SAN JOSE - As part of an investigation that involves the Minister of Education, the former Minister of the Treasury, a former Presidential aide, and the public oil utility RECOPE, agents from the Judicial Investigations Office (OIJ) descended upon the Treasury Offices in the heart of downtown San Jose earlier today. Prosecutors from the Economic Crimes section of OIJ ordered the raid, which was...

The Day of the American Indigenous was celebrated earlier this week in Costa Rica, and the Ministry of Culture planned a series of activities this past Saturday in San Jose to commemorate the occasion. The cultural events took place at the Morazan, La Merced and Espana parks; they were organized by Enamorate de tu Ciudad (Fall in Love with Your City) and Banco Popular. The events included i...

Costa Rica's highest court, Sala Cuarta, has ruled in favor of a prominent Catholic radio station and its stance against in vitro artificial fertilization. The case in question dates back to last year, when Radio Fides 93.1 FM aired a series of 14 radio spots clearly stating the opposition of the station and the Catholic church against in vitro fertilization, a procedure that does not enjoy leg...

While at the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena a few days ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the following announcement: “For years Canada has been working with like-minded countries to make the Americas a safer place, providing necessary equipment and training, and technical and legal assistance to those fighting on the front lines against drugs, transnational organized crime and...

Fuerza Publica is committed to the safety and protection of all domestic and wildlife species in Costa Rica, not just humans. For the second time in less than five days, Fuerza Publica officers used old-fashioned police work to rescue animals from the clutches of less-than-scrupulous humans. Five days after officers walking the beat in the capital city of San Jose apprehended a man concealing t...

Now that the Fiscal Reform Plan is dead in the water due to a high court ruling, President Laura Chinchilla took to the airwaves last night and delivered a speech that outlined a new initiative to collect resources needed to shore up the deficit, which has prompted the government into borrowing 45 percent of the cash needed to meet its obligations. The President began her address with a rem...

The Ministry of the Treasury employees who leaked data about unreported property values and unpaid taxes that lead to the resignation of three prominent public officials have been charged with unauthorized use of privileged information systems. Moments after the official announcement of the accusations against the twelve employees, whose names and positions are being withheld, Ticos took to social...

On May 1st, just as millions of workers around the world will take the day off to protest against labor injustices and demand better working conditions, the elected legislators at Costa Rica's National Assembly will see more money on their paychecks thanks to substantial salary increases. Three legislators who were vehemently opposed to the increases decided to reject their own raises, but ...

A Supreme Court ratification of a ruling by a court of appeals places the burden of liability on the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT) in relation to a 2005 accident that took the life of Manuel Angel Morales Piedra in Perez Zeledon. MOPT must now pay the surviving family members about $135,000. Manuel Angel Morales was trying to cross the southbound lanes of the Inter-American...

The heads of state participating at the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena have all returned to their respective nations. Most news media outlets are reporting on the fact that no major treaties were signed, and no final declaration was issued due to lack of consensus in various topics. President Barack Obama returned to the United States to deal with a scandal involving Secret Service agen...

The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. Author's Note: This article is being written in response to a dear reader named Jane, who is from the United States and is planning on moving to the town of Puerto Viejo in the Talamanca Region, province of Limon. Parts of her e-mail to the...

"We are not willing to be dragged into a convoy of destruction, of militarism, of exorbitant costs that distracts nations from their investment efforts into social issues." Such were the words of President Laura Chinchilla in an interview with Colombian newspaper El Tiempo on the eve of her participation in the Sixth Summit of the Americas. Our President arrived in Cartagena with an agenda t...

There is no doubt that the love for peace and democracy that Ticos share makes Costa Rica a special place. Unfortunately, the arcane body of laws, codes, statutes, and regulations in our country sometimes contradicts the will and sentiment of the citizenry. Given our political and civic history, Costa Rica should be a shelter for press freedom and whistleblowers, but according to a recent news ...

