Chicago, Aug 20 (EFE).- Experts say Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump's promise to seize Mexican immigrants' remittances if Mexico does not pay for the construction of a border wall is just more bravado on the billionaire's part to remain on top of the polls. Trump, who disclosed his plan for dealing with illegal immigration last Sunday, got back in the spotlight when he said that as...

Wikimedia Commons By Marti Quintana Mexico City, Aug 10 (EFE).- Some 5,000 young men are imprisoned in Mexico after being convicted of serious crimes, with 22 percent of them serving time for murder, a high number that obscures an even more painful reality. Many of these youths and teenagers fall in the trap of organized crime as a result of family troubles, poverty, dropping out of scho...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Aug 5 (EFE).- The U.S. government is confident that fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman remains holed up in the western state of Sinaloa since escaping from prison last month, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration told EFE Wednesday.   Sinaloa, Guzman's long-time base of operations, "is where...

Source: Panoramio Mexico City, Jul 30 (EFE).- The deaths of two more religious pilgrims who were run over by a cargo truck in the Mexican state of Zacatecas on Thursday brought to 26 the number of fatalities in the incident, state Gov. Miguel Alonso Reyes said Thursday. In comments to Radio Formula, Reyes said that 46 people hurt in the Wednesday evening accident in the town of Mazapil "rem...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons San Jose (The Costa Rica Star) and Mexico City (EFE), July 29.- Mexico City taxi drivers staged a protest on Wednesday against the recent approval of private transportation services offered via smartphone apps, while police are investigating attacks on Uber drivers in the past few hours. In Costa Rica, the National Forum of taxicab drivers assembl...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 22 (EFE).- More than 97,000 Kemp's ridley sea turtles were born in recent days at the Playa Rancho Nuevo wildlife sanctuary in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the National Protected Natural Areas Commission, or Conanp, said. The hatchlings emerged from more than 2,000 nests in the wildlife reserve under monitoring by Conanp specialist...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Jul 18 (EFE).- Mexico is a corrupt country that should be subject to a U.S. "boycott," Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday by a New York radio station. Trump, whose remarks were published on Saturday by several media outlets, cited Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's escape from the Altipl...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jul 17 (EFE).- A baby boy died of the bites he suffered in an attack by two pit bull terriers in the central Mexican city of Leon, police told EFE on Friday. The victim, identified as 21-month-old Matias Reynoso, was attacked Thursday afternoon, according to witnesses in the Arboledas de San Hilarion neighborhood. Neighbors heard the toddler's mother scream...

Photo: James De Mers, Pixabay Commons Mexico City, Jul 14 (EFE).- A dromedary, or Arabian camel, that was being sold at a street market in the central Mexican city of Almoloya de Juarez has been seized, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said. Profepa inspectors went to the San Bernabe street market at the request of the State Public Safety Commission in Mexico state, which...

Wikimedia Commons Guadalajara, Mexico, Jul 11 (EFE).- Residents of the Mexican hamlet of La Yerbabuena were evacuated after an explosion was registered inside the Colima Volcano, emergency management officials told EFE. The inhabitants of that small community on the side of the volcano, which straddles the western states of Colima and Jalisco, were taken to La Becerrera, a town three kilome...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jun 27 (EFE).- Nine months after 43 trainee teachers went missing in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, their parents said here they will continue their struggle to find them and that the truth of their whereabouts will soon come to light. "We're telling this murderous and corrupt government that no matter what they do they won't succeed in dividing the p...

Source: Flickr Commons Mexico City, Jun 14 (EFE).- A 19-year-old Russian woman confessed that she murdered her mother and 12-year-old sister, whose dismembered bodies were found at their house in Tijuana, a border city in northwest Mexico, media reports said. Anastasia Lechtchenko Masney, who was the prime suspect in the murder case, was found and arrested in Sinaloa, another northwestern s...

