By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica In response to some emails requesting clarification to my previous article, the following is a brief synopsis regarding visa expiries, the validity of foreign drivers' licenses, and border runs. 1. If you have been in Costa Rica on a Tourist Visa extended several times throughout 2020 and 2021, that visa expired on June 1, 2021. You need to d...

By Laura Gutierrez of Immigration Help Costa Rica Over the past ten years, there have been many exchanges between myself and clients or would-be clients about the advantages of living in Costa Rica vs other so-called popular countries recommended by such sources as International Living. The list includes but is not limited to Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay. Inquirer...

On June 22, the SSCA HF Radio Service confirmed having received an SOS from a ship’s Personal Locator Beacon (PLB1). Then there was silence. The Radio Service confirmed that the message came from the TRANAVIS, a trimaran sailing between St. Martin, French Antilles, to Barranquilla, Colombia. Aboard the TRANAVIS was Rocco Acocella Roverndom, a well known Eco-Friendly Tour Guide, on his way to Ecuad...

A strange car accident in which a vehicle fell from the fourth floor of a parking lot in Costa del Este, Panama, caused the death of a 19-year old Costa Rican, a 17 year-old Venezuelan girl and her father, a 60-year old man. Apparently the young man, identified as Abel Sandi, was in the car with two friends, of last names Murillo Perrone, and the father of both a man named Eduardo Murillo; one ...

The Presidents of Costa Rica and Panama, Luis Guillermo Solis and Juan Carlos Varela, met in Costa Rica with the purpose of strengthening their bilateral politics in aspects of security, migration, tourism, commerce and customs modernization. One of the main topics between both countries was the construction of the new bridge over the Sixaola River in the Costa Rica-Panama frontier denominated...

The foundation Insight Crime, which is dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean published its yearly “InSight Crime’s 2017 Homicide Round-Up”, with the purpose of giving a snapshot of murder rates in the Latin America region. Murder rates are calculated by InSight Crime, based on the number of reported homicides and the country’s 2017 estimated population tot...

Costa Rican authorities continue to battle the illegal traffic of wild animals; today, a US tourist tried to enter the country through the Panama Frontier Migratory Control Station with a baby howler monkey on each shoulder. The women of last name Frame had no documentation or permit to justify having the two animals with her. The authorities seized the animals and coordinated with the Ministry...

Even McDonald's knows it pays to buy local. At least 60 farms in Cartago, Costa Rica supply the U.S. fast food chain's network of 55 restaurants with over 27 tons of vegetables each month. "As a global brand, we are proud to support national producers who represent more than 60 percent of the suppliers with whom we work in Costa Rica. Most of the products on our menu have vegetables, which gen...

Hopping from one Central American country to another has never been easier, with cheap flights on Volaris, Costa Rica's airline. And the company just announced that your first checked bag flies free on regional flights purchased between now and November 20. The promotion applies to travel undertaken between now and February 28, 2018, as long as tickets are purchased within the time-frame of ...

Representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Belize will analyze the regional anti-gang strategy jointly with specialists from the United States Federal Office of Investigation (FBI), Department of Police Los Angeles, Chicago and Fairfax; and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. This is happening at the Central American Anti-Gang Conference, an important region...

Costa Rica’s Male National Soccer Team earned its ticket to the Russia World Cup 2018 last Saturday when it played Honduras to a tie; today’s match against Panama was a mandatory game that would, along with the matches between the US vs. Trinidad & Tobago and Mexico (already classified) vs. Honduras, define the third team to classify to the World Cup and the one that would get a shot at repechage....

On average, companies in the Central American region pay 45.8 percent of their profits in taxes, while companies in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries on average pay 41 percent. A study on the evolution of the fiscal situation in Central America by the Federation of Central American Chambers of Commerce (FECAMCO, in Spanish) revealed the fact that in Costa Ri...

Gilberto Ventura Ceballos was arrested today in Jacó by Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) and the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security (DIS) officials. The Dominican national, who has a knack for evading arrest, is wanted in Panama for the murder of five people in 2010 and 2011. The young man has been on the run since December 2016 when he escaped from La Joyita pris...

If your travel in or out of Costa Rica today takes you via Panama's Tocumen International Airport you may be grounded or delayed. An electrical problem inside our southern neighbor's airport caused flight disruptions this morning, September 18, and has now been remedied, said Tocumen airport officials this morning. Copa Airlines was heavily affected by the problem as many of its flights to o...

