The Panamanian Tourism Authority (ATP, its initials in Spanish) announced this week they are considering reactivating a medical insurance option offered for free to visitors to the Central American country, said the government entity. The consideration to reopen the program comes in the wake of the killing of a taxi driver Tuesday, March 14 in the early morning hours in which two Canadians were...

The luxury US cruise liner Star Pride, a Windstar Cruises vessel, for the first time this year visited Panama's Cebaco Island off the country's Pacific coast with about 150 tourists on board, a spokesperson with the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) reported Thursday. The Star Pride, which set sail from Puerto Golfito in Costa Rica, "docked last Thursday at Cebaco Island," which lies just a short ...

At Panama's principal zoo the exotic colors of tropical birds are lost in the dark of old, improvised cages, while lush vegetation adorns paths with no wildlife in sight. Summit Municipal Park is a 250-hectare (617-acre) oasis that has largely been neglected by Panama City, which, absorbed in its financial economy, for years seemed to have forgotten the lush tropical forest surrounding it and t...

Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, has announced the completion of its combination with Costa Rica-based Muñoz Global, making it the first global law firm to have a footprint across Central America. The combined firm will be known as Dentons Muñoz. The combination follows the launch of Dentons López Velarde in Mexico and Dentons Cardenas & Cardenas in Colombia last year. It marks the next...

By Wendy Anders Exports from Panama fell for the third consecutive year in 2016, according to a recent report by Panama’s Comptroller General. Overall losses associated with the decline are estimated at 25 percent over the past three years, said officials, although a few exports did experience gains According to figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MICI, in Spanish), the econ...

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 two founders of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were arrested on Saturday, the attorney general's office said, after both were indicted on charges of money-laundering in a case allegedly tied to a wide-ranging corruption scandal in Brazil. Firm founders Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca were detained because of the risk they might try to flee the country. Attorney General Kenia Porcel...

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 Panama, one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the past decade, is raising eyebrows among development economists at Harvard University for its dramatic inequality. Researchers Ricardo Hausmann, Luis Espinoza and Miguel Angel Santos at Harvard’s Center for International Development say sharp income equality, coupled with growth based primarily around constructi...

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...

Washington D.C., January 24, 2017, — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) commends the December 23 release of Dutch journalist and blogger Okke Ornstein from custody in Panama, and urges the State to take the necessary measures to bring its criminal laws into line with the Inter-American standards on freedom of expression. According to the information available, on December 23 ...

Panama, Jan. 20 — The Government of Panama and various social organizations announced Friday the creation of the Legal Timber Network to strengthen measures to prevent illegal logging and timber smuggling. "Seventeen months ago, the Ministry of Environment initiated a national dialogue on timber, whose commitment included the agreements we signed today, and demonstrates that the National Govern...

By Wendy Anders A recent report by the World Bank shows some startling truths about economic inequality. Three of the world’s least equitable countries are Costa Rica’s neighbors, on the narrow Central American isthmus connecting Mexico with South America. Honduras, is ranked as the 6th most unequal by the World Bank, followed by Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, and Panama in 10th place. The ...

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 ...

Guatemala, Jan. 9 — The discovery of three bodies on the slopes of Guatemala's Acatenango Volcano on Monday raised to six the number of hikers who died there, possibly of hypothermia caused by the cold front that has seized the country. The head of the Conred emergency management office, Sergio Cabañas, confirmed that the three lifeless bodies were found Monday on the volcano, located between t...

By Wendy Anders Panamanian National Police announced Thursday they are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recapture of an escaped prisoner awaiting trial for the alleged killing of five Chinese students in Chorrera, reported the digital English media Newsroom Panama. Gilberto Ventura Ceballos, a Dominican national, escaped Dec. 28 from the La Joyita penitentiary. Pol...

Panama City, Jan. 2 — President Juan Carlos Varela highlighted on Monday a decline in Panama's murder rate since he took office 2 1/2 years ago, while acknowledging that his government needs to do more in the area of public safety. "Our public safety plan is yielding good results," Varela said in the annual state of the nation address to the National Assembly. "In 30 months of this administrati...

Bangkok Desk, Dec. 29 — Fifteen people have been detained in Australia in connection with the seizure of 1.1 tons of cocaine in an international operation against a drug smuggling ring, police officials said Thursday. A total of 500 kilograms were seized on Dec. 25 in the southern Australian state of New South Wales, and over 600 kilograms bound for Australia were intercepted in March in Tahiti, ...

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...

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...

Panama City, Dec. 20 — The opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) said Tuesday that Dec. 20 should be a "day of national mourning" to mark the U.S. invasion of Panama, which began on Dec. 20, 1989. U.S. military invasion of Panama on Dec. 20, 1989; source Newsroom Panama. "The death of an undetermined number of Panamanians, the destruction of property representing thousands of mill...

Panama's aviation rating has plunged since 2005 with failures  in procedures and regulations, reported the online English news media in Panama, Newsroom Panama, yesterday. Panama's flag. The disturbing report comes from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which audited the country in 2015. On inspection, the Panamanian air system earned a score of 36.4 points out of a hu...

Paris, France. Dec. 7 — Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for the immediate release of Okke Ornstein, a Panama-based Dutch journalist who was arrested last month in Panama City to begin serving the absurdly disproportionate 20-month jail sentence he received at the end of a flawed defamation trial in 2012. Bananama Republic is Ornstein's satirical site that jabs at Panama's ...

