On January 8, 2010, the Red Cross received an emergency call for a dead American in Florida de Baru. The ambulance driver who was first on the scene described walking into John Bender’s bedroom and seeing “a blanket of jewels”, both cut and uncut, strewn about the bedroom and stuffed loosely into backpacks – over 3,000 jewels in total. What has happened to them all? When the police arrived at t...

Costa Rican native Carlos Soto went off to college at age 18 to attend California’s Loyola Marymount University. Now he’s the CEO of his own company, and it’s all because he acquired a taste for tequila while hanging out with his college friends. Soto is the founder of Nosotros Tequila, a company that has just begun to hit its stride in the adult beverage world – undoubtedly NOT what his parents h...

This past week’s escalating violence across the USA from “sea to shining sea” will be the last straw for thousands, perhaps millions of retirees and affluent singles and families sick and tired of the current multi-faceted problems facing America -- they will pull up stakes searching for somewhere else to live and enjoy a peaceful life. High on that list of possibilities is Costa Rica. Without ...

Costa Rican Nadia Reiman has won the first ever Pulitzer Prize given for audio journalism for her ground-breaking ‘’The Out Crowd” episode of the radio show "This American Life". Her work was described by the New York Times as “revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump administration's Remain in Mexico policy”, with heart-breaking details of life in refugee ...

Carolina Vargas, a Costa Rican who has worked as an Uber driver in Tennessee for a pair of years, barely survived an assault from an Uber client. Vargas (26) drives a black 2011 Ford Explorer, yet was found by a Good Samaritan on the side of the road, injured, dazed, bleeding profusely, and missing three teeth – but alive after having saved herself by jumping out of her moving car. The car was gon...

Location: Costa Rica Press Release — Level 4: Do Not Travel The U.S. Embassy in San Jose and the U.S. State Department have coordinated with United Airlines to offer a commercial flight from Juan Santamaria Airport (SJO) in San Jose, Costa Rica to Houston, Texas (IAH) on Monday, April 20. The flight will depart SJO at 12:00 pm and arrive at IAH at 4:46 pm. This flight is open to public booking; y...

Location: Costa Rica Event: Update on COVID 19 Situation in Costa Rica The Costa Rican Ministry of Health confirmed 87 cases of COVID-19 in Costa Rica. The government of Costa Rica has implemented enhanced screening and quarantine measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. U.S. cit...

The first witness to testify on Monday, January 27th, at the murder trial of Bismark Espinoza Martinez, accused killer of Venezuelan/American tourist Carla Stefaniak, was the cleaning lady at the hotel where Carla was killed, Karla Gonzalez. Both Gonzalez and Espinoza were employees at Villas Le Mas in Escazu. Karla’s best friend, Veronica Espinoza, is Bismark’s mother, and had recommended him for...

As a result of the joint patrolling operations with the United States,Costa Rica has managed to seize historic amounts of drugs in the past two years that sum over 81 tons of cocaine and marijuana. The information was released by the Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, during a visit this week of the US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo to the Joint Operations Center in the Juan Santama...

The US Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica announced the upcoming Consular event – routine services for U.S. citizens in Golfito. The embassy's Consular staff will be on hand to provide several services in Golfito on January 30th and to answer questions. Those who wish to RSVP for passport renewals, notary services, and federal benefits inquiries, must indicate their preference by writing to ACS...

The Pentagon confirmed the airstrike perpetrated at Baghdad International Airport this January 2nd and which killed General Qasam Soleimani, key Irani military commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and Abu Mahdi al Mohandis, vicepresident of Kata’ib Hezbollah and other seven people, was an order of President Donald Trump. “At the direction of the President, the US milit...

The United States continues to offer its support to Costa Rica in its fight against drug trafficking and transnational crimes. For the first time in history, Costa Rica purchased a Maritime Patrol Aircraft using Air Surveillance Service funds. This aircraft, thanks to the U.S. government, is also equipped with state-of-the-art technology. The King Air 250 is joining the fight against drug tr...

A small religious cult calling themselves “Carbon Nation” have now been thrown out of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and on December 5th, out of Panama, for endangering and threatening the national security of those three countries. They were most recently operating in San Carlos province, in western Panama, 75 kilometers from Panama City. Their Carbon Nation leader Eligio Lee Bishop was arrested – he cal...

