The World Trade Organization (WTO) stated today that Mexico had requested consultations with Costa Rica as, allegedly, this country unlawfully imposed a restriction on Mexican avocado imports. The measures that Mexico considers restrictive are the checks, inspections, and approval procedures for the importation of the fruit. Mexico also stated that Costa Rica had failed to apply or recognize...

Yesterday, Costa Rica’s legislature voted 23-16 in favor of requesting international action on recent restrictions of press freedom in the United States, reported the local Costa Rican digital news source AmeliaRueda.com. The motion, drafted by National Liberation Party Legislator Rolando Gonzalez, condemns recent moves by the newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump to restrict some major U.S...

An unexpected tragedy was in store last weekend for Canada’s Manitoba Rugby team who was in Costa Rica competing in the Rainforest 7s competition. On a trip to Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, player Peter Scouras, 33, drowned Monday around noon in the rough surf at Playa Hermosa beach, and Red Cross officials who responded to the accident were unable to resuscitate him, according to local Red Cross...

The Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law will be presented to Montserrat Solano at a ceremony on February 21 in San José. By Wendy Anders Montserrat Solano Carboni, Defender of the Inhabitants of the Republic of Costa Rica, will receive the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights at a ceremony to be held this Tuesday, February 21, at the Residence of French Ambassador Thierr...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican border police have had their hands full trying to stop the flow of sickly equines near the northern border with Nicaragua. Apparently the animals were being smuggled into Costa Rica for sale under the guise of beef, said the Public Security Ministry. So far in February, officials report having confiscated 41 animals in three different captures. The horses, plus...

By Wendy Anders South Korea will hold meetings this week with six Central American countries for a legal review of their pending free trade agreement, said South Korean media sources. A team from Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will meet its counterparts from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras for three days of negotiations starting Monday, Feb....

The French high-fashion company Chanel has drawn on ingredients from the world’s “blue zones,” areas of greatest human longevity, to create a new anti-aging serum, reported the company. “Inspired by the regions where people live longer: the Blue Zones, Chanel Research sourced three longevity ingredients from the diet of the Blue Zone populations for the first time in a breakthrough skincare,” s...

The users of TripAdvisor voted to pick the best Central America beaches of 2016, and Costa Rica managed to get 5 of its beautiful beaches listed among the Top 10, and actually four of them made it among the Top 5, however, none of them earned first place. The first place went to West Bay Beach in Honduras, located in Roatan, this white sand beach with light blue clear waters is known as a great...

By Wendy Anders The Max Planck Society of Germany (MPG), the National Council of Rectors (CONARE), and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) signed an agreement in January to strengthen scientific collaboration on joint research projects and research-based training. The agreement is result of the visit of a high-level delegation headed by the German Federal Mini...

By Wendy Anders The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene at the Holiday Inn–Convention Center in Managua, Nicaragua this weekend, said the United Nations General Assembly. The theme of the event is, "Building Bridges with the Palestinian Diaspora in Central America" and comes near the fiftieth anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Pale...

By Wendy Anders Representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico met for the second conference of the commission that administers the Central America-Mexico free trade agreement. The Costa Rica delegation was led by Jhon Fonseca, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade. During the event, the leaders analyzed the evolution of the region’s trade, and stressed the ...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s national beach soccer team faced off against Japan in two friendly matches this weekend, said the Costa Rican soccer federation (Fedefut). During Saturday's match at the beach soccer field at Fedefut’s Alajuela soccer complex, the Japanese played a game of great speed with effective offensive action, reported Fedefut. This duel ended with a score of 4-3 in fav...

By Wendy Anders "Orgasm fundamentally roots our capacity for connection: hormonally, emotionally and spiritually," says organizer of a weeklong retreat with practices for couples to achieve deep connections through "orgasmic consciousness", Nicole Daedone. “It’s that feeling of being so completely absorbed in an experience that there is no psychic chatter, no being “stuck in your head”; a fa...

By Wendy Anders The number of women’s marches planned across the U.S. and around the globe for Saturday, January 21, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the U.S., are growing exponentially. With 616 ‘sister march’ events organized and counting, and almost 1.5 million participants pledged across the planet, the Women’s March on Washington has spurred a global movement to...