The fall of the Third Reich and the Nazi movement. Wikimedia Commons Guadalajara, Mexico, Jun 12 (EFE).- Mexican teenagers have sparked controversy with a video showing them flaunting Nazi symbols during a dance contest in this western metropolis. The three-minute clip was shot by a dance enthusiast during the Cheerdance ACMX competition held May 31 in Guadalajara, but was only posted this ...

Lagrimita. Source: Facebook Guadalajara, Mexico, May 31 (EFE).- Lagrimita the clown can run for mayor of Guadalajara, the capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, the TEPJF electoral court said. "We are revoking the resolution of the Jalisco Electoral Institute's General Council under which the independent mayoral candidacy for Guadalajara of the ticket headed by Guillermo Cienfuego...

Source: Volaris Costa Rica is currently the subject of an invasion by budget airlines, which are fighting each other for market share in the lucrative segment of flights between North and Central American destinations. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star: Data compiled by the Directorate of Civil Aviation in Costa Rica indicates that low-cost airlines transported 9.2 percent of 4.2 mi...

Source: Flickr Commons In Mexico, violence and disregard for human life are spreading throughout society, and three recent incidents involving children underscore how much of a widespread and worrisome problem this has become. The following reports are provided courtesy of Agencia EFE, the wire news service partner of The Costa Rica Star.   Minors who killed boy in Mexico facing confi...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 25 (EFE).- Hundreds of taxi drivers in Mexico City protested Monday against Uber and the authorities failure to do anything about what they consider an "illegal" service - which the U.S. company answered by offering free rides to customers throughout the day.   Groups of taxi drivers from different parts of the city gather...

Preferred weapon of guerrillas and drug cartels. Mexico City, May 24 (EFE).- Investigators continue gathering evidence at the ranch in the western Mexican state of Michoacan at which 42 suspected drug traffickers and a Federal Police officer died in a shootout. The bodies of the cartel gunmen were removed from the ranch by National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, and coroner's office pers...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 23 (EFE).- Members of the campaign team of the conservative PAN's candidate for governor of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, Jorge Camacho, came under fire while riding in a vehicle near the town of Petatlan. The campaign SUV was targeted Friday night after it was used to drive former Government Secretary Santiago Creel to the Zihuatanejo airport fo...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 19 (EFE).- Leftist politician Valentin Gonzalez Bautista, who is running for mayor of the central Mexican city of Nezahualcoyotl in the June 7 elections, is using an automobile like Batman's Batmobile to get his message out to voters. "Exhibiting the Batmobile, the photographs that interested people take and the requests they make are a good way to get the...

Crocodile Man Tour at the Tarcoles River near Jaco, Costa Rica Mexico City, May 14 (EFE).- Five crocodiles were returned to their natural habitat and a sixth is undergoing treatment for wounds at a wildlife center following trapping operations in populated areas in Mexico's Tamaulipas, Guerrero and Tabasco states, the Profepa federal environmental protection agency said. Three crocs were tr...

Mexican soldiers fighting the Drug War. Wikimedia Commons Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, May 13 (EFE).- Six people were killed when suspected drug traffickers shot down a small plane in Urique, a city in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, state officials said Wednesday. The victims were aboard an air taxi that was on its way from the northwestern state of Sinaloa to Chihuahua when it was shot...

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...

An agency that monitors the U.S.-Mexico boundary is agreeing to a U.S. proposal to build border fence segments in a South Texas flood plain, a move Mexico opposes. The decision by the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission comes despite objections from its Mexican counterpart. Mexico argues the fence would deflect floodwaters to its side of the Rio Grande and violate a bi-national...

John Stagikas is a stout man with a pale complexion and shaved head.  He is in his early 30s and is from New England, specifically from the Boston metropolitan area. He is fairly bilingual and owns a villa here in Costa Rica, which he smartly purchased years ago when the price was right. Whenever he is not enjoying his vacation/investment property in Costa Rica, Mr. Stagikas makes a living ...