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...

Only behind Argentina and Mexico, Costa Rica takes the third place in Latin America when it comes to car density, with an average 231 cars per 1000 inhabitants, according to information published by the State of the Nation 2018 report. Argentina has a vehicle density of 315 and Mexico 278. The traffic problems in the Great Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Costa Rica are not news to anyone; in the pas...

Globcan 2018, a study carried out by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) with the purpose of analyzing the trend and international impact of the different types of cancer, exposed that Costa Rica is exceeding the average number of cases of prostate cancer. The study shows that globally, there an estimate of one million new cases of prost...

The Costa Rican Coast Guard Service intercepted a vessel carrying 324 packets of cocaine weighing close to 1 kilogram each in front of the coast of Quepos in Puntarenas. The boat was detected the afternoon of this Monday, November 19, 80 nautical miles from Quepos, the interception was the result of the joined work of the National Coast Guard Service, the Drug Control Police and the United St...

Monday November 19th the Appeals Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of San Jose annulled the previous sentence that had declared the strike of employees in the education sector illegal, and sent back the process to the Labor Court for a new analysis. The strike of workers in the education sector which began September 10 was declared illegal on October 9, most educators of public schools have ...

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) and the Costa Rican Road Safety Council (COSEVI) had announced last year the plan to operate the entire Centralized Traffic System with the use of solar power, this system consists of 474 intersections with traffic lights located in San Jose, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela, the project has now entered its fourth stage. In this new stage, p...

A loaded truck from the Cervecería Costa Rica (Costa Rican Brewery) suffered an accident for reasons still unclear the afternoon of Sunday, November 12, near the Juan Santamaría Airport, loosing boxes and boxes of beer that ended up on the middle of the highway. Many of the beer bottles ended up broken, and the ones that didn't break ended up in the hands of a group of people when they realized...

It was supposed to open doors the first semester of 2018, and finally, after some delays, Oxígeno (Oxygen) Human Playground is ready for a pre-opening, which means it will open doors to the public even though they are still working on some areas. The date announced by the Oxigeno complex in Heredia is this Tuesday, November 20 , at 10 a.m.; however, on Thursday, November 22 they will be inaugur...

This week the Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV) in Costa Rica approved  the decision of the Government to put a limit of 2.7 million colones (approximately $4500.00 USD) to luxury pensions where some currently reach close to 12 million colones (approx. $20,000.00 USD) gross amount. “Luxury pensions” are those received by retirees that did not contribute the necessary quotes to receive the amount...

Costa Rica’s state refinery, RECOPE, announced they will be mixing the “super” gasoline with ethanol as of May 2019. According to Alejandro Muñoz, president of RECOPE, the plan is to include a 10% of alcohol per liter of super gas; at a later date, the “regular” or “plus” gas will also be mixed. Ethanol or alcohol is naturally produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts via petrochemic...

For a second time, the Nicaraguan Government insults the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, calling him “nosy, impolite, snide, racist and meddler”, this in response to the position that Alvarado and the Costa Rican Government has maintained in the different International Organizations and events regarding the crisis that Nicaragua has been facing since April this year. The insults wer...

Authorities at the Juan Santamaría Airport arrested a man that intended to travel to Canada carrying 5 kilograms of cocaine hidden in bottles of aloe vera and lotion. The man of last name Mehdi, a native of France, entered the country back in October 31 from Spain and was leaving the country this Friday, November 16 with destination to Canada. Officers found in the man's luggage five bottles...

The National Electric System (SEN) reached its biggest number in generation of wind power so far, with just six week left in 2018 before it comes to an end, the country has accumulated 1,512.65 gigawatt hours, surpassing the 1,287.68 gigawatt hours generated in 2017. The wind will pass for second year in a row as the second source of importance within the Costa Rican electric matrix. To date it...

On Wednesday, November 14th, the American biologist being treated at San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Jose, died of cardiorespiratory failure, after having been bitten by a rabid bat while exploring a cave in Copey de Dota with his family. The scientist was 43 years old, and his name is being withheld at the request of his family. The biologist was admitted on October 21st to the Intensive Care...

A report by the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) shows that the Tourism Industry contributes a 6.3% to the country’s GDP. “To put into perspective the size of the tourism industry in the country, it can be compared to other economic activities. In this way, for example, the IT industry represented a 2.2% of the GDP, the production of electricity contributed a 2.1%, the manufacturing of medical...

