This article is for entertainment purposes only and is not factual, originally posted on ElPeji.com. Presidential frontrunner Johnny Araya is unquestionably Costa Rica’s fattest presidential candidate, according to a Unimer poll released this week. A resounding 98% of pollsters found Araya to be the most overfed of the country’s candidates, while also voting the San Jose mayor as the least i...

After 20 years of neglect, the Municipality of Nicoya will give maintenance to the streets of the community of Matapalo in Samara. The reason why the streets have not been fixed in so long is because they are not recognized on the map of the canton’s road network. This was expressed by Marcos Jimenez, mayor of the Municipality of Nicoya, and council member Rodolfo Orozco at the meeting held ...

Chile, one of the most developed nations in Latin America, has a new President-elect. Former President Michelle Bachelet will once again lead the South American nation after a victory over her oponent Evelyn Matthei, also a female presidential candidate. In Costa Rica, President Laura Chinchilla will not be succeeded by a woman next year; however, she has set an important precedent for women in hi...

Eden Pastora Once again, members of the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega say that the colonial town of Nicoya and the province of Guanacaste are part of Nicaragua and that an international court should define to which country they belong. This time, the statements come from ex-guerrilla Eden Pastora, who is the person responsible for dredging the San Juan River along the border betwe...

Source: Municipality of GarabitoThe municipality of the Garabito canton of Puntarenas is proud to announce that the Jaco Beach community will be the first in Costa Rica to build a Civic Center for Peace. This is part of a national project that the new Ministry of Peace coordinated with the administration of President Laura Chinchilla. The goal of these centers is to remind Ticos that peace is not...

By order of President Laura Chinchilla, the flag of Costa Rica mournfully flew at half-mast on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in memory of the late Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa who bravely fought the forces of apartheid and dreamed of a truly free and peaceful nation. Did you know that the great Nobel Peace Laureate Mandela dedicated one of his first literary works to a Ti...

The region of Costa Rica formerly known as the “forgotten province” is now being heavily courted by politicians and public officials. In less than 20 years, Guanacaste has gone from a mostly agricultural province to a region rich in nature conservation, lavish real estate developments, tourism, technology, and more. As a result, candidates to represent Guanacaste at the national Legislative Assemb...

Only a few days after historians and leftist sympathizers observed the 60th anniversary of Ernesto “Che” Guevara's historical visit to Costa Rica, media reports of the formation of a new militia group training in the Caribbean prompted President Laura Chinchilla to explain that such informal militaristic actions do not fit into the country's long-standing unarmed and peaceful tradition. The Cos...

The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Awards for Excellence in Journalism are the most prestigious distinctions Latin American journalists can ever hope to receive. Costa Rica is truly blessed to have one of the highest levels of press freedom in the Americas, which makes the job of excellent journalists such as Giannina Segnini of national newspaper La Nacion a little easier. Ms. Segnini is not only the pro...

Students of the University of Costa Rica’s Liberia campus arrived on Wednesday November 20th to the debate organized by UCR Guanacaste Conferences (Conferencias UCR Guanacaste) in order to hear the proposals of deputy candidates. "As students, as future professionals and as productive people, we believe should ensure the safety of social guarantees and defend our thoughts and attitudes towards...

Source: UCR Music, theater and folklore were showcased alongside science, research and community development at the recent Guanacaste Expo of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). This major cultural and social event kicked off on November 6th at the Guanacaste Museum in Liberia, and it was deemed a sheer success by organizers who are pleased with the ongoing development and growth that this provi...

Foreign Workers at a Suger Cane Farm in Costa Rica From a macroeconomic point of view, Costa Rica has been mired in contradictions since the beginning of the 21st century. Consumer spending and prosperity are on the rise, but so are inflation and income inequality. With regard to the labor market, the current unemployment rate is the highest the country has experienced in 30 years; but, if you...

The national route 160 traverses much of the coast of Guanacaste, beginning in Santa Cruz and extending to Paquera. The Constitutional Court ordered the National Roadway Council (CONAVI) to pave route 160, but the section to be paved does not include the segment of approximately 30 kilometers that connects Nosara and Samara. The constitutional appeal (recurso de amparo) was presented this ye...

