guilty of murder and other crimes on Tuesday, sentencing all four to the maximum sentence permitted by law and concluding the second trial in the...

The victim's motor scooter was found parked on the bank of the river. (Facebook / Noticias en linea Puriscal) Partially dismembered remains found in a river in Parrita, in Costa Rica’s central Pacific province of Puntarenas are those of 79-year-old retired pilot, Ovidio Segura Roman, a nearby resident, according to numerous reports. The remains were discovered by an area resident on Monday,...

A shocking video, which shows a live sea turtle tied to and being dragged behind a car, sparked outrage in Costa Rica and social media on Tuesday.   The video is believed to have been filmed recently in Moin, Limon, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. The vehicle’s license plate is clearly visible in the video, which could assist authorities in identifying the subjects in the video, though...

ARCHIVE / ILLUSTRATIVE (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security, March 2016) A massive group of at least 117 undocumented migrants from a variety of African nations including the Democratic Republic of the Congo illegally flooded across the mountainous border from Panama into Costa Rica on Monday, attempting to avoid the attention of authorities by entering the country through severa...

La Carpio, an impoverished neighborhood in the San Jose metro area. (ICR-CRS Archive) Editor's note: Special reports from The Costa Rica Star contain in-depth analysis by our staff of the facts, data and trends affecting our country that you won't find anywhere else.  Stay tuned to The Costa Rica Star for part 2 of this story later this week. By Timothy Williams, The Costa Rica Star Desp...

(CRS Archive) Nicaragua’s tourism industry continues to grow aggressively, according to the latest data by Nicaragua’s Central Bank, with revenues from tourism increasing 18.7 percent to US $528.6 million in 2015 from US $445.4 million the year prior, due in large part thanks to longer stays. According to the Central Bank, foreign tourists spent an average of $41.50 per day, essentially unc...

Illustrative photo. / Wikimedia Commons A medical marijuana bill being debated in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly since 2014 now has the necessary support to pass plenary by May 1st, according to Rep. Marvin Delgado Atencio, the PAC lawmaker who first presented the bill. The bill, which now has the approval of lawmakers from almost all caucuses, seeks to legalize and regulate the cultivat...

ICR-CRS Archive/FILE (Pictured: Workers at a multinational medical device manufacturing company's facility in Heredia, Costa Rica) The United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Oxfam describe as “appalling” the rate of corporate tax avoidance and evasion by corporations operating in Latin America – particularly in Costa Rica – in a report issued th...

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a meeting with jurists at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Gregg Newton With reporting by EFE and Reuters The Government of Costa Rica expressed its concerns this week about the deepening political crisis in Brazil, as Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said she will not resign in Brazil's worst political crisis in ...

Costa Rican president, Luis Guillermo Solis tours the Reventazon hydroelectric plant while still under construction in 2014. (Casa Presidencial) The first of four turbines at Costa Rica’s Reventazon hydroelectric plant, recently made famous after the discovery of ancient, 12,200-year-old human settlements by workers at the site, is set to come online by the end of the month, according to proje...

(ICR-CRS Archive) Costa Rica’s National Council of Financial System Supervision (Conassif) and financial regulator, SUGEF are working on a new bill that would provide universal deposit insurance for all banks in the country, following a recent recommendation by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Currently, depositors in Costa Rica’s state-owned banks, such as ...

A tourist captured images of a supposed UFO while visiting Costa Rica’s Irazu Volcano National Park in Cartago last month. The tourist reported the sighting and sent images to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), an organization that maintains a database of UFO sightings around the world. According to the witness, he and his girlfriend were taking pictures of the volcano and the landscape sho...

COSTA RICA STAR NEWS BRIEF Costa Rica’s Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport in Liberia, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, has resumed operations after being forced to close for nearly three hours due to an out of control brushfire adjacent to the airport, airport operation authorities and the fire department confirmed to The Costa Rica Star Tuesday afternoon. The airport...

Broken windows seen at the scene of explosions at Zaventem airport near Brussels, Belgium, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Costa Rican president, Luis Guillermo Solis condemned on Tuesday the “savage terrorist attack” in Brussels that left at least 34 people dead and at least another 150 injured or wounded. The Islamic State (ISIS) is claiming responsibility for the suicide bomb att...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at City Hall in Toronto, Nov. 13, 2013. (Reuters OMX) Rob Ford, the controversial former mayor of  the city of Toronto, Canada died Tuesday at the age of 46 following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The former mayor of Canada’s largest city became known for his problems with illegal drugs and alcohol. In November 2013 Ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine after ...

Injured people are seen at the scene of explosions at Zaventem airport near Brussels, Belgium, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Ketevan Kardava/Courtesy of 1tv.ge/Handout via Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - At least 35 people are confirmd dead in attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on Tuesday, triggering security alerts across Europe and global expressions of sup...