Gilberto Ventura Ceballos was arrested today in Jacó by Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) and the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security (DIS) officials. The Dominican national, who has a knack for evading arrest, is wanted in Panama for the murder of five people in 2010 and 2011. The young man has been on the run since December 2016 when he escaped from La Joyita pris...

With criminal proceedings underway on a human organ trafficking case involving the trial of four Costa Rican doctors and their alleged accomplices, many interesting details are coming to light. Intersecting forces of greed, corruption and international black markets are being identified and dissected as evidence is presented in this first of a kind trial in Costa Rica. More details will be fort...

Britt Group continues to grow in Costa Rica and with the purpose of strengthening the business it has divided into two divisions, Café & Chocolates Britt (Britt Coffee & Chocolates) and Morpho Travel Retail. Café & Chocolates Britt will continue handling everything that has to do with the coffee and chocolate products with concepts such as the Britt Espresso, Chocolatería Britt Café...

Police assault data for Costa Rica's counties continue to rank San José as being the most violent, and Escazú fell three places in the judiciary police's ranking of the country's regions by number of assaults, according to data released this week by the OIJ, the country's investigation bureau. Hojancha and Nandayure, Guanacaste registered no assaults this year so far, and have historically had ...

Early on Thursday, September 21, the Costa Rican Police reported the finding of a body in a vehicle near the Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela; however, the identity of the person was not revealed until later that day. According to the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) the body corresponds to an 80 year-old German woman by the name of Rosemarie Bockhold Koopman. The victim ...

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís in a bilateral meeting in New York, in the frame of the United Nations’ General Assembly Through a video posted on social media, the President of Costa Rica informed of the topics that were discussed with Trudeau, among which were human rights, environment and the economic empowerment of women. ...

LatAm Logistic Properties, a leading operator, and developer of Class-A logistic properties in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru announced it has signed a new build-to-suit lease agreement with PriceSmart, the largest operator of U.S.-style membership shopping warehouse clubs in Latin America and the Caribbean, for a 16,000-square meter regional distribution facility in Costa Rica. The new logisti...

Municipalities in the Central and South Pacific regions of Costa Rica have shortened the time it takes to have a business permit granted, said government representatives of the Alcanzando Escala program (which translates to Achieving Scale). In order to improve the business climate in the Central and South Pacific region of the country, municipal procedures that previously lasted 33 days can no...

The new iPhone 8 will go on sale in Costa Rica at select Gollo stores Monday, September 25. Five Gollo stores - their large ones - will offer the new iPhones which come with 5.45 inch screens and 64 GB of memory. The plus size - with a larger 6.25 inch screen - will not be available for sale in Costa Rica until a later date, said the company. Purchases can also be made through Gollo's online...

Police in Costa Rica have been busy both on land and at sea intercepting drugs. Since January the police force has racked up over 14.5 tons in drug seizures, some of which was destined for local consumption, and much of which was in transit from South America to points beyond Costa Rica. The country's drug control police (PCD, in Spanish) reports that so far this year, 89 narco criminal stru...

In case you missed it, right here in Costa Rica is one of the world's five "blue zones" - geographic regions with an unusually high longevity. The Nicoya Peninsula communities of Hojancha, Nandayure, Santa Cruz, Carrillo and Nicoya in Guanacaste province make up the area in Latin America with the highest longevity. World experts are seeking to learn more about the secrets behind the Nicoyan ...

The Costa Rica Train Institute (Incofer) will be purchasing eight new train units with capacity for 400 passengers each by December of this 2017; unfortunately, new trains will not be arriving in the country until 24 months later. This purchase involves an investment of US$52 million that is being provided through a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE). Accordin...

At around 10:30 this morning, police closed the Pequeño Mundo in San Rafael de Escazú for several hours while they apparently searched for possible counterfeit items, according to police reports. All 11 branches of the large outlet type store will be searched by judiciary investigative police officials (known in Spanish as the OIJ), continued reports. The store, which is reminiscent of Kmart...

Costa Rica has plenty of natural treasures, most at plain sight, but the country also has its share of underwater treasures, and these are the ones that the country is striving to protect with the help of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Heritage. “Underwater cultural heritage means all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character ...