In a college atmosphere, the Youth and Politics Presidential Forum was attended by approximately 1000 people in the amphitheater of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) campus in Liberia on Wednesday, November 6. The activity was attended by presidential candidates Jose Maria Villalta of the Broad Front (FA- Frente Amplio) party, Jose Miguel Corrales, New Homeland (PN- Patria Nueva) and Luis Guil...

For years, members of the communities of Nosara and Samara have voiced grievances that the Municipality of Nicoya does not invest back into the communities an amount corresponding to the income generated by these districts, but hard data to back these claims was lacking. Now efforts are being made to gather this data. Preliminary data obtained by the Voice of Guanacaste seems to confirm these c...

As the national elections approach, the political environment isn’t heating up among Guanacaste’s youth, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Voice of Guanacaste with young adults between 18 and 25 years old. Of a total of 30 people interviewed in Nicoya, Nosara, Samara and Santa Cruz, 70% said they were not interested in politics. They justify their disinterest with two fundamental re...

In order to not hinder progress on the Coastal Community Territories Law Project (TECOCOS), the portion that dealt with the Ostional Wildlife Refuge has been separated from the project. “It is the same TECOCOS proposal, only that it will be dealt with as an independent project while presenting environmental studies required by the Constitutional Court (Sala IV) in order to complete the process ...

For the first time in the history of presidential elections in Costa Rica, a rural campus of the country’s most prestigious university will host a debate among presidential hopefuls. At least five presidential candidates have confirmed their presence at Guanacaste campus of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) for debates scheduled to take place on November 6th and 20th. These candidates are: Jo...

Article content taken from La Prensa Libre newspaper. The use of real estate transactions and shell companies are two of the most common money laundering methods in Costa Rica, and they are often carried out by small real estate brokerage firms operating in red-hot housing markets such as Tamarindo in Guanacaste. Such were the statements recently made by analysts from the Costa Rica Banking Ass...

“It makes no sense that men go to jail for not paying child support”, says legislator José Roberto Rodríguez in presenting a bill that would see the government lend the money to those who cannot pay and avoid going to prison. The legislator for the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) explained that the idea is for the government to make the payment, like a loan, and then get paid back over t...

Monteverde is a very popular tourist destination in Costa Rica, National Geographic calling it “the jewel in the crown of cloud forest reserves”. Newsweek has declared Monteverde the world’s #14 Place to Remember Before it Disappears. By popular vote in Costa Rica, Monteverde was enshrined as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Costa Rica, along with Isla del Coco, Volcán Arenal, Cerro Chirripó...

The government plans to give the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS) the legal weapon to seize property acquired through tax evasion, drug trafficking, money laundering, organize crime and any other illegal activity, through a bill it is introducing in the Legislative Assembly. The proposal is to give the country’s intelligence service, an arm of the Presidency, the power to investigate...

The second-most-common catch on Costa Rica’s longline fisheries in the last decade was not a commercial fish species. It was olive ridley sea turtles. These lines also caught more green turtles than most species of fish. These findings and more, reported in a new study in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, indicate that the Costa Rican longline fishery represents a major th...

Source: Flickr CC Online poker rooms, Internet casinos and sportsbooks in Costa Rica are part of an industry that began in the late 20th century and saw its heyday circa 2006. This multimillion dollar industry lives partially in the shadows for various reasons; the most important being the constant pressure applied by law enforcement and prosecutors from the United States. After more than a de...

The next time your daughter in Costa Rica looks at you with sad puppy eyes and tells you she wants a puppy, you might have to tell her: “Sorry, honey. We don't have a license for that.” A bi-partisan legislative proposal recently introduced in the National Assembly of Costa Rica will require a household permit or certificate for those who want to care for companion animals. According to nationa...

Source: MSP Agents from the Drug Control Police (Spanish initials: PCD) in Costa Rica recently seized approximately 308 kilograms of powder cocaine hydrochloride aboard a cargo ship that arrived from Colombia. Just hours after the PCD made the bust, the Ministry of Public Safety (MSP) posted 16 detailed photographs and a video of the operation, right down to the moment the drugs are flown to t...

