The Central American Electricity Interconnection System (SIEPAC) contracted the Costa Rican Electric Institute (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, better known as ICE) to conduct a feasibility study for the connection of a second circuit in 13 substations located in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, thus improving the region's interconnectivity. SIEPAC co...

US ambassador in Costa Rica Stafford Fitzgerald Haney said goodbye through the Embassy’s Facebook page in his last day in this position. “Representing my nation in this beautiful country has been one of the greatest honors of my life, since my arrival in June of 2015 and to date. I am still amazed by the strong relationship between both countries and the warmth and hospitality that Costa Rica h...

Last week, Costa Rica hosted a meeting of the Central American Council of Tourism at which ideas were discussed to promote tourism investment in the region, said the Costa Rican tourism Institute (ICT). Central America's Tourism Ministers, businessmen and representatives of the region's tourism chambers participated in this first "Forum of Exchange of Experiences for the Promotion of Tourism In...

National Geographic Kids and LEGO City are collaborating on a special partnership to inspire children to explore, discover and learn about jungles and the importance of their preservation. As part of the initiative, LEGO City & National Geographic Kids will launch an exciting new competition on July 1 to win a National Geographic Family Expedition to the jungles of Costa Rica in Central Ame...

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Judith Garber is in San Jose, Costa Rica this week. Her 3-day visit will focus on environmental issues and sustainable trade, said the U.S. Department of State's office of the spokesperson in a statement Tuesday. On June 20, Garber met with Costa Rican Minister of Environment ...

A joint Eurojust-Europol press release on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 said a network of payment card fraudsters was dismantled through a cross-border action that led to numerous arrests. The credit and debit card skimming affected some 3,000 people in the EU whose information was then used to make illegal purchases in Costa Rica, Europe and other parts of the world. The victims lost at least EUR 500,0...

Researchers from Costa Rica's Tropical Agronomic Research and Teaching Center and the non-profit Conservation International published findings on the impact of climate change in Latin America. Climatic Change magazine's special edition in March, Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems, Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers in Central America, detailed the negative impacts of climate change in Centra...

The reputational risks associated with last year's financial scandals such as the Panama Papers, and the arrests and imprisonment of several high ranking Guatemalan politicians on banking-related corruption charges, are the greatest current threats to Costa Rica's and Central America's banking sector, said analysts at Central America's business strategy magazine, Estrategias y Negocios. The 180...

The Central American Security Commission approved this week a plan against organized crime and for the prevention of violence against women. Representatives of the Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish) member countries met to discuss security and foreign affairs this week in San José. The SICA's Central American Security Commission (CSC) approved a technical...

An American citizen wanted by authorities in Texas on charges of pedophilia was arrested Friday in the northern Chiriquí region of Panama near the Costa Rica border, according to Panama national media. The American has been identified as Carl Anthony Barroso, 68. After his arrest by the Panamanian national police he was sent to immigration authorities for his deportation to the U.S., said the S...

The Government of Panama announced Friday it will reduce the stay in the country for Nicaraguan, Colombian and Venezuelan tourists from 180 to 90 days as part of a policy of tightening controls over foreigner visitors. This, and other controls by Panama, may lessen some of the flow of undocumented migrants into Costa Rica over its southern border. The Panamanian migration service has detected f...

The consular section at U.S. Embassy in San José announces a consular outreach event in San Ramón on Wednesday, May 31. "Embassy staff will be available to accept adult passport renewals, perform notarial services, and take your inquiries on federal benefits and voting," said the consular section in a statement. "Got questions? ACS Chief Ben Peracchio and representatives of the con...

Countries in the Central American region are the favored recipients of direct foreign investment by Costa Rican firms. According to figures from the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), over the last 10 years the flow of investments abroad reached US$1.96 billion, and 56 percent of these investments were in Central America. Panama is the top destination, with US$541.1 million over the last dec...

Ariana Grande, the Italian-descent singer from Florida, U.S. is scheduled to perform at Parque Viva in La Guácima, Costa Rica on July 9. The concert's official Facebook page hinted at the possibility of a cancellation, but had no specific information in the wake of the violent UK incident that took the lives of at least 19 people, and injured at least 50, according to international press reports. ...