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s outgoing Foreign Minister, dedicated his last official visit to Colombia this month to launch the Colombo-German Institute for Peace, or Capaz, its acronym in Spanish. Colombia’s daily El Espectador interviewed Steinmeier about this institute dedicated to teaching, research and consulting on the important peace process underway in Colombia. Following is an edi...

By Wendy Anders Late Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in San José, Costa Rica sent out a brief notice that Ambassador Haney will continue in his post. The news flies in the face of a recent announcement by president-elect Donald Trump that every Obama appointee would be immediately replaced as soon as he took office. No further details were forthcoming immediately from the Embassy as to why th...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica has filed a new case before the International Court of Justice after the discovery of a Nicaraguan military camp allegedly set up in Costa Rican territory, said the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry on Monday. This is the latest in a series of a longstanding dispute between the countries on the location of the border and territorial violations. The international cour...

Rio de Janeiro, Jan. 17 — Brazilian health authorities are on alert after the outbreak of yellow fever, with 47 cases detected in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais and given the risk that it could spread to nearby areas where possible cases are starting to be detected.The Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday that 152 suspected cases of the disease have been detected in 26 municipalities in rural...

By Wendy Anders A 53-year-old German man, preliminarily identified with the last name of Schiloknecot, died yesterday in an accident at the El Tobogán waterfalls 30 kilometers from the northern Costa Rica city of Liberia, in the province of Guanacaste, reported the Spanish daily El Diario Extra. Apparently he and some other foreigner visitors went hiking in the forest near their hotel, which...

By Wendy Anders Representatives from nine South American countries met this month to discuss the conservation of marine biodiversity in the open ocean, said the Costa Rican non-profit marine conservation group MarViva Foundation. Almost half the planet is covered by the high, or open seas, the waters found beyond countries’ territorial limits. Despite their abundance, these vast areas hav...

By Wendy Anders Yesterday Costa Rica walloped Belize 3-0 in the second day of Central American Soccer Cup matches at Panama City’s Rommel Fernández stadium, reported Guatemala’s daily Prensa Libre. The goals were scored by José Ortiz (25, 65) on his debut performance with the national team, and Johan Venegas (51). The hot mid-day Panamanian sun didn’t deter Costa Rican coach Oscar Ramírez...

By Wendy Anders The annual Big Mac Index published by The Economist revealed its most recent data on the fast food product Thursday. And, not surprisingly, here in Costa Rica, we pay a relatively high price for McDonald’s emblematic meal. According to the index, a big mac in Costa Rica costs 2,250 colones, which is $4.06 at the current exchange rate of 554.33 colones to the U.S. dollar. ...

By Wendy Anders The Guardian’s recently announced 2017 travel photography competition gives readers the chance to win a fantastic 16-night wildlife holiday for two to Costa Rica with Exodus Travels – and see the photos from the trip published in Guardian Travel, reported the U.K. paper Friday. Guardian Travel’s monthly readers’ photography competition is an opportunity for amateurs and profe...

The more than 70 Cubans at an inn operated by the Catholic charitable mission Caritas asked Friday for the United States to make an exception for those who had left the island and were already crossing Central America before the "wet foot/dry foot" immigration policy was revoked. "We only ask that they make an exception for those of us who were already on our way, that they let us continue and ...

As Juan walked to school one morning a year ago in El Salvador, two men on a motorbike sped by and fatally shot a boy on the street in front of him. The shooter took a good look at Juan's face. As a witness to a gang murder, Juan was now in the firing line. "They said I had to be part of their gang," said Juan, 15, who declined to give his real name for security reasons. Juan's mother, Te...

By Wendy Anders The U.S. Embassy in the western San José district of Pavas is hiring three full-time bodyguards. The position is open from now until January 24. Bodyguards provide armed protective security to the U.S. Department of State to ensure the safety of the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica or the Chargé, in the absence of the Chief of Mission. The position requires both regular sched...

By Wendy Anders Amidst flight delays due to ashfall in Costa Rica in recent days, Air Canada took the cake early this week for disrupting hundreds of passengers' plans due to a problem with the head count on board. Ken Joy posted on Facebook from Toronto, Canada at 11:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9 that he had finally made it home. He managed to have some good cheer left after facing over a day’s...

