UK Ambassador Sharon Campbell presents Luis Hernandez, the Manager of the Antonio Escarre Baseball Stadium, with a commemorative cricket shield.If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your press release, please contact us. Two youth cricket teams faced off on Saturday 7 September in Costa Rica’s first ever Under-19 Twenty-20 match, organised by the British Embassy San José and the Cos...

Country forges ahead to protect 340,000 hectares, benefit rural communities, and meet its 2021 carbon neutrality goal. San José de Costa Rica - The Government of Costa Rica and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) signed today a Letter of Intent (LOI) to negotiate an Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) worth up to $63 million. This would make Costa Rica the first country in th...

Source: Wikimedia Commons A late-August law enforcement interagency operation in Costa Rica deployed nearly one hundred officers who cracked down on illegal street racing at different points in the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish acronym: GAM). More than 1,000 vehicles and their drivers were intercepted at new gathering spots where illegal drag racers congregate. According to Ro...

Geneva / San José (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is today inaugurating the second conference of national committees for the implementation of international humanitarian law of the Americas, in San José, Costa Rica. “The conference is a unique forum for regular dialogue between States, government experts and academics about international humanitarian law,” said Patr...

Author’s Note: The following analysis and opinion of the video produced by the “Essential Costa Rica” branding initiative has been adapted into English from the online blog of Luis Paulino Vargas Solis, which also appeared in online news publication Informa-Tico. Mr. Vargas is the internal director of the Investigative Center on Culture and Development of the National Distance Learning University....

Source: Facebook The death of a pizzeria owner in a sleepy beach town in Costa Rica has many expats wondering what may have happened to the 36-year old man. Jose Elkin Gomez Sanchez had been missing since Thursday, August 15th, when Costa Rica was busy celebrating Mother's Day and the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. His body was found floating off Playa Flamingo, province of Guanac...

The second meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on Migration began in San Jose yesterday, with interesting proposals that opened the discussion among delegations. Among the initiatives is the creation of regional consulates in certain parts of the world that deal with the problems of emigrants from CELAC countries, as well as the establishment of mobile consul...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Two fishermen were shot and killed yesterday evening in Playas del Coco, a quiet and pristine beach community in Costa Rica. The victims have been identified as Victor Davila, approximately 55 years of age, and his son David, who was about 30 years old. The men had recently returned from the sea and were in the process of selling their catch to a fish and seafood s...

A poacher stabbed a volunteer taking part in efforts to stop illegal hunting in the central province of San Jose, Costa Rica's environment minister said Monday. The incident took place last Thursday as park ranger Aristides Chinchilla and volunteer Franklyn Araya were on patrol in the municipality of Puriscal, Rene Castro told a press conference. Citing Chinchilla's report, the minister said...

Managua September 4- President Daniel Ortega warned Costa Rica that Nicaragua may ask the International Court of Justice to restore to Managua a province he said it lost to “occupation” in 1824. Ortega was referring to Guanacaste province, which is about 20 percent of neighboring Costa Rica’s territory and a popular tourism hub. “Costa Rica did not win that territory in an international ...

Being the victim of constant ridicule from his fellow workers for wearing women’s pants, a man named Sanchez working for the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), decided to rely on the law and file a “recurso amparo" (appeal) with the Constitutional Court. The appeal challenging his employer’s rules prohibiting him from wearing women’s clothes is being closely watched. Sanchez ...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your press release about Costa Rica, please contact us. Grecia, September 3, 2013 - The Supreme Court has accepted an unconstitutionality petition filed against agricultural burning in Costa Rica and given the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Environment fifteen days to rule on the merits of the allegations. In view of this Resolution agr...

The Municipality of Hojancha is advancing with a project to relocate families that live in the maritime land zone of the bay of Carrillo Beach. In August, the municipality sent machinery to clear land behind the Carrillo community hall in preparation for donating lots to eight families. Although the families who live in the bay signed agreements to accept a donation of land from the municipalit...

