SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA – October 19th, 2012 – A new law is in process in the Legislative Assembly, which lawmakers say is aimed at cracking down on fraud. Lawmakers say they want to remove the “veil” that currently exists around Costa Rican corporations, known as sociedad anonimas, or S.A.’s, in order to defend the rights of third parties. The proposal was submitted by the legislator Jose Maria Vill...

October 18th, 2012 – Yesterday, a 1.2 meter diameter hole opened up in the bridge that crosses “La Fuente de la Hispanidad” (in front of the San Pedro Mall), in San Pedro.  The hole took drivers by surprise as the bridge had just recently been through repairs. This is the main bridge that crosses the rotunda below, in front of the mall, and is an important transit route. Christian Vargas, chief of...

October 18th, 2012 – The negotiations for next year’s minimum wage increases for Costa Rica’s private sector workers began on Tuesday. The unions will be requesting a raise of approximately 4%. Albino Vargas, general secretary for the National Association of Private and Public Employees, said that their exact proposal would be provided after the unions meet and reach final agreement. Representativ...

By Edith Honan BRIDGEPORT, Ct. | Sat Oct 20, 2012 8:07am EDT BRIDGEPORT, Ct. (Reuters) - Late last week, Rep. Chris Murphy, the Democratic contender for Senate in Connecticut, stopped in at El Flamboyan restaurant in Bridgeport. This is one of poorest sections of the state's most populous city and home to the kind of Democratic Party loyalists Mu...

By Alina Selyukh and Alexander Cohen WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:43pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two groups formed by influential Republican operative Karl Rove spent more on television and radio ads in the presidential race than any other "super PAC" or advocacy group in recent weeks, blanketing airwaves in advance of the November 6 electio...

By Margaret Chadbourn and Jeff Mason FAIRFAX, Va./WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:13pm EDT FAIRFAX, Va./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama turned his rival's name into an ailment on Friday, accusing Mitt Romney of suffering from "Romnesia" for emphasizing moderate positions rather than the conservative ones he put forward in the Repub...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:08pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The election between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney looks like it will be a knuckle-biter - unless you go by one of the United States' most respected public-opinion polls. As most surveys show Obama and Romney locked in a virtual dead h...

In a few days the new traffic law, passed by legislators in September, will be signed by the Presidenta, published in La Gaceta and be in effect. Interesting is that the same inspectors who will be responsible for upholding the law have found errors in the approved text and will have to make amendments. One of the errors is the missing of a sanction (fine) for not obeying the instruction...

In a move that’s expected to trigger a flurry of travel, unite families and generate badly needed currency, the Cuban government on Tuesday said it plans to wipe out an unpopular exit visa requirement that’s been in place since 1961. Analysts are at odds over why the socialist government is acting now. But what’s certain is that Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits are buzzing about the...

The late twentieth century saw a wave of democratic transitions in Latin America and Eastern Europe. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the former Soviet republics became independent states in their own right, while countries in Latin America began to break away from their colonial pasts, as well as from the dictatorships and civil wars that followed independence in the 19th century. Whil...

The Guatemalan Congress has approved borrowing from banks in Brazil and Argentina for the purchase of six Super Tucano aircraft and a tactical air control centre. Elperiodico.com.gt reports that the need to monitor areas like Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz and Petén, to weaken the activities of organized criminals and drug traffickers in these regions under project entitled ‘Construction of a...

It's a vicious circle where lack of trust leads to unnecessary requirements, the requirements leads to cumbersome procedures, the procedures sets up the trap, the trap to the bribe, and the whole thing starts over again. Welcome to Central America. Hugo Maul in his article on the blog of the National Economic Research Center (CIEN), unveils the hidden evil behind the red tape that stifles...

A proposal has been made to change the rules for the election of congressmen so that the majority be elected in their constituencies, so as to legitimize them with their communities. A group of Costa Rican citizens have began to take action under the premise that the "Costa Rican political system is weakening" and must be renewed. From the text of "Our Position" on the website of the...

