“What bloody business has the USA to do with the Costa Rican immigration policies on border crossings?” - Posted reaction to a recent article published in TCRS (The Costa Rica Star) The answer: Plenty. The Bigger Picture: The issue is not just about border runners seeking to stay under the radar as Perpetual Tourists, or those needing to keep their foreign driver's licenses valid. Those con...

The Government of Costa Rica reaffirms its rejection to any course of action of declaration that involves the use of violence against the Venezuelan people, the use of force or military intervention in Venezuela. This statement comes just days after the Costa Rican government granted 60 days to three Venezuelan diplomats in Costa Rica named under the regimen of Nicolás Maduro, to leave the coun...

Earlier Wednesday, January 23, 2019, President Donald Trump, recognized the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the Interim President of Venezuela and affirmed he will be using the weight of the United States economic and diplomatic power ¨to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy¨. ¨Today, I am officially recognizing the President of the Venezuelan Nationa...

There is a strong effort underway in the British parliament to remove Prime Minister Theresa May from office and then conduct a second referendum vote on the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The British people already voted last year to exit the EU, but the pro-EU forces cannot accept the vote and they are fighting tooth and nail to remain in the EU despite th...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Costa Rica, stated through a press release on Sunday evening, their position regarding the presidential elections that took place in Venezuela that same day. “Costa Rica does not recognize the legitimacy of the electoral process carried out this Sunday, May 20 in the Republic of Venezuela”. Costa Rica considers the election processed lacked transparency sinc...

1,276 Venezuelan citizens are registered to vote in Costa Rica, however, the majority chose not to cast their vote and this was evident in the movement at the Venezuelan embassy in San Pedro were very few made an appearance. Even though they preferred not to vote, members of this community gathered at the Plaza de la Democracia in San Jose to protest against this election process/ “None of us ...

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 ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  President Donald Trump’s first address to the United Nations hit close to home in Costa Rica. Only two countries away -- past Panama and Columbia -- neighboring Venezuela was singled out as a “rogue” nation right alongside North Korea and Iran. The presi...

The second beach volleyball open tournament will take place in Tamarindo, Guanacaste on Saturday, September 16. The Costa Rican national team will face off against competitors from the United States, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The format is two-on-two, and promises to be a thrilling event with very strong athletes competing, according to Ivannia Ramirez, event organizer. Also on 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...

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...

Just like "El Cid," Hugo Chavez may be deceased but now he rules Venezuela again, this time on television as the leading character of the series "El Comandante" (The Commander), created by one of his harshest critics, journalist Moises Naim. The show debuts on the small screen this Monday. "To those who wish me dead, I wish them long life, so they can see how the Bolivarian Revolution will prog...

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...

Caracas, Dec 28 (EFE).- Venezuela will end 2016 with a homicide rate of 91.8 for every 100,000 people, second only to El Salvador, the independent human rights group, Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), said Wednesday. The projected total number of violent deaths is 28,479, compared with 27,875 in 2015, OVV director Roberto Briceño Leon said. Though the year-on-year increase is relatively...

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...

Shortly after Venezuela’s former president Hugo Chavez passed away, many news channels reported on the fortune he inherited by his family, from valuable properties, to car lots, mansions, planes, and a lot of money in offshore banks. According to Venezuelan news website Noticias Centro in an article published in 2015 “the late president’s family owns 17 country estates, totaling more than 100,0...

Avianca airlines announced today the cancellation of all flights to and from Venezuela, after a Venezuelan military plane harassed one of their planes. (EFE).- Colombia's Foreign Ministry on Saturday was asked to demand an explanation from Venezuela for an incident in which a military plane allegedly harassed an Avianca passenger jet while it was in the neighboring country's airspace. Colom...

Wikimedia Commons "You can't get it more cheaply" calls a Caracas woman selling flour at the open-air market in Petare, the largest shantytown in Latin America, where hundreds of vendors offer basic products that are generally scarce here at prices often more than 20 times higher than those fixed by the government. Stringent price controls have prevailed in Venezuela since 2003 but, neverth...

Flickr Commons By Hector Pereira A litter of five puppies has to go home from a veterinarian's office without getting the necessary vaccinations, because now pets in Venezuela suffer from the same shortage of medicines as people do as a result of the country's economic crisis. Briceida Niño, a mom in Caracas, took her five pups to one of the veterinarian centers assigned to the "Nevado M...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Some 25,000 Venezuelans, according to official estimates, crossed the border into Colombia on Sunday to buy food and medicines in the city of Cucuta after the Venezuelan government said it would open border crossings for 12 hours. People began crossing the Simon Bolivar international bridge, which links the ...

EFE file The Venezuelan opposition confirmed Sunday that it is ready to start the process to bring about the referendum to revoke the mandate of President Nicolas Maduro, even if they are deprived of their liberty. The mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, imprisoned since February 2015, released a message in which he congratulated the Venezuelan people for "the heroic journey made this week,"...

EFE file Caracas, Jun 12 (EFE).- Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said Sunday that socialist President Nicolas Maduro would be removed from office this year and insisted that government opponents had gathered the quantity of signatures - 1 percent of the voting population - needed for the first phase of the recall referendum process. Maduro "will be recalled this year, period,...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) Caracas, Jun 6 (EFE).- The body of Italian diplomat Mauro Monciatti, an administrative official at Italy's consulate in Caracas, was found at his home in an eastern Caracas neighborhood, fellow diplomat Lorenzo Salinas confirmed to EFE on Monday. Monciatti, 60, died from blunt trauma to the skull, an official with the Cicpc criminal investigative unit, w...

