The second and final round elections in Costa Rica officially began with the opening of the voting center in Sidney, Australia, where a native from Heredia, Randall Arce was the first Costa Rican to vote abroad in this presidential elections process. The Supreme Electoral Court opened 52 voting centers for citizens who live abroad; in total there are almost 31 thousand Ticos that live in diffe...

The company Opol Consultores S.A. was ready to release the results of their last survey prior to the Presidential Elections in Costa Rica that take place this Sunday, April 1st; however, after their team received threats they opted for cancelling the publication of the results. “We regret not being able to conclude our work. The integrity of our collaborators comes first. It is important to sa...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff President Donald Trump got out of Washington late Friday after spinning heads over his signing the controversial $1.3-trillion Omnibus Spending Bill -- just as 800,000 protesters descended on the nation’s capitol Saturday to protest gun violence in the United St...

The Costa Rica District Attorney Office opened an investigation against Otto Guevera Guth, congressman and former presidential candidate, as a suspect of money laundering. On Friday during a search conducted in the legal offices linked to Guevara, the police found almost 40 million colones (almost $71,000.00) in a safe. The objective of the search that took place Friday, was done with the ...

The candidates for the presidency of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado from the Citizens’ Action Party (PAC) and Fabricio Alvarado from the National Restoration Party (PRN), finished their public campaigns in the second round of elections which be celebrated with a winner April 1st. With a survey showing a “statistical draw” and another one giving Fabricio Alvarado the lead, Costa Ricans have only on...

The last survey carried out by the Center for Political Studies and Investigation of the University of Costa Rica (CIEP-UCR) has presidential candidates in Costa Rica Fabricio Alvarado and Carlos Alvarado in a statistical tie. The results of this consultation has Fabricio Alvarado of the National Restoration Party receiving 43% of the support of decided voters, while Carlos Alvarado from the Ci...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff Breaking news on Tuesday morning looked bad as a 17-year-old student gunman opened fire on class mates at Great Mills High School in injuring two students, then an armed school resource officer stepped up and shot the assailant who later died at a local hospital...

The Presidents of Costa Rica and Panama, Luis Guillermo Solis and Juan Carlos Varela, met in Costa Rica with the purpose of strengthening their bilateral politics in aspects of security, migration, tourism, commerce and customs modernization. One of the main topics between both countries was the construction of the new bridge over the Sixaola River in the Costa Rica-Panama frontier denominated...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff Late Friday night U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the “effective immediately” firing of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, just two days before he would have retired with full benefits at 49-years-old – after 22-y...

Former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, has been appointed to be new Vice President of the World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid (WLA-CdM). This organization is the largest forum of democratically elected former presidents and PMs working to encourage democracy, its institutions and values all over the world. Chinchilla, who was the first woman to become President of Costa Rica, is ...

Evangelical candidate Fabricio Alvarado from the National Restoration Party continues to lead the election race in Costa Rica, according to the latest poll carried out by Opol Consultores. Opol Consultores worked with a sample of 3300 people in the Costa Rican territory and the survey was carried out between March 12 to the 16; the results in the voters intention show Fabricio Alvarado with a s...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff Wouldn’t you know Pennsylvania’s special election in the 18th Congressional District was so close no official winner was declared Tuesday night. Newcomer Democrat Conor Lamb declared himself the winner, but there’s no winner until all the votes are counted inclu...

Nepotism is basically the practice of those in power of favoring relatives or friends usually by offering them jobs or specific positions. President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis signed this March 13 the Anti-Nepotism Law in the Legislative Assembly. This law modifies Article 49 of the Personnel Law of the Legislative Assembly -Law N.4556, by adding a paragraph that states that trust pers...

Costa Rica officially elected Emilia Navas Aparicio as the District Attorney for the next four years. Navas is the first woman to take this position in 43 years (the first District Attorney Costa Rica named was Francisco Echeverri in 1975). 53-year-old Navas had been working as the Ad-interim District Attorney since October of last year, when the Supreme Court suspended Jorge Chavarría. Navas ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff Last week’s political winners and losers include new tariffs placed upon steel and aluminum imports, North Korea tyrant Kim Jong Un, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former porn-queen Stormy Daniels. The big winner this week is the American steel and alumin...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff FBI Director Christopher Wray needs to speak up and publicly give Special Counsel Robert Mueller two weeks to wrap up his year-long-plus investigation into suspected Russia/Trump campaign collusion, issue his final report and return to retirement -- as a former ...

Lately controversy has surrounded Costa Rica’s presidential candidate Fabricio Alvarado from the National Restoration Party, the statements made by some of this team members regarding the fact that they prefer not to include or hire LGBTI people as part of their government if he is elected president, and the cancellation of his participation in several debates have been just two of the situations ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff Political newcomer Conor Lamb – a Democrat -- has two shots at becoming a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, first in the upcoming March 13 special election, then again on Nov.6 for the nation’s mid-term elections nationwide. De...

Image Credit: Semanario Universidad The second round of the presidential elections in Costa Rica will take place April 1st and with less than a month to go the latest poll has the two candidates going head to head with a very slight advantage for Carlos Alvarado. The survey carried out by the Center for Political Studies and Investigation of the University of Costa Rica (CIEP-UCR) has Carlos...

In the presidential elections that took place this past February 4 in Costa Rica, none of the candidates reached the 40% threashold of votes required to win the elections, as a matter of fact it was abstentionism (those who didn’t vote) that reached the highest percentage with 34.34% according to the last information provided by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The number of people who can vote ...