SAN JOSE – Alert police officers assigned to a foot patrol around the Cathedral District in the Downtown area of the capital city noticed something strange about a man carrying three burlap sacks. After observing what seemed like movement of the contents in the bags, the Fuerza Publica members approached the man and asked to search the sacks. The bags were filled with ten iguanas: nine were ali...

This coming June, Costa Rica will celebrate a few events dedicated to environmental protection. One is World Environment Day, which this year will be centered on Green Economies. A more important and localized event will focus on the health of our rivers, particularly in the Central Valley and the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (GAM in Spanish). Minister of the Environment Rene Castro spoke...

A new bill making its way through the United States legislature may impede travel for American passport holders who owe taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Costa Rica’s proposed Fiscal Reform Plan, which was recently sent back to the National Assembly by Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall), is just one example of legislative efforts in several nations to increase revenues with the goal o...

SAN JOSE – The headlines on all major news outlets in Costa Rica last night were dominated by the unanimous ruling of Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall), the country's highest court, on the highly-debated Fiscal Reform Plan. The response by the government was limited to a brief communique issued by the Executive: "The Government respects the ruling by Constitutional Hall with regard to the compl...

Daily newspaper El Universal in Venezuela reports that 59-year old diplomatic attache Guillermo Cholele, who was reported missing and kidnapped yesterday, was released by his captors in Charavalle, a district in the populous state of Miranda. According to the newspaper report, the Tico diplomat went to a coffee kiosk to ask for help around 2:00 in the morning. When local police arrived, Mr....

Four-legged members of the Distinguished Firefighting Corps of Costa Rica and their human handlers will travel to Bolivia later this year to take part in a special training course. The Bolivian Police University and special law enforcement units will train rescue dogs from more than 20 different nations, including Costa Rica, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and more. The K-9 officers and their...

The recent imbroglio over undeclared home values and unpaid taxes that resulted in the resignations of the Minister of the Treasury and the Chief Tax Collector is threatening to derail the Fiscal Reform plan backed by the administration of President Laura Chinchilla. Not surprisingly, the different political factions at the National Assembly are weighing in with their own fiscal reform ideas. ...

The Office of the Chancellor has confirmed that a member of our diplomatic corps has been kidnapped in the Republic of Venezuela. The victim in question is Guillermo Cholele, who is an attaché and counsel to Nazareth Avendano, Ambassador of Costa Rica in the Republic of Venezuela. According to an official communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Avendano explained that Mr....

Nine buildings zoned for commercial use in the beach community of Puerto Viejo could soon be demolished by order of the government. Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall) orders Fuerza Publica to prevent evictions of squatters in Los Chiles in 2011, only to have a lower court continue the eviction process months later. A multifaceted expat businessman fighting a complex land grab case spends 4...

One of the oldest and most distinguished institutions of academic formation in Costa Rica turned 125 years old without much pomp or fancy celebration. The Liceo de Costa Rica is a public school that imparts secondary education from grades 7th to 11th to adolescent males, and it has the honor of counting the most impressive alumni roll in our country. Several former Presidents, distinguis...

For most people in Latin America, Holy Week means religious obligations, heavy traffic, closed stores, crowded beaches, and dry laws.  In Cuba, however, Holy Week has been a regular week over the last several decades –until this year. The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Caribbean island nation of Cuba was very fruitful for Catholics who for many years have encountered great difficulties i...

Thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants are expected to travel back north this week to observe Semana Santa and Easter with their families, but many of them will not cross Penas Blancas. "Mojados" as they are known in their native land, will try to evade border checkpoints for fear of running into civil law enforcement authorities in Costa Rica, or military security forces in Nicaragua. According to...

Upon returning from her trip to New York City and the United Nations General Assembly, President Laura Chinchilla announced that she accepted the resignation of yet another public official over tax irregularities revealed by investigative journalists from La Nacion. The President's announcement was made at 10:40 pm upon landing at the Juan Santamaria International Airport. La Nacion broke the s...

A day after former Minister of the Treasury Fernando Herrero and his wife resigned from their respective positions as public official and presidential aide over a property tax controversy, media outlets are reporting that the Director of Tax Collection has ordered an investigation into the private business dealings of the power couple. The downward spiral for the former Minister and his wife st...