You can now carry out face-to-face interactions with Spirit Airlines representatives in downtown San José, Costa Rica, thanks to an alliance with a Costa Rican travel agency. The office is located near the city's main thoroughfare, Paseo Colón, north of the Centro Colón building. The budget airline said that because Costa Rica is one of their main points of operation in Central America, the ...

A documentary by Costa Rican filmmaker and producer, Miguel Gómez, aims to highlight the perils of irregular migration by focusing on the Mesoamerican corridor. From January - July of this year, the United Nations Migration Agency (IOM) registered 230 deaths of such migrants attempting to cross from Mexico into the United States. By recounting the true story of members of a Costa Rican regga...

Travel Excellence is the first company in Costa Rica to be certified for gender equality in the workplace (a program initialed SIGIG in Costa Rica). The Technical Standards Institute of Costa Rica (Inteco) issued a national gender equality standard in December 2013 with input from the National Institute of Women (INAMU) which sets out the requirements for an organization to achieve gender equal...

A luxury boutique hotel nestled in the hills of Quepos, bordering the Manuel Antonio National Park on Costa Rica's lush Pacific coast, has swept the region's awards again this year. The Gaia Hotel and Reserve was considered the best boutique hotel in the Mexico-Central America region in this year's World Travel Awards ceremony, for the 8th time! In 2015, Gaia was recognized by Condé Naste as...

The CCSS, which are the initials for Costa Rica's public healthcare system, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, is launching an innovative breast cancer prevention program targeting healthy women aged 45 - 69, said the institution this week. By 2020, and with an investment of over 9 billion colones (over US$15 million), the CCSS hopes to have all women in Costa Rica in that age range inclu...

Electrification of the transportation sector is a crucial component of tackling global climate change. This is the topic of the Third Annual Latin America Clean Transport Forum in San José, Costa Rica organized by the Washington, DC think-tank The Inter American Dialogue. The event will be held Wednesday, Sept. 20 with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the keynote address starting at 9 a...

"So, you like milk, baby ... why don't you drink some of mine when I squirt it in your face." This comment from a man in a car passing by is how a University of Costa Rica student started her week as she hurried by foot while munching on some cereal to stave off her hunger before a morning class. The incident was described by the student, Madeline "Madi" Soto, on her Facebook page. Madeline ...

If your travel in or out of Costa Rica today takes you via Panama's Tocumen International Airport you may be grounded or delayed. An electrical problem inside our southern neighbor's airport caused flight disruptions this morning, September 18, and has now been remedied, said Tocumen airport officials this morning. Copa Airlines was heavily affected by the problem as many of its flights to o...

-- Between 2013 to July 2017, 36,081 irregular migrants entered Costa Rica through Paso Canoas on the Panamanian border, according to immigration officials. Towards the end of 2015 and into 2016, Costa Rica faced a surge in irregular migrants for which it was not prepared, said the government press office today, and that forced institutions and communities to respond to the emergency. First th...

A 65-year-old man from outside Rochester, New York, United States, died Saturday, September 16 while rappelling down from a restaurant at a Costa Rican rainforest ecolodge. John Anderson, a respected member of the northwestern New York real estate and banking community, was reported as having traveled to Costa Rica to celebrate his 65th birthday. His visit to the Pacuare Lodge, an upscale ad...

Heavy downpours this past Saturday, September 16 created flooding and mudslides on several parts of Costa Rica's Highway 27, a toll road linking the capital city of San Jose with popular points in the Central Pacific region including Los Suenos, Jacó, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, and areas on the southern Nicoya Peninsula such as Tambor beach. A cascade of water dumping water and mud onto the hig...

"Life is too short to be sitting in traffic jams," is the slogan of Costa Rica's Car-Free Day event which is part of World Car Free Day celebrated every September 22 in a growing number of cities and countries throughout the world. Costa Rican event organizers encourage those who will participate by leaving their car in the garage for the day on Friday to use the hashtag #RetoSinCarro, which me...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday China is ready to make concerted efforts with Costa Rica to forge a closer, more extensive and deeper strategic partnership to better benefit the two peoples, and make greater contributions to regional peace and stability. Led by exchanges between the two heads of state, China-Costa Rica ties have seen steady development and fruitful results sinc...