On Thanksgiving, two American citizens were detained at Juan Santamaria Airport under suspicion of money laundering. Their names are Collin Andrew Skees (25) and Benjamin Edward Howze (41). They were traveling to the United States with $644,344 in clean bills, wrapped like drugs are often smuggled, in layers of plastic, all tucked among clean changes of underwear for Skees and Howze, in their carr...

Costa Rica (Rich Coast), has become a favorite playground for rich and famous Americans, i.e. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Gisele Bundchen, Mel Gibson, Usher, Leonardo DiCaprio, and many other celebrity Americans who visit Costa Rica to unwind, relax and have quality time with their families. Recently Kim Kardashian’s oldest daughter, North West, daughter of Kanye West, and barely 6-years old, has f...

Early Saturday morning, three American tourists and their Costa Rican van driver were killed in a head- on vehicular crash near La Cruz, Guanacaste. They were traveling in a minivan, when they were hit by a truck driven by a Salvadoran citizen, who remains unidentified. The three who were killed were a 46-year old couple by the last name of Niemiec, and their 50-year old fellow passenger whose las...

The U.S. Attorney’s office of Chicago has charged an American with conducting an illegal sports gambling operation based in Costa Rica, according to a 14-count indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago, on October 11th. The accused was operating under the names Michael Frontier, Ira Goldberg, Brian Seagel, and Mathew Sullivan. He is also accused of hiding his personal gambling profits ...

“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...

Costa Rican Immigration Police (Policia Profesional de Migracion) reported the death of an American by the last name of Hall, on Saturday, allegedly by suicide, while in custody for being out of status with his documents to legally be in Costa Rica. Hall was found deceased in his cell early Saturday morning, in the immigration prison located in Los Lagos de Heredia. He had been picked up in Jaco t...

American tourist Charlie Hughes, 62 years of age, has been missing since August 3rd in Costa Rica and was last seen in the area of Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas. The Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ) in Costa Rica informed of the disappearance of the native of Tampa, Florida and apparently the FBI is also investigating the case. According to information that has been released, Hughes was see...

Last week mainstream media did all they could to raise fears of a coming recession using the DOW Jones stock market’s nose-dive of 800 points when no evidence of an impending recession exists. Economic indicators show the U.S. economy remains strong -- then why all the chatter about a fake recession? The stock market bounced back amid the ongoing China trade deal and yet the media talking heads...

After watching these 20-plus Democratic presidential candidates attempt to be regular folks -- at the Iowa State Fair -- it’s fair to assume none of these candidates have what it will take to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020. It was hysterical watching news reports coming out of the state fair showing the likes of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) walking around holding a deep fried corn d...

The fabric holding together the United States of America is literally coming apart at the seams. As of Aug. 4, 2019 -- 251 mass shootings have occurred this year -- resulting in the deaths of 280 people and wounding another 752 innocent souls, according to Wikipedia. Although there is no widely accepted definition of a mass shooting, it is generally thought to encompass incidents involving mult...

Say what you want about the second Democratic debate held July 30-31 in Detroit, Michigan, but there were no winners. All these 20 candidates for president did was bark at each other like a pack of wild dogs. Clearly both CNN and the Democratic National Committee were losers in this debate. The questions asked of the candidates lacked substance. There were no questions about President Donald Tr...

The U.S. Congress is on recess until Sept. 9, but rest assured President Donald Trump will not be taking six weeks off. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 decision gave the go ahead to the Trump Administration to transfer $2.5-billion in Pentagon military defense spending to continue construction of a barrier wall along the Mexico/U.S. southern border. These funds for President Trump’...

Former FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony on Wednesday before the U.S. House Judiciary and Intelligence committees qualified as high political drama -- broadcast live to the nation -- but there was no new information, no revelations or exploding bombshells. For the Democrats and other anti-Trump forces it was a waste of time. For the Republicans it was a waste of time. Mueller’s 400...

The U.S. Congress isn’t getting much done these days. They are too busy looking at their dang iPhones and tweeting out national policy to get much of anything done for real American citizens. Sure-as-shootin’ our President Donald Trump does a lot tweeting himself, but that’s different. He actually gets things done while Congress does not and they won’t because of the looming Nov. 3, 2020 nation...