At the Criminal Court of the Treasury on Friday, a judge ordered the immediate suspension of an immigration officer who was detained on suspicion of having accepted bribes in exchange for immigration stamps. The officer, who was only identified by his last name of Valerio, was assigned to the immigration office in Sixaola near the border with Panama. According to an article by journalist David ...

SAN JOSE – Fernando Herrero, the besieged Minister of the Treasury and Chief Revenue Collector, resigned from his position earlier this afternoon. According to an official press release issued by Casa Presidencial in Zapote, the Minister tendered his resignation in an effort to ensure that ongoing Fiscal Reform efforts do not end up being eclipsed by his alleged tax evasion. In his resignation ...

Life in Costa Rica in the years immediately following her unfortunate Civil War was filled with national pride when the army was permanently abolished by means of a new Constitution. The funds saved on national defense were destined towards free public education. "More Teachers than Soldiers" was the Ticos' motto around that time. According to a news report appearing in La Nacion, there may...

The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. Our current immigration law, which was published in La Gaceta in 2009 and went into effect on March 1st, 2010, has been questioned by the Institute of Social Investigations of the University of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: IIS-UCR). Accordi...

By declaration of the United Nations, World Press Freedom is celebrated each May 3rd with the goal of developing initiatives that support freedom of expression, raise awareness as to the importance of news media, remembering those unfortunate journalists who were victims of censorship, oppression and violence. UNESCO San Jose will celebrate World Press Freedom Day proactively. In associatio...

Government officials in Costa Rica met with a representative from the United Nations and agreed to hold talks with the Terraba indigenous people regarding their rejection of the controversial Diquis hydroelectric plant construction. James Anaya is a UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples who is an expert in the rights of native and indigenous people. He recommended that Costa...

SAN JOSE – With a brief ceremony, President Laura Chinchilla launched a nationwide campaign for residents of Costa Rica to get involved in achieving Costa Rica's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2021. "Limpia tu huella" (clean up your carbon footprint) is the name of the initiative, which officially started on Monday, March 26th, 2012. The official press release explained that th...

An in-depth journalistic investigation by prominent news daily La Nacion sent seven Ministers rushing to update the value of their properties with the Ministry of the Treasury, the national revenue collection institution. One of the Ministers who scrambled to correct the value of the real estate he owns was the Minister of the Treasury himself, Fernando Herrero. The extremely detailed multimedi...

President Laura Chinchilla has received both criticism and accolades for her decision to charge forward with the construction of a new highway that runs parallel to the San Juan river in Nicaragua. The highway, which is named after former head of state and national hero Juan Rafael Mora Porras, has been the subject of intense debate between public officials of both Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Man...

The Bertelsmann Foundation is a highly respected German non-profit organization that focuses on research related to global socioeconomic and political stability. Bertelsmann recently published its BTI 2012 Political and Economic Transformation Index, a comprehensive report that looks at how democracy and socially-responsible market economy measures are developing in 128 countries around the world....

In a civil case against the government of Costa Rica, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court has issued an order to pay 30 million colones (about $60,000) to the surviving relatives of a man who died in a traffic accident caused by poor road conditions. Sala Primera (our First Chamber) is a high court that reviews cases files against the Executive Branch, the Presidential Cabinet, and many othe...

The Costa Rica chapter of the online activist collective Anonymous is calling on Ticos to join them in a virtual protest against Fiscal Reform. Just days after the proposed law was approved by legislators in the National Assembly, Anonymous Costa Rica announced Operacion Plan Fiscal. The controversial Fiscal Reform Plan won the first round of voting at the National Assembly on March 15th, and o...

The next leader of the Libertarian Movement in Costa Rica sees a lot of ideology behind the planned Coastal Territories and Communities Law (Spanish acronym: Tecocos). In an interview with digital newspaper El Pais, Carlos Gongora explained that Tecocos is about "an ideological and fundamental principle of the libertarians, which comes down to respect for private property. It is based on a concept...