The government of Costa Rica and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding to open a Costa Rican Promotion Office in Dubai, the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agreement was signed by Majid Safir Al Ghurair chairman of Dubai Chamber and Manuel Gonzalez Sanz, Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Global Bu...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff This week’s political head-turner was the abrupt announcement that White House Communications Director Hope Hicks was leaving the Trump administration a day after she spent eight-hours testifying under oath in a closed-door session with the U.S. House Intelligen...

45 deputies voted in favor of lifting the immunity privilege to criminal judge of the Supreme Court Celso Gamboa, investigated for influence peddling; lifting the immunity should allow for Gamboa to face the accusations; however, controversy and doubts raised as the vote in the Legislative Assembly was done publicly even though the regulations of the Assembly establish in article 101 that voting p...

Francisco Prendas is the candidate for the vice-presidency of Costa Rica representing the National Restoration Party (PRN) whose presidential candidate is Fabricio Alvarado. Francisco stated that their party would much rather choose heterosexuals as members of his government (ministers or executive presidents in public institutions) than a homosexual person, to avoid “offending the majority of Cos...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff Liberals everywhere beware there is a new voice to be reckoned with – that of Dana Loesch – the National Rifle Association’s chief spokeswoman. She has blasted upon the political landscape taking on mainstream media often appearing on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and, of ...

As Costa Rica heads towards the second round of its Presidential Elections 2018, the latest poll carried out by Opol Consultores show Evangelic candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, as the favorite with 57.3% of the support of those voters that will vote and have already picked their candidate. Costa Rica will commence the second round of its presidential elections on Sunday, April 1st, since in the fi...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff High school students across the nation are walking out of classes unified in support of stronger federal and state gun laws in the United States of America. Student protests at state capitols and in Washington are occurring almost daily since the most recent mas...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is admitting they screwed up on Jan. 5, 2018 when they received information from a concerned citizen about 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz of Parkland, Florida being a threat to the community and his intentions to be a “professional...

Costa Rica just had presidential elections this past February 4, but none of the candidates got the required minimum of votes (40%) to be able to win the elections, now, Costa Ricans are forced to vote again in a “second round” for one of the two candidates that got the most votes, Fabricio Alvarado (PRN) or Carlos Alvarado (PAC), this time around whoever gets the most votes, even if the differen...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The world’s spotlight has been upon South Korea’s Winter Olympics but the spectacle hasn’t been the athletes from around the world competing for gold, silver or bronze. That’s a sideshow compared to when North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong walked into the main sports are...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. A new highly-political movie was released Friday depicting three male childhood friends touring Europe -- who stepped up to the plate and saved a train load of people from certain slaughter by stopping a radical Islamic terrorist attack in Paris in August 2015....

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Mid-Term Campaign 2018 may be all but over for establishment Democrats. Future 30 or 60-second TV campaign ads featuring a fast back-and-forth montage of images from President Donald Trump’s first State-of-the-Union address showing the sour-faced Democrats sitt...

The conversations in Costa Rica after the presidential elections that took place this past weekend, have geared around two topics: the unexpected results of the elections that now have the country going to a second round, and the 57 “diputados” (deputies) elected for congress (Legislative Assembly). But was has the discussion been all about regarding the deputies? Costa Rica the Legislativ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The brilliance of President Donald J. Trump is shining through. The release of this now infamous 4-page House Intelligence Committee memo shows just how amazing his winning the presidency really was. Not only did Trump run against the Democrats, most Republican...

A large sector of the Costa Rican population couldn’t hide their disbelief when the first results of the presidential elections were announced. Fabricio Alvarado, the candidate for the National Restoration Party (PRN), an Evangelical Christian, preacher and singer, a pre-grad journalist and current deputy in the Legislative Assembly was proving the polls right. In second place, Carlos Alvara...

Costa Rica’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal gave the first official cut for the votes casted during the Presidential Elections this Sunday, February 4 in Costa Rica. The first votes counted through 8 p.m. this evening represented 11.57% of the tables and showed candidate Evangelical Preacher Fabricio Alvarado from National Restoration Party (PRN) ahead with 26.71% of the support, followed by Antoni...

So far, there are four out of the 13 presidential candidates in Costa Rica that are the favorites to come out as winners in the elections today, and two of them, Antonio Alvarez Desanti from the National Liberation Party (PLN) and Rodolfo Piza from the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) are including private education and health services among the activities that would be taxed with the IVA (valu...

The “Electoral Party” began yesterday in Costa Rica, when a Costa Rican native of Heredia, voted in Australia, in one of the 52 locations set up to vote abroad. Over 6,600 election tables opened at 6 a.m. in the country, where more than 3.3 million voters are called to cast their vote. How does it work? In Costa Rica all citizens over 18 years old that have a valid I.D. can cast their vote....

The months prior to a presidential election in any country provide opportunities for candidates to explain their government plans, their ideas and proposals. This Sunday, February 4th, Costa Ricans will be choosing their president for the next four years, and in the last poll more than 36% of the voters had not decided who to vote for. Part of the reason for this phenomenon has to do with facto...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. All this clamoring over President Donald Trump’s first State-of-the-Union address by stone-faced-sour Democrats and cheering Republicans will soon die down as this much anticipated U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s four-page memo concerning the fake anti-Trum...