Farmers in Costa Rica are clamoring for changes in immigration policies in order to facilitate contracting field hands from Nicaragua and Panama, said a report in Costa Rica's agricultural industry's magazine, ProAgro. The Costa Rican National Chamber of Agriculture and Agroindustry (CNAA) says that current legislation does not coincide with the reality of the agricultural, aquaculture, and agr...

On July 26, 2010, an American couple was arrested when trying to enter Nicaragua from Costa Rica over land; according to reports in local and international media. They were William Dathan Holbert (b. September 12, 1979), also known as Wild Bill, described by Wikipedia as a self-confessed murderer from Hendersonville, North Carolina,and his ex-wife, Laura Michelle Reese. They have been held i...

The First Encounter of World Marine Heritage Sites of the East Pacific took place from Wednesday to Friday this week in the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica. Representatives from the different Marine World Heritage Sites gathered in the country in the event organized by the Pacifico Foundation, the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the UNESCO field office in Costa Rica in respons...

Yesterday, some 80 migrants entered Costa Rica through Paso Canoas on the southern border with Panama, reported the Public Security Ministry. The men, women, and some children, who are in transit to the United States by foot, are from a number of African and Asian countries, said officials. According to immigration authorities, the migrants are from Nepal (43), Eritrea (21), Congo (8), Angola (...

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...

Costa Ricans and Panamanians marched Friday along their shared border to bring awareness to the problem of human trafficking, reported the Spanish news agency EFE. The event came on the heels of the arrest of a Dominican man in Paso Canoas for alleged drug and human trafficking. He is accused of trafficking three Ecuadorian migrants who appear to have paid him to take them to the U.S. The fi...

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE) is taking measures to protect the National Electric System from being affected again by a failure in the regional interconnected system, like the one that caused the nationwide blackout in July 1st. Costa Rica is part of a regional interconnected system of 1,820 kilometers of transmission lines. The production systems the country has allows its isolat...

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...

This week, Costa Rica hosted the XLIX Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish) during which a concrete step forward on border control cooperation with Panama was taken, announced the Costa Rican President's office. Presidents Luis Guillermo Solís of Costa Rica and Juan Carlos Varela of Panama signed an agreement to creat...

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...

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...

After midnight Saturday, a "Breaking Chains" police operation took place in Tamarindo, Guanacaste, a popular surf town on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. The plan - called ROCA in Spanish - is a targeted attempt to rescue victims of human trafficking and is led by Costa Rica's Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). ROCA is an inter-institutional effort which also involves Interpol police, and a ho...

Panama’s Public Prosecutor’s Office this week charged the police officer responsible for accidentally shooting a 22 -year-old American tourist in the capital's historic district April 28, reported local Panamanian media. In the incident, an agent from the Institutional Protection Service (SPI), a special police unit assigned to protecting the president and the presidential palace area, fired at...

A 22-year-old American woman tourist is in stable condition in Panama City's Santo Tomás  hospital after a shooting incident in the downtown historic center, called Casco Viejo. In the early morning hours of Friday, April 28, the woman was unintentionally shot by an Institutional Protection Service (SPI) agent, reported the local media El Siglo. SPI director Eric Estrada was quoted as saying...

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...

The University of Costa Rica (UCR) will launch a project that seeks to revolutionize the transportation sector in Central America through a new computer application and a web page, announced the institution yesterday. The official launch will take place Friday, April 28, 2017 at the Wyndham Hotel at 8 a.m. At the event, the Caravana application will be officially presented to the Secretariat of...

Copa Airlines announced they will offer the only nonstop direct airline service between Denver, Colorado and Panama, with convenient connections to more than 55 destinations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean through the airline’s Panama hub. The service will consist of four weekly flights between Denver and Panama beginning Dec. 11, 2017. Denver will be Copa's 13th U.S. de...

After Colorado native Cody Oser was found dead in a creek earlier this month near his Peace Corps site in northern Panama, local residents and Peace Corps members have rallied to pay tribute to the young idealist. His death has been determined accidental. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said at a memorial service held at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Wednesday, April 12...

The body of U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, Cody Oser, was found in a creek in the Comarca Ngäbe Bugle district in Northern Panama and identified on Sunday, April 9. The 24-year-old left his home town of Broomfield, Colorado for his Peace Corps tenure on July 5, 2016, according to posts on his Facebook page. He and 46 other volunteers in Panama were sworn in September 20, 2016 by U.S. Amb...

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 ...

Companies and individuals engaged in legal, real estate, agricultural, commercial and advisory services and consultancies are among the first 120 to be investigated by the Costa Rican tax administration, said the treasury department today. The names were identified in a publicly searchable database released last April during the Panama Papers scandal by the International Consortium of Investiga...