Hugo Chávez may have won the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday, but in El Salvador he faced an overwhelming electoral defeat. The city of Ilopango in the Central American country voted by a landslide to rename “Hugo Chávez” boulevard, which the previous mayor had instituted when she led the local government back in 2006, Spanish news wire EFE reports. Only 13 of the 1,520 voters...

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has never been soft on crime. The 30-year military veteran rose to power last year on the wings of his law-and-order platform, crystalized in his campaign slogan: “Iron fist, head, and heart.” And he recently approved the creation of two military bases, outfitted with 2,500 soldiers, to guard against the growing presence of drug cartels that have turned G...

The deaths of eight indigenous demonstrators taking part in a protest against the Guatemalan government in the southwestern province of Totonicapán have provoked outrage within the country and abroad. The protesters accuse the army of shooting into the crowd. “Now more than ever we are sure that it was them (the military) who opened fire. We were not armed,” Carmen Tacam, president of the i...

In the coming days Costa Rica will have a new traffic law that replaces the traffic law of March 2010 (that was approved in 2008). Among the major changes is the term of the validity of the drivers license, and the point system. Article 92 of the new law states that a license, when first issued, is valid for three years and upon first renewal if the driver has accumulated four points or ...

Few political leaders have benefited more from Hugo Chavez’s largesse than Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Consequently, few foreign leaders will be watching the Venezuelan polls on Sunday closer than the Sandinista strongman. Ortega and his party’s politburo, recipients of more than $2.2 billion in Venezuelan petrodollars since 2007, insist they are confident their Venezuelan benefacto...

In the suburbs of El Salvador, in neighborhoods stained by Mara Salvatrucha or Barrio 18 graffiti, there are hundreds of abandoned, decaying houses. These houses tell the drama of the families who silently lived through their own history of violence: those displaced by gangs. There are houses that talk. They scream things, recount bits and pieces of larger stories. One house has four rooms,...

Russia’s Interior Ministry has signed an agreement with Nicaragua on supplying the "Tiger" armored vehicles to that country. “These vehicles will be used in operations on fighting the organized crime in our country”, Nicaragua's Minister of Interior Ana Isabel Morales Mazún said at a meeting in Moscow on Thursday. She said the "Tigers" would be used by the units of the Nicaraguan special...

Steadily high prices for gold are having a dramatic impact on parts of Latin America, bringing a flood of foreign investment and stirring a gold bug among wildcat miners in the jungles. Some of Latin America’s poorest nations – Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua – have seen their balance sheets strengthened by gold production, while major producers Peru and Mexico reap billions in foreign expo...

The content in this article was taken from CostaRicaLaw.com, the best online resource for getting familiar with the laws of Costa Rica. Always retain the advice of a lawyer, however you can educate yourself beforehand. Costa Rica is on the verge of passing two new laws, which will bring about significant changes to the tax structure currently in effect. The two legislative bills have alread...

Moscow says it is ready to supply equipment and weapons to Nicaragua as the global fight against the scourge of drug production and smuggling continues. Cooperation with the Central American country “comes down to the question of weapons, uniforms and police equipment,"Viktor Ivanov, head of the Federal Drug Control Service, told reporters following negotiations with Nicaraguan police chief...

According to numbers released by Honduras’ Public Ministry, only 21 percent of cases passed to police were investigated between 2010 and 2011, with police arguing that they lack the resources to investigate everything. The Honduran Public Ministry, which includes the Office of the Attorney General, registered 66,341 reported crimes in 2010, and passed along about 56,000 of those to Honduras...

Whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama wins in November it is hard to say that either candidate is a good choice for people who care about economic and social justice in Latin America. “If El Salvador becomes another Latin platform for advancing an anti-American agenda, it will negatively impact future levels of U.S. assistance through the Millennium Challenge project and USAID as well as on U...

Seven Colombian Navy experts are training 30 Costa Rica Guard Coast officials on strategies and techniques to improve their narco-trafficking operations, authorities said. Some of the subjects being taught during the 18-day course that started on Sept. 18 are the inspection of motorboats, defensive techniques, maritime intelligence and exploration and tactical maneuvers during seizures. ...