Manuel Jaquez, commercial cirector of low-cost airlines Volaris, announced this Thursday that the company will make of Costa Rica its Central American Hub. According to Jaquez, the company wants to give Costa Rica an airline with local identity as it once had; from here it will open new direct flights from Costa Rica to South America, the specific destinations were not revealed, but they will i...

Credit rating agency Fitch placed Costa Rica’s Issuer Default Ratings (IDR’s), which is basically an opinion on an issuer’s general capacity to fulfill its financial obligations, on rating watch negative (RWN), this gives the country anywhere from one to three months to resolve its public finances before lowering its already low rating. Costa Rica is currently rated as BB (elevated vulnerabilit...

Health authorities in Costa Rica warn of red tide affecting some areas of the Pacific Coast, Guanacaste, the Nicoya Peninsula and the Central Pacific. Red tide is caused by large concentrations of some species of algae. Red tide can be easily spotted due to the presence of red-brownish spots in coastal waters, this algal bloom also deplete oxygen in the waters and release certain toxins which w...

The Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste, will extend its operation hours to work 24/7 before the end of 2019. Currently, the Liberia Airport operates from 4 a.m. to 12 midnight, the decision of working an additional four hours responds to the increase of traffic to this terminal; this will also be beneficial to the region as it will create more jobs and will allow the att...

Specialists in gynecology at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Costa Rica built the vaginas of two woman that were born with vaginal agenesis, a rare disorder that occurs when the vagina doesn't develop, and the womb (uterus) may only develop partially or not at all. ¨The procedure consists of two stages: a surgical stage and a mechanical stage, the hospital had to acquire a special device for e...

The Ministry of Public Security conducted nine searches this Wednesday, November 14, eight of them in Alajuela and one in San José, to break down a local drug trafficking organization that is apparently linked to murders of members of other criminal groups and also debtors. According to the Drug Control Police (PCD) the group was formed by 14 people, 8 of them were arrested today, the other six...

Agents of the Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) with the assistance of the public police force carried out 13 searches the morning of this Wednesday, November 11 in the area of Guápiles, Cariari, Guácimo, Pocora and at the Carlos Luis Fallas Prison in Limon, also in San Rafael, Heredia with the purpose of arresting memebers of a drug trafficking organization. The operations culminated with t...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Health warned of an increase in the cases of respiratory syncytial virus which affects mainly young children; currently, health authorities have registered 121 minors hospitalized, 30 of them in very delicate condition, some that require the assistance of a machine to breath. The health authorities called on parents to keep small children especially newborns and babi...

The Costa Rican Chamber of Industries shares its concern regarding the recent ruling that deemed the labor strike which affected the state refinery (RECOPE) legal. “This ruling attempts against the judicial security and the good direction of the country, its production, its citizens, its wellness”. The strike at Recope (Costa Rica's State fuel refinery) was initially declared illegal, accordin...

The Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, was able to arrange during a recent work trip to China a donation by this Government of almost $5.5 million in favor of Costa Rica to be invested in security. In a bilateral meeting with he Chinese Minister of Defense, Xu Qiliana, Soto was able to discuss this and other future donations “specially related to everything that has to do with the moni...

The Social Security Services (CCSS) in Costa Rica were interrupted several times this year due to labor strikes, the most recent movement which began September 10 was considered illegal by the Costa Rican Labor Courts in a resolution from October 1st; however, a previous movement which affected the services back on June 25 was just resolved by the labor courts and also deemed illegal. The sente...

Meet the Rhinoceros Beetle-Probably the strongest animal in the world  and maybe one of the ugliest. They are BIG. The heaviest known Rhinoceros Beetle (Dynastinae), weighed in at 8.4 oz, the size of a female rat, but this badass bug can fly. There are some 300 different species of Rhino Beetles, many of them native to Costa Rica. They can lift 850 times their own body weight, which is like a huma...

A boat carrying cocaine was intercepted this Sunday November 11th this time, in waters of the Costa Rican Caribbean. The work was the result of a joint collaboration between national Coast Guard Service and the USA Coast Guard Service. The situation took place 9 miles from Moín, Limón when during the evening hours of Saturday the authorities detected a suspicious vessel which they approached, t...

Just a short drive from San Jose, in Ciudad Colón you will be surprised to find a unique place which opened doors recently and is still an unfinished project, the Anfiteatro de Villa (Villa Amphitheater), offers a cultural space, with impressive views, a delicious restaurant, a natural amphitheater and underground tunnels that you can discover from the hand of knowledgeable guides. The place us...