Panama City, Nov. 22 — At least four people have died, another has gone missing, about 50 dwellings have been destroyed, classes have been suspended and flights at airports have been interrupted due to Tropical Storm Otto, which has since been upgraded to hurricane status, Panamanian authorities said Tuesday. Hurricane Otto's projected path, U.S. Weather Channel. A boy was killed Tuesday mo...

CARIBBEAN HURRICANE Photo from The Weather Channel. Miami, Nov 22 — Tropical Storm Otto on Tuesday strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) as it continued to move toward Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. As of 21:00 GMT (3:00 p.m. Costa Rica time), the storm was located 305 miles (485 km) east-southea...

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, Oct. 19 — A recent study paints a panoramic picture of a surging global trade in illicit cigarettes that is funding groups from Hezbollah and Hamas to the Central American Los Zetas cartel. Contraband cigarettes in Singapore, Facebook, photo for illustrative purposes. The study, "From Ant Smuggling to an Elephant in the Market,” was conducted by CID Gallup for the Cost...

By Wendy Anders Cocaine trafficking, Costa Rica Costa Rica’s drug control police completed the bust of a drug ring based out of southern Costa Rica with nine arrests yesterday in different parts of the country, reported the Public Security Ministry. Three other members of the group were previously arrested, two in 2015 and one last month. Research conducted by the drug police reveals ...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Denmark's tax minister said the government will buy data leaked from Mossack Fonseca, the law firm involved in the Panama Papers scandal. Police officers stand guard next to a company list showing the Mossack Fonseca law firm outside their office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen said an anonymous of...

PANAMA TOURISM Panama City, Sept. 27 — The Panamanian government hopes that an international advertising campaign to be launched at the end of this year will attract tourists from the United States, Europe, and South America, its main markets, Tourism Minister Gustavo Him said Tuesday. "We have great hopes for that campaign because we're going to move from having zero promotion to having a f...

By Wendy Anders Border police of Panama As undocumented immigrants from various regions continue to permeate Panama and Costa Rica, and present a growing concern from economic, health and social angles, the countries are scurrying to put into place official information-sharing and other essential mechanisms for tackling the pressing problem. This week, foreign ministry representatives fr...

By Wendy Anders Anti-crime efforts in Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean region are getting a boost with recent funds pledged by the U.S. government, said the Ministry of Security in a press statement this weekend. During a visit to the National Guard Substation in Sixaola, canton of Salamanca, in Limón province, Minister of Public Security, Gustavo Mata, as well as several police chiefs, met w...

By Wendy Anders MSP file photo Monday, the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ) arrested seven more members of a marijuana cultivation and distribution network based in Costa Rica’s southern Perez Zeledón region, stated Walter Espinoza, OIJ Director, in a press conference yesterday. The operation was led by five brothers by the last names Vargas Hidalgo who 21 years ago almost to th...

By Wendy Anders This morning in Geneva, Switzerland, Costa Rica’s Security Minister Gustavo Mata reiterated Costa Rica’s wholesale commitment to the effective implementation of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is a multilateral treaty regulating international trade in conventional weapons, according to the United Nations website that entered into force in Dec...

ICR-CRS Archive/FILE (Pictured: Workers at a multinational medical device manufacturing company's facility in Heredia, Costa Rica) By Wendy Anders The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in its most recent edition of an annual series on Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America (June 2016) reported that FDI flows to Central America were up by 6 pe...

By Wendy Anders Mexican soldiers fighting the Drug War. Wikimedia Commons A recent political analysis of the region raises questions about the continuation of a militarized approach to illegal drug trafficking in an era where the decades long US sponsored “war on drugs” has been repeatedly called a failure. From 2004-2014 the United States provided $768 million in police and military aid...

By Wendy Anders Source: Red Cross of Costa Rica After waves of Cuban migrants cruised over the CR-Panama border late last year and earlier this year, and in recent months as the trickle of irregular migrants from Africa, Asia, Haiti and other countries has turned into a sizeable group now parked on the northern border seeking routes northward, Costa Rica’s governmental agencies are taking m...

By Wendy Andershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn91WdKhUmE Eyewitness accounts in and around Peñas Blancas on Costa Rica’s northern border with Nicaragua show growing desperation and also health concerns among hundreds of Haitian and African immigrants trying to journey to the U.S. Costa Rica’s national TV Repretel documented a thwarted attempt last Wednesday by a boisterous group of immigra...

Wikimedia CommonsFormer Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega was taken Friday to the Legal Medicine Institute for the physical and psychiatric exams ordered by the court hearing the case against him for the death of union leader Heliodoro Portugal back in the 1970s. The defense attorney for Panama's one-time strongman, Ezra Angel, told EFE briefly this Friday that Noriega's examinations ...

Thousands of Cuban migrants remain in shelters across Costa Rica. (CIDH/Twitter) By Wendy Anders After months of behind the scenes meetings and dialogue, the eight Central American Integration System (SICA, in Spanish) members met last week on Roatán Island, Honduras and welcomed Costa Rica back. At the June 28-30 meeting, leaders agreed to a forward-looking agenda that convinced Costa R...

Panama City, Jun 21 (EFE).- Security at the inauguration of the Panama Canal expansion next Sunday will be assured by more than 11,000 agents along with special measures like closing the airspace over the waterway beginning the day before, the authorities announced Tuesday. Eleven heads of state and government, the king emeritus of Spain and delegations of some 50 countries have confirmed their...