Biologists wanted to find out whether drug trafficking, in addition to drug cultivation, might also affect deforestation. Noting that Central America as a region has had a net loss of forest cover over the past decade, while other parts of Latin America have slowed their forest loss, researchers wondered if the growing presence of illicit drugs had any role to play. Central American countrie...

Following is a statement by the Costa Rican women's advocacy organization, Cefemina, in response to the kidnapping this week of a Costa Rican university student who was in Guatemala to join in a memorial of the 41 girls whose lives were lost in a fire in March. "On Monday, May 15, 2017, the 23-year-old Costa Rican woman, Shanon Moreno Castro, was kidnapped in Guatemala City by four heavily arme...

The 2017 hurricane season is already here with the arrival of Tropical Depression One-E which has been forming off Costa Rica's Pacific coast for the last couple of days, and is now gathering momentum as it heads in a northwesterly direction away from Costa Rica. If it becomes a tropical storm over the next day or two, as predicted, it will be named Adrian. The system is now moving north - n...

Drug-related violence is as much a fact of life in Central America’s Northern Triangle as it is in some parts of the urban U.S. But its impact in these small Central American countries is huge, with up to 10 percent of the population of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador having fled violence and its associated poverty and insecurity according to the Washington-based Atlantic Council. This viol...

In the first four months of the year the price of the dollar on the Monex wholesale market has increased almost 2 percent, according to financial reports. At the beginning of the year, the price of the U.S. currency was 556.06 colones to the dollar, but on Tuesday, May 2 the day closed at 566.97 colones to the dollar, a gain of 10 colones in only four months. "In the banks' windows, the refe...

The Manuel Mora Valverde Hospital in the southern Costa Rican city of Golfito near the Panama border recently received an investment of approximately US$1.8 million to renovate and upgrade their outpatient care, operating rooms, neonatal care, and hospitalization area, said the Costa Rican Social Security Agency which runs the country's public health care facilities. In February surgeons at the...

British and UK media reported over the weekend about a group of Australian and other tourists who left their hotel in Antigua, Guatemala for an excursion on a private bus, only to be shot at by a passing car and subsequently assaulted, tied up, and robbed at gunpoint. An Australian couple who was part of the kidnapped group decided to try to recuperate their thwarted vacation plans by coming to...

The Westin Conchal Golf Resort & Spa, on Costa Rica’s north central Pacific coast, is the first all-inclusive beach hotel in Latin America and the first Starwood chain member to qualify as carbon positive. Florida Inmobiliaria, a subsidiary of Florida Ice & Farm Co. (FIFCO), owner of the Conchal resort, set aside 40 hectares of dry forest and mangrove of the resort's some 930 hectares a...

The Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) has moved on from awarding the country’s cleanest beaches to granting their eco-diplomatic awards this week. The AyA awarded four embassies in Costa Rica, and three Costa Rican embassies abroad for their notable efforts in energy and water saving such as reducing paper use, recycling and solid waste management, and minimizing fossil fuel c...

Less than a month after starting operations, budget airline Volaris is considering adding a route to Nicaragua, said José Adán Aguerri, president of Nicaragua’s Superior Private Business Council (Cosep). The airline has expressed an interest in starting a flights between San José, Costa Rica and the colonial lake-side city of Granada, Nicaragua located in the southern part of the country. "V...

Glyphosphate is an herbicide used on coffee plantations in Costa Rica and other Central American countries. The chemical is included in the international Pesticide Action Network’s "List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides" and is targeted for global phaseout. Endosulfan is also used in Central American coffee production. It is “an off-patent organochlorine insecticide and acaricide that is being...

Doctors from the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) are joining a medical mission from Texas this week to provide a variety of health services to residents of several indigenous villages in the Chirripó de Turrialba region, said Heylin Quesada Alvarado, medical director of the Turrialba-Jiménez Health Area The medical team with visit the Cabecar indigenous communities of Boyei, Grano de ...

The Offshore World Championship in Quepos, Costa Rica is the largest and most prestigious sport-fishing tournament in the world. The world-class event, held for the fifth consecutive year in Quepos, Puntarenas near Manuel Antonio National Park includes 55 of the world's best sport fishing teams. From April 24 - 28, at Marina Pez Vela, in Quepos, more than 300 people will compete to see who has ...