Wikimiedia Commons Caracas, Jun 2 (EFE).- The Venezuelan military and police on Thursday used tear gas in Caracas to disperse several groups of protesters who were trying to approach Miraflores Palace, the seat of government, to demonstrate against the scarcity of food and medicine. A large contingent of heavily armed members of the Bolivarian National Guard and the National Police fired te...

Source: EFE Caracas, May 24 (EFE).- The Coca-Cola Company of Venezuela said in a communique that it has used up its inventories of refined sugar for industrial use, which has in turn forced the company to temporarily suspend all lines of soft drinks containing that ingredient, though they will continue to produce others. "The sugar shortage means a temporary interruption of lines of soft dr...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, May 17 (EFE).- A U.S. military aircraft "with lethal technical abilities" illegally entered Venezuelan airspace twice over the past week, President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday. "Our military aviation detected the illegal entry, for unusual espionage tasks, of the Boeing 707 E-3 Sentry, which is an airborne early warning control center system that has all the mecha...

(Reuters OMX) Caracas, May 14 (EFE).- Crowds of Venezuelan opposition members gathered Saturday in Caracas to demand that electoral authorities act quickly to hold a recall referendum that might succeed in removing from office the president of Venezuela, the Chavista Nicolas Maduro. The demonstration that began around 10:00 a.m. downtown in the Venezuelan capital was called two days ago by ...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) Caracas, May 6 (EFE).- Venezuelan politician German Mavare, leader of the opposition UNT party, died Friday after being shot in the head, an assassination that occurred in the western state of Lara, his organization said. "The board of the UNT expresses its deepest sorrow for the slaying of colleague German Mavare. We demand justice and an end to violenc...

Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin America on Sunday. (Archive/Reuters) Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin American states on Sunday, May 8, according to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Iranian foreign minister’s 6-day-long visit to Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela a...

Pixabay Commons Caracas, May 1 (EFE).- The Venezuelan government on Sunday moved local time up 30 minutes, to four hours behind UTC, with an eye toward dealing with the emergency caused by the ongoing severe drought. The time change will enter into effect as of May 1 and brings Venezuela back to the time schedule that prevailed until 2007, when the government shifted the nation's clocks bac...

Photo by Robert Moreno, citizen journalist in Maracay Caracas, Apr 27 (EFE).- A series of violent disturbances erupted in several Venezuelan cities over frequent power and water cuts and longstanding food shortages, regional officials and media outlets said Wednesday. The governor of the northwestern state of Zulia, Francisco Arias Cardenas, said Wednesday that "destabilizing actions" had t...

A Russian T-72 battle tank, similar to those heading to Nicaragua. (CC) Russia will deliver 50 new T-72B1 battle tanks to Nicaragua this year, in a deal worth some US $80 million, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency and Nicaraguan media. The first batch of 20 tanks is ready for shipment, and the remaining 30 are to be delivered by the end of the year or early 2017, according to th...

Wikimedia Comons Caracas, Apr 22 (EFE; beer context by The Costa Rica Star).- Residents of Venezuela are hunkering down for a long summer without beer and with diminished electricity. Venezuela's Electric Energy Minister Luis Motta Dominguez has announced the start of electricity rationing next Monday due to the drought affecting the entire country, and which will remain in effect for 40 da...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Apr 15 (EFE).- The scarcity of medicines in Venezuela continues to be a tragedy visible in pharmacies and hospitals around the country, weeks after congress declared a "humanitarian health crisis" that includes the lack of 872 essential medications. Cancer patients, HIV carriers, diabetics and those suffering hypertension must either trek from one drugstore to the...

(Reuters OMX) CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolas Maduro threatened Thursday to seek a constitutional amendment to slash the opposition-led legislature's term from five years to just 60 days and vowed to lead a "revolution" should his foes wrest him from the presidency. The socialist leader's strong words deepened the already bitter political standoff in the OPEC member...

Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro is urging his nation's women to reduce the use of electric hair dryers. (Reuters image) Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro this week asked women in Venezuela to reduce their use of electric hair dryers in order to save energy, asking his nation’s women to reserve their use for “special occasions,” while making no mention of hair dryer use by men. Maduro...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Apr 6 (EFE).- The scarcity of clean water and personal hygiene products has increased the cases of scabies, malaria, diarrhea and amoebiasis in Venezuela, the director of epidemiology with the central state of Miranda's health department warned on Wednesday. "The lack of access to a constant supply of good-quality water brings with it, as a consequence, an increas...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega listens during an official meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an official state visit by the Nicaraguan president to Iran in 2007. (Iranian state media) Iran's Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi has announced plans to deploy warships and destroyers in Central American and Latin American waters, Iran’s semi-official FARS...

Agencia Venezolana de Noticias Caracas, Mar 16 (EFE).- Venezuelan security forces are continuing to search for more missing persons after 17 bodies were found earlier this week at an illegal gold mine in southeastern Venezuela. National ombudsman Tareck William Saab, the head of a commission named by President Nicolas Maduro to investigate the disappearances, told reporters Tuesday that the...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ By Daniela Castro Molina Caracas, Feb 26 (EFE).- The shortage of food, medicines, household goods and personal hygiene products that Venezuela has suffered for several years has created new "jobs" in this country for those who profit from the crisis by speculating on it. Citizens known as "bachaqueros" (n...