"The gift that keeps on giving" is one of those catchphrases which seems to have been around forever, but which actually dates back to 1924 when it was used to sell the new-fangled gramophone. It lends itself to a wide variety of situations and even became the title of a pop song first made public on Christmas Day five years ago. You can add one more meaning - far from benign and which describ...

Immigration authorities in Costa Rica will soon launch an electronic migration maps that will show areas where foreigners live in the country. According to the migration assistant, Freddy Montero, the mapping program gives a clear perspective of the movements of foreigners in the country, its location and even needs. According to the maps, Pavas, a community west of San Jose, remains t...

How do you find the National Theater in San Jose? "Left-hand turn 100 (meters) south of the People's Bank." The train station? "Right-hand turn, 400 (meters) west of the Costa Rica Middle School and 100 south." Those are addresses in the Costa Rican capital, a city of 1.5 million residents that hasn't had street signs and where people asking directions often are told to take a right at a...

In remarks to the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called on the UN to begin a serious debate on alternative ways to combat drug trafficking. “Today, I am proposing formally that …carry out a far-reaching assessment of the progress and limits of the current prohi...

The United Nations human rights chief today called on Honduras to take urgent steps to combat impunity for crimes against lawyers and journalists, stressing that recent killings reflect the “chronic insecurity” that these professions are subject to in the country. “Sadly, these deplorable killings are far from isolated cases,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said. “There ...

The first time I heard about sustainable development was during high school and throughout my college years. In 1994, Costa Rica had elected president a member of one of the most influential families in the history of the country. Jose Maria Figueres Olsen, the son of Jose Figueres Ferrer, served himself — not the country — from 1994 to 1998. During this time I worked as a Journalist for a loc...

Attacks on Panama’s electoral tribunal (TE) and the appointing of a new judge are part of a government plan to take over the institution and seek the immediate re-election of President Ricardo Martinelli says a leading constitutionalist. Law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, said on RPC Radio on Tuesday, September 25, that Panama has a dictatorship and everything regarding the appointment of...

President Laura Chinchilla criticized the current strategy of the war on drugs, saying that it has worsened violence and corruption in her country -- something illustrated by recent reports on the rise of "narco-families" in Costa Rica. “We’ve had about 10 to 15 years of pursuing a strategy with certain characteristics, and in precisely this period, violence, extortion, and corruption in ou...

The Costa Rican presidency created its own online newspaper to promote government achievements to citizens, reported the Central American newspaper La Nación. The official website called La Noticia launched on Thursday, Sept. 13, with the goal of focusing on what the government does well and what it could do better, according to journalist Mario Aguilar, press secretary for the Presidential...

Gunmen killed a lawyer who defended landless peasants in a region of northern Honduras that has been the scene of deadly land disputes, according to a farmers' association. Antonio Trejo, 41, was one of few attorneys who dared represent peasants locked in battle with wealthy landowners in the fertile Aguan Valley. Trejo was shot five times Saturday night outside a church where he had att...

Central America encouraged Korea to launch negotiations for a free trade pact with its regional grouping, and pointed to the first half of next year as a target date at a reception on Wednesday celebrating the region’s collective Independence Day. Four of the five Central American nations that observe their independence day on the same date encouraged Korea to act on tying their nations cl...

This past Monday, a group of unknown assailants attempted to take the life of renowned Bribri leader, Sergio Rojas, President of the Association for the Development of the Indigenous Territory of Salitre and a Coordinator at the National Front of Indigenous Peoples, FRENAPI. Sergio Rojas, who works for the defense and recovery of land and autonomy of all Indigenous Peoples in Costa Rica, wa...

Alvaro Salas-Castro is not your average graduate student. When Alvaro, 27, his wife Carla and their daughter Valentina arrived in Ithaca a month ago so that Alvaro could attend the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs he posted this message to the supporters who donated funds on Rally.org so that he could move with his family from Costa Rica to attend Cornell: Dear Friends, Supporters, a...

Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto has embarked on a diplomatic tour of six countries in Central and South America in an effort to reset rocky relationships and reestablish Mexico's position in the region. Top talking points include the region’s shared security concerns, especially with Guatemala and Colombia, and smoothing trade relations with Argentina and Brazil, both of which h...