Updated: The concert begins at 8 p.m., not 8:30; and discounts with ID are available for students and seniors at the box office. Inti-Illimani, the famed instrumental and vocal Latin American folk music ensemble from Chile, will fill Costa Rica’s National theater with their rich and colorful Latin American rhythms and distinctive fusion of modern world music Friday, May 12 at 8 p.m. As part ...

Spanish national police dismantled the largest international child pornography distribution network to date though pioneering research examining instant messaging groups and WhatsApp messages. The operation monitored 135 users in 18 countries in Europe, Central America and South America who participated in some 96 online pedophile groups. A total of 39 people have been arrested: 17 of them i...

The Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM, annoucend today they will start flying directly to Costa Rica later this year. Two weekly direct flights connecting Amsterdam and San José, Costa Rica will be served by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, the most modern aircraft in the KLM fleet, said the airline. The flights will operate from October 31, 2017 until March, for the duration of Europe’s winter season. ...

Hospira Costa Rica Ltd., a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., announced last week they are shifting their production in the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica this year. The multinational, which manufactures medical infusion and transfusion equipment, said it will gradually close its manufacturing plant in the Dominican Republic over the course of this year, and transfer most of those operations to its B...

Southwest Airlines says Volaris Costa Rica’s application for permits to start U.S. flights should be discounted as they claim Volaris doesn't fulfill ownership requirements under the existing U.S.-Costa Rica air transport agreement, as reported in airline industry news recently. The Dallas-based airline file an objection with the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT), arguing that the bilateral ...

A Utah man and his fiancée say they got the booted from a United flight Saturday out of Houston en route to their Costa Rica wedding after changing seats, reported local Utah media, the New York Daily News, and other national media outlets. The company has been spotlighted for a series of recent customer service disasters in recent weeks, including an incident where a 69-year-old doctor was dra...

Experts say 2017 will bring a below-normal hurricane season, as a potential El Niño may limit the development of storms. Last season spawned 15 named storms, seven of which were hurricanes. The 2017 season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, follows the deadliest in over 10 years for the Atlantic basin. Last year's was also the costliest Atlantic hurricane season since 2012, and Costa Rica saw ...

An 5.6 magnitude earthquake registered at 5:54 p.m. in Panama today, Sunday, April 2, was felt strongly in many parts of Costa Rica, according to hundreds of local reports posted on the Ovsicori-UNA Facebook page. The National University's Seismology and Volcanology Observatory (Ovsicori) reported the event as having an epicenter 6.1 km northeast of Cerro Punta in Panama (the exact coordinates ...

— Costa Rica’s exports grew 1.4 percent in 2016. The Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) reported this week on Costa Rica’s economic activity. Data from 2016 show an annual growth in exports of about 1.4 percent over 2015; rising from US$9.4 to US$9.5 billion. The country’s “non-traditional” exports, like medical devices and technology-related exports, are second only to fresh pineapple ...

Global technology experts met this week in Guatemala to call for a collaborative, multisectoral approach to the continued development of a more open, stable and secure Internet in Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Costa Rica has found itself lagging behind on Internet speed. “For Internet users in many Central American societies, the Internet affects many aspects of our quality of l...

Costa Rica’s Short Film Festival invites local producers to submit their works from now until Saturday, March 25. Costa Rican nationals and residents alike are invited to submit their short films to the event which is quickly growing in popularity. The festival’s second edition will hold screenings from June 23-25 at the Costa Rican Journalists Association office across from Parque La Sabana an...

WASHINGTON, DC — Yesterday the White House issued the following statement following a meeting between Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence: "The Vice President met today with President Luis Guillermo Solís of Costa Rica at the White House. The Vice President praised Costa Rica's role as a key partner of the United States in promoting regional economic pr...

  Costa Rican pineapples obtained the green light to be sold in the Chinese market, announced Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) yesterday. There are currently at least 20 companies interested in exporting pineapples to China. Dialogue with China on the possibility of exporting pineapple from Costa Rican began in 2010 when the pineapple sector expressed an interest in export...