Let’s give a round of rowdy cheers and whistles to the Washington Democrats who have seriously alienated Independent voters with their screaming rants about a new Socialist America with free healthcare, free college and a $15/hour minimum wage to flip those burgers. Decades ago the Independent voter represented a small number while the two-party political system in the United States of America ...

The Trump Show made quite a splash on the 4th of July as the United States of America celebrated its 243rd birthday of independence from England. Braking from tradition the nontraditional and controversial President Donald Trump took over this year’s festivity in Washington amid much criticism from the Democrats, the candidates running for president and even the City Council of the District of Col...

It would defy all the laws of gravity for President Donald Trump to lose the White House next year. Everything is up – economy is the best in decades, employment for real Americans is at record highs, the stock market almost hit 27,000 for the first time and the U.S. military -- that protects real American citizens -- is getting stronger every day. Our president is 100-percent responsible for thes...

There were lots of losers with few winners these past weeks in ‘Politics in the USA.’ On everyone’s mind is the two-night display of weird Socialist Democratic policy goals proudly touted to the nation during the first Democratic debate held June 26-27 in Miami, Florida. On the second night, an NBC moderator asked all 10 presidential candidates if they favored extending free healthcare benefits...

Let’s talk about politics and beer. No matter what bar you go into, no matter where it is the subject of ‘Politics in the USA’ pretty much dominates many conversations just like sports and women. These days Pennsylvania bar talk and beyond is all about the popular Yuengling beer and its owner billionaire Dick Yuengling. Last week Mr. Yuengling, 85, took presidential son Eric Trump on a tour of ...

More than likely President Donald Trump backed off striking missile installations in Iran due to the annual G20 Summit  held in Osaka, Japan on June 28-29. The radical Islamic country of Iran shot down an unmanned, unarmed surveillance drone claiming it was flying in Iranian airspace which is in dispute with U.S. military claims that the drone was flying close to Iran but over international waters...

US Embassy in Costa RIca Alerts: On Monday, July 1, 2019, the U.S. Embassy received credible open source information that student protestors and trade unions will continue to protest against government politics with a new focus on the resignation of Finance Minister Rocio Aguilar. In addition to these demonstrations, protestors continue to block main roadways throughout the country, reportedly to ...

A Fox News presidential poll asking the question ‘Biden or Trump in 2020?’ shows that former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in a nationwide head-to-head match up. Really Fox News? This poll has been all over mainstream media and the subject of much discussion because it was on Fox News and not CNN, but CNN is using it right along with everyone else. According to Fox News ...

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has two weeks left as President Donald Trump’s leading spokesperson after her boss announced her resignation late last week on Twitter. In doing so, Sanders and the president met with reporters to further explain her departure having served as press secretary for 1.9 years. “This has been the honor of a lifetime,” Sanders said. “I’ve loved ever...

A Mexican with strong ties to Costa Rica and a 20-million dollar bounty on his head, Rafael Caro Quintero, is now #10 on the FBI’s Most Wanted List – and may well be hiding in Costa Rica where he has strong connections and many cartel friends. Quintero is wanted for the murder of Drug Enforcement Agent (DEA) Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, in July of 1985, as well as charges of drug trafficking, kidnappi...

Who cares what John Dean thinks? The former White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon played a pivotal role in the first and only presidential resignation involving the famed Watergate Scandal of 1973-74. Dean appeared before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday June 10th. He was asked to appear by committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to discuss the similarities between the...

The week of June 6 was a study in contrasts -- The 75th anniversary of the World War II D-Day invasion with President Donald Trump standing with surviving heroes in Normandy, France; First Lady Melania Trump hugging and giving high-fives to the D-Day veterans as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urges “prison” for the president. Nowhere in mainstream media did anyone bother to mention that pres...

The three-day California Democratic Convention held this past weekend in San Francisco – the capitol of Libby Nation – amounted to a huge waste of time. Some 14 Democrats – all presidential light-weight contenders -- went on and on with all the usual rhetoric of bashing President Donald Trump calling him a “racist, a sexist, a homophobe and a religious bigot,” according to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sand...