By Wendy Anders During 2016, the Costa Rican economy benefited from a favorable macroeconomic environment, allowing the country's economy to maintain stable behavior; however, according to economists at Costa Rica’a ACOBO Financial Group this could change in 2017, causing some indicators such as the exchange rate, interest rates, and inflation to rise. According to Luis Diego Herrera, econom...

By Wendy Anders Universities in the U.S. are stepping in the fill needs of foreign companies with branches, plants and offices in Costa Rica to train their workers in specialized technologies and digital innovations, reported Costa Rica’s business daily El Financierio. From 2015-2016, for example, at least 40 Costa Ricans attended the University of Wisconsin Stout’s specialization program in...

By Wendy Anders By January 20, Donald Trump said all U.S. ambassadors appointed under outgoing Democratic President Obama must leave their posts, something no other president has ever done, reported several U.S. media last week. Normally though changes are always made to some appointments, these are done gradually so that transitions are smooth, projects can be completed, and out of respect ...

By Wendy Anders Two police officers were detained Tuesday as part of an investigation into the escape of 10 suspected Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) gang members from a Salvadoran police delegation, said the director of the National Civil Police (PNC), Howard Cotto, to EFE. Costa Rican police reported yesterday they have tightened security along the country’s northern border which could prove to be...

By Wendy Anders Time to act if you want to nab some low fares on Southwest air which flies daily from several U.S. cities into the northern Liberia, Costa Rica airport or the San José capital airport. A 21-day advance purchase is necessary, says the airline on their site, and these low fares are available for purchase only until January 26, 2017, 11:59 p.m. in the respective time zone of the...

By Wendy Anders Paris, France-based JCDecaux, the world’s number one outdoor advertizing company, and Top Media, leader in the outdoor advertizing sector in Central America, signed an agreement last week to merge their activities, said the companies in a press statement In the new venture, JCDecaux-Top Media, 71 percent of the capital is owned by JCDecaux and 29 percent controled by Top Medi...

By Wendy Anders Air Canada last Thursday added a new seasonal route to its schedule of flights to and from Costa Rica. The direct Montreal-San José flight will operate during Montreal’s winter with two weekly flights on a Boeing 767-300ER with a capacity of 282 passengers, reported the airline in a press statement. Air Canada also operates Toronto-San José, Toronto-Liberia, and Montreal-L...

Faced with a more than 10  percent decline in exports this year, Panamanian authorities traveled to exchange information with Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) to learn from Costa Rica's recent success exporting more than 100 products to different markets. Panama's official delegation included Deputy Minister Nestor Gonzalez, Exports Director Leyda Gonzalez, and directors of the Pa...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican authorities seized US$480,000 as part of an international effort to local and repatriate assets of the now-disbanded Colombian rebel group, FARC. The Costa Rican Supreme Court of Justice last week turned over the assets of the guerrilla group to the Colombian Attorney General's Office, reported Bogotá, Colombia’s daily El Espectador newspaper. This was the firs...

Since ancient times, hot springs have been a fabled source for wellness, relaxation and cleansing throughout the world.  In Costa Rica, they've not forgotten the many benefits and pure pleasures of indulging in thermal baths.  The country welcomes visitors to share and discover their own favorite spot and therapy.  From coast to coast to coast, from the Northern Plains to the Guanacaste and Centra...

Geneva, Dec. 13 — Malaria has retreated in almost all of Latin America. Mosquito nets are key in preventing malaria transmission. Costa Rica is listed as free of malaria transmission by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it, along with several other countries will be certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in coming years. The exceptions to thi...

By Wendy Anders Nearly all species of sea turtles are endangered, reported Great Big Story, but Tortuguero, a small island on the eastern coast of Costa Rica, offers a safe place for nesting green and leatherback sea turtles. It was here in 1959 that Dr. Archie Carr opened the world's first turtle conservancy. To this day, the island is one of the world's most important breeding grounds for ...

Managua, Dec. 6 — "We are willing to pay (Costa Rica). We just want to clarify the accounts they are charging us" for US$6 million, said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, after receiving the credentials from the new Costa Rican ambassador to Nicaragua, Eduardo Trejos. The San Juan River that divides Costa Rica and Nicaragua, photo credit AFP. The International Court of Justice in The Hagu...