Neighbors of Santa Marta have noted a marked change in the speed and force of the Nosara River, which has already caused flooding and erosion of some properties in the area. The suspected cause is the dredge and dike work being just done upriver. Facundo Barrantes Barrantes, who has lived next to the river in Santa Marta for 16 years, related that it has never had such force and estimated that...

Since 2005, the MuNet e-Gobierno initiative has grown considerably in Costa Rica. What started as a pilot program sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS), ICE and Canada’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development has grown into a robust digital information and services platform to be proud of. The administration of President Laura Chinchilla has been very supportive in this regard, an...

U.S. President Barack Obama and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have much in common. Both are winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and, as such have been critical of war as foreign policy and as a solution for problems. So why is Arias taking Obama to task without mincing words? Arias reacted on Facebook Thursday to President Obama’s speech promising armed retaliation against the Syrian re...

About one million students will participate in civic events and parades on September 15, a day in which Costa Ricans celebrate their 192 anniversary of the declaration of independence. This year schools will have the holiday on September 16, according to the coordinator of the National Holidays Committee of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), Giselle Cruz. The coordinator also stated that t...

Three bodyguards working for American football star Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen are to stand trial in Costa Rica after firing shots at two photographers during an altercation at the couple's 2009 wedding. A court in Puntarenas, on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, set a trial date for September 23 against two Costa Rican security guards and a Colombian national who are accused o...

Costa Rica’s attorney-general, Jorge Chavarría, has brought charges against the Movimiento Libertario (ML) party for defrauding $480,000 from the Tribunal Suprema de Elecciones (TSE, the electoral authority) by charging for 190 training courses that never happened and submitting false documents. The Código Electoral (the electoral law) provides for campaign financing equivalent to 0.19% of the ...

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla on Monday sent a bill to Congress that seeks to limit the interest rates banks and stores charge on credit both in colons and dollars, the Economy Ministry said. The bill would forbid credit when the interest rate charged is more than double the average rate over the past three months in the regulated national financial system. The Economy Ministry said...

Former Costa Rican-American astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz on Monday received an honorary doctorate from the state-run Universidad de Costa Rica, or UCR, for his contributions to science, technology and education on the global level. The honorary doctorate was presented by representatives of UCR, the country's main university, at a ceremony where the scientist expressed his pride at being recogn...

As a way to encourage the use of the new electronic parking meters, the Municipality of San José has announced one hour of free street parking starting this week. The director of the Municipal Police, Marcelo Solano, said the goal is to encourage people to use the meters. The city has 1,800 meters available for users. Dates provided by the municipality show that in June a total 29,000 dri...

1,200 students from 12 schools in the zona norte cannot get to school due to the “pésimo” (poor) state of the roads, including the trocha fronteriza or ruta 1856, La Nacion reports. According to the publication, the situation worsened Monday morning when a school bus got stuck in the mud some 150 meters from the Medio Queso river bridge, later in the morning three other school buses did the sam...

Source: Casa Presidencial de Costa Rica It wasn't long ago that the people of Costa Rica gave President Laura Chinchilla the lowest public opinion of a Latin American country leader. In fact, the Costa Rica Star compared her track record to that of President Dilma Rouseff of Brazil, another political leader whose term in office has been decidedly rocky. One of the lowest points in the admin...

Twilight in Golfito. Source: Wikimedia Commons Squatters of private property in Costa Rica, particularly those that trespass land owned by foreigners, are more than a just a nuisance. They are reminders of this country's painful transition from an agricultural nation to an industrial and consumer society. Many foreign landowners have come to learn the hard way about Costa Rica's murky agrarian...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Less guns, more bullets: According to figures recently reported by Ronny Rojas of news daily La Nacion, there is a clear interest among people in Costa Rica in purchasing firearms of higher round (ammunition) capacity. In 2012, gun dealers in Costa Rica imported 4,540 semiautomatic pistols, double the annual rate since 2010. Revolvers, on the other hand, are losing fa...

Source: Flickr CC Although statistics from the Ministry of Public Safety (initials MSP in Spanish) indicate that overall crime is down in Costa Rica, many rural and farming communities are seeing criminal elements getting comfortable in their quiet towns. This is particularly true in the province of Alajuela, where the northern cantons of San Carlos and Los Chiles join the municipality of Ciud...