Last Thursday, Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste was once again the scene of a double murder, two Costa Rican men, identified as Brayan Duarte and Gary Strattman Mata were shot to death, the first outside a residential area and the other outside of a local bar “Bar Bahía Culebra” which was closed down months ago by the Municipality of Guanacaste. According to the police both men apparently were membe...

Landslides and floods were the result of the rains this Saturday in Costa Rica. Route 27 (San José- Caldera, Puntarenas) was one of the most affected areas, with floods in several sectors, in the sector between Atenas and Orotina material was falling on the road and videos taken by users showed incredible “waterfalls” in the area; this situation caused traffic jams and a couple of car accidents...

Nayara Hotel Spa and Gardens is considered one of the best hotels in La Fortuna , Costa Rica, and in 2016 it was named by TripAdvisor as the best luxury hotel in the world, while Travel & Leisure Magazine placed it among the best 5 hotels in Central America; innovating and offering new options to its clients is part of what makes this hotel stand out. Nayara Resort recently incorporated a n...

Costa Rica is a small country with a rich culture, however, more often than not Ticos have problems identifying some of their own National Symbols, and this is something foreigners don’t usually have information on; therefore, considering we are celebrating today 196 of independence in Costa Rica, we offer you the complete list of Costa Rica’s National Symbols. National symbols are important to...

The United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a message on the occasion of September 15, Costa Rican Independence Day, announced the U.S. Embassy in San José, Costa Rica. The statement reads as follows: "On behalf of the United States Government, we congratulate Costa Ricans on the 196th anniversary of independent living. The deep and strong relationship of our countries is eviden...

The U.S.-based Geothermal Resources Council (GRC), a global leader in the field, honored the late Costa Rican scientist Alfredo Mainieri Protti during its awards ceremony that honors the best and brightest of the global geothermal energy community, said the non-profit group this week. Earlier this year, Costa Rica's Electricity Institute (ICE) bestowed another honor on the country's geothermal pi...

On the morning of September 8, Taro Kono, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with Manuel Antonio Gonzalez Sanz, Minister of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Costa Rica, who was visiting Japan on a tour of East Asia earlier this month, said Japanese and Costa Rican government statements.   Minister Kono welcomed Minister Gonzalez to Japan, noted that Japan and Cost...

Couples who are lined up to receive in vitro fertilization treatments are unhappy about delays in provision of the service by Costa Rica's public health system. They have requested a meeting with Executive President of the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) Fernando Llorca to express their concerns over the delays, given that the country has a commitment under international human rights ...

Over 2,000 homes and businesses in Guanacaste, Costa Rica will benefit from a new clean energy source: that created by the region's abundant sun, said a report in Central America's Summa business magazine. The energy distribution company Coopeguanacaste, R.L. has developed the Juanilama Solar Park, the largest in the country with an installed capacity of 5 Megawatts (MW) and generating 9 Gigawa...

After filing complaints to no avail with the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT) about the dangers of crocodile viewing on a heavily transited bridge along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, environmental activist and lawyer Walter Brenes appealed to the country's Supreme Court on the issue earlier this year. This week, the country's high court issued a ruling saying the ministry h...

Need a quick, super boost of energy? Rooster is "the first natural, coffee-based, low-calorie energizer," to be created and sold, say the energy drink's Costa Rican creators. With no sugar, no gluten and no lactose, the 15-calorie drink is said to help with physical endurance and performance, with burning fat, and with aiding in mental alertness, concentration and memory, on the Rooster Coff...

The Costa Rica Health Ministry has declared sanitary alert in the country for malaria due to an increase in the risk of transmission after knowing of an important number of infected patients in Nicaragua. Although between the years 2012 and 2015 Costa Rica had not had any malaria cases there were a few patients in 2016 and this year there have been isolated native cases, four in Matina (Limón),...

Debt-for-nature swaps are financial transactions in which a portion of a developing nation's foreign debt is forgiven in exchange for local investments in environmental conservation measures. Monday, the debt-for-nature swap between the United States and Costa Rica invited non-profit organizations to submit proposals for forest conservation projects in the 7th round of funding under the program...