If online social networking was the electoral platform of Costa Rica, the shoo-in presidential candidate would certainly be Jose Maria Villalta Florez-Estrada of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) political party. No other candidate has been able to gain such a significant market share in terms of social media, not even former Mayor of San Jose Johnny Araya, the leading candidate to succeed President...

Starting today, Tuesday October 1, at 10:00 am, and until noon on Saturday November 2, the US Diversity Visa lottery program will be running, awarding 50,000 permanent resident visas to persons from countries with low immigration rates to the United States, of which Costa Rica is one. Applicants must visit the website www.dvlottery.state.gov to complete the process electronically and in person....

Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla and Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf met on Monday, in the first official meeting between the countries since the 1970s, to discuss future relations between the two nations, as well as international work on women’s rights, the environment and peace. This visit marks the revival of diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Liberia, which were est...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported that Johnny Araya is leading the polls in the 2014 presidential election. The presidential candidate of the National Liberation Party (PLN – Partido Liberación Nacional), Johnny Araya Monge, was on tour in Guanacaste, in Liberia on Friday, September 27th and Nicoya on Saturday the 28th. A meeting was held at 10:00 AM at Hotel el Regalo in the city of Nic...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how President Laura Chinchilla stated in an interview with Spanish news daily El Pais, that there is no censorship or corruption in the government of Costa Rica. The Development Association of Nosara (ADIN – Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Nosara), may declare Laura Chinchilla, President of the Republic, as non grata (undesirable person), for having...

A new law passed by legislators at the National Assembly of Costa Rica will reduce the nation's contribution to the electoral process by about 20 billion colones, approximately $40,000,000 at today's currency exchange rate. This legislative action was proposed by the Citizens' Action Party (Spanish initials: PAC) and received significant support from Costa Rica's powerhouse political parties. B...

Source: Fuerza Publica What do potato sack races, face-painting, community football leagues, magic tricks, balloon animals, and coloring books have in common? These are the secret weapons of crime prevention used by Fuerza Publica, the national police force of Costa Rica. Rookies who graduate from the National Police Academy of Costa Rica know that they will be expected to do two things in ...

File photo. Source: MSP Costa Rica The migratory patterns of certain marine species during the green (rainy) season prompt illegal fishermen and shark finning crews to ply their wicked trade in Cocos Island National Park, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Tuna, sharks, large sea turtles, and even the curious-looking mola mola (ocean sunfish) are the typical catch that these poachers of Cost...

The Arms Trade Treaty is part of a larger global effort begun in 1997 by Costa Rican President and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Óscar Arias. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo announced last Wednesday afternoon that 107 nations have signed the Arms Trade Treaty, an initiative of Costa Rica that was approved by the United Nations last April. However, only six countries (Costa R...

In early September, Costa Rica’s Security Minister Mario Zamora announced a multi-agency strategy involving security forces, the Public Ministry and the Judicial Investigation Organization. But he wasn’t targeting drug trafficking or violence; he was striking out at cattle theft. The announcement came two weeks after a Nicaraguan farmer with connections to Costa Rica was murdered alongside his ...

The Costa Rica Star recently published about the legend of the phoenix and how social media is helping the president regain supporters. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla Miranda said that there is no corruption in her government and there is free speech, without any kind of censorship to any dissident group, political party, etc. The i...

The Ministerio de Educación (MEP) – Ministry of Education – tops the list of the 10 top public institutions spending the most on wages, followed by the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS) – Social Security in English. According to a report by El Financiero, the MEP spends ¢991.7 billion colones annually on wages, while the CCSS ¢946.1 billion. See chart below. Following the list (in ...

With determination, the group of five police officers line up next to their patrol vehicle for a photograph, following the order of their captain, Omar Chavarria, who introduces me and explains my job. Four men and one woman made up the team that would go out on the afternoon of Friday, August 16, as part of the operations being performed by a new division of the Nicoya Public Force that was fo...

In the latest poll results by Unimer for La Nacion, Johnny Araya maintains a clear lead over his rivals for the presidential chair that will be emptied by Laura Chinchilla in May 2014. Araya, presidential candidate for the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) – also known as the “verdiblanco” (green white) party – has the support of 27.5% of the 1,206 people polled between September 6 and 12. T...