Environmentalist Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has recently been very active in calling attention to the illegal practices of shark finning in Costa Rica, as well as the allegations of ties between fishery officials and what Mr. Watson defines as “narco-poachers.” On his Facebook Timeline, which is followed by nearly 235,000 social media netizens, Mr. Watson...

Source: Flickr CC The first-ever legally recognized civil union between same-gender partners in Costa Rica might take place in one or two weeks. Such was the statement pronounced by Marco Castillo, an attorney and president of the Diversity Movement in Costa Rica. Mr. Castillo is currently handling petitions from three couples who want legal recognition of their rights to civil unions as lesbi...

No one was hurt when assailants in a passing car fired shots at the Colombian Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica’s security minister said Friday. Six shots were fired, apparently from an AK-47 assault rifle, Mario Zamora told a press conference. Four of the shots hit a guardhouse on the grounds and two struck the embassy itself. “Fortunately, there are no casualties,” the minister said. ...

The number of homicides in Costa Rica has increased by 8% and assaults by 20% in the first seven months of the year, as compared to the same period last year, says the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ). A report by the Crime Analysis Unit of the OIJ indicated that between January and July 2013, 227 homicides occurred in the country, while only 209 were recorded in the same period in 20...

In Guanacaste this Thursday President Laura Chinchilla led a march protesting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s bid to claim the Costa Rica province of Guanacaste. Chinchilla was joined by legislators, Cabinet members and protesters in a “marcha por la patria” (march for the homeland) that began in the town of Nicoya in the northwest province of Guanacaste. The province, home to some of Cost...

Members of the brutal street gangs widely known as Maras continue to wreak havoc in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras -- but why haven’t they taken root in Costa Rica as well? MS-13 and M-18, the two strongest and most widespread Mara gangs, were spawned in the 1980s in poor Los Angeles neighborhoods by disaffected Central American youth. Most were transplanted to the US by their families, de...

Children and teenagers who file complaints for bullying will remain anonymous, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) ruled last week. The court admitted that this is at variance with adult due process rules that require plaintiffs to be identified. The case arose when the director of Gravilias de Desamparados school refused to release the identity of the accuser or accusers ...

Knowing exactly how many people use the public bus system every day, and thus learning the requirements of each route, is what the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) hopes to achieve with a study that began earlier this month. According to the ARESEP, the information to be obtained by the study is to establish “operational variables” ie. the size of the fleet, schedules, frequ...

On August 7, the Constitutional Court ruled that using trawling nets for shrimping is unconstitutional. This measure aims to minimize the impact that this type of fishing is causing along the country's coast, especially in the Gulf of Nicoya. The Constitutional Court determined that using trawling nets does not allow selection of the desired specimens, in many cases trapping unusable ones and t...

Source: Flickr CC Prosecutors in Puntarenas, a major port city in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, have lodged a criminal complaint against the Executive President of the National Institute of Fishing and Aquaculture (Spanish acronym: INCOPESCA). The charges are related to shark fin poaching. According to an online news report by Alvaro Sanchez of CRHoy.com, INCOPESCA's Executive President ...

Although the Government of Nicaragua said that President Daniel Ortega never threatened to claim the province of Guanacaste, several Nicoyan social groups decided to leave no room for doubt and will take to the streets this Thursday, August 22 to march peacefully to reconfirm the annexation cry. Marta Arauz, coordinator of the march, said that "it is a peaceful march and does not involve an...

While they protest, we have to keep the Consulate closed: Foreign Minister Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo, said late Sunday that the planned move for the Costa Rican Consulate in Managua was prevented due to “xenophobia fueled by President Daniel Ortega against Costa Rica”. Due to the protests outside the Consulate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was forced to shut down sin...

In order to talk with and get to know the concerns of Nicoyans, the former president of the republic, José María Figueres Olsen, showed up in the Coopealianza auditorium in downtown Nicoya on July 24. Figueres, now 58 years old, was president of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998, distinguished as the youngest head of state of Central America in modern times at age 39. In addition to his political ca...