Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Warning: Beyond this point expect to encounter some “shitholes.” What does it matter if President Donald Trump called a spade-a- spade in describing numerous countries like El Salvador and Haiti as a “shithole?” Some of those in the Oval Office last Thursday sa...

The United States’ Embassy and the Department of Labor of the US, will be donating US$2 million to improve the implementation of labor laws in the Costa Rican agricultural sector. The Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor describes the objectives of the project: “The project’s goal is to improve enforcement of minimum wage, hours of work, and occupational safety and h...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.   Checkmate! Whoever on Team Trump came up with the idea to go live on national TV during Tuesday’s bipartisan congressional White House meeting on immigration with President Donald Trump deserves the Political-Play-of-the-Week award. No one knew. It wa...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The first big story coming out of this New Year 2018 is last Thursday the Dow Jones Industrial Average blasted past 25,000 for the first time – by Friday closing it landed at 25,295! The Democrats are left standing along the side of the road on this one. The...

New Jersey is the destination of the month at Avianca Airlines; this route which was inaugurated in November by Avianca is being promoted with prices starting at $409.00 roundtrip. Avianca flights leave the Juan Santamaria Airport and arrive at the Newark Airport five days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, flights make a stop in El Salvador. The rate is available for ...

“Due to strong winds and whiteout conditions, flights at JFK have been temporarily suspended. Travelers are urged to contact their airline carriers for updates on resumption of service”, the information was posted in the different social media channels by JFK Airport, but prior to this notification, American Airlines, Delta, Avianca, among other airlines had already suspended or canceled their fli...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. California came on-line with legal recreational-use of marijuana on Jan. 1 -- following the lead of Alaska, Washington, Colorado and other states. Costa Rica is not far behind with possibly approving legal-medical marijuana soon, so recreational weed is inevita...

Avianca Airlines informed of the suspension of several flights to New York and New Jersey due to the winter storm Grayson which is affecting the East Coast of the United States. The press release confirmed that flights leaving from Colombia, Costa Rica and El Salvador to and from New York and New Jersey scheduled for January 3 and 4 and 5 have been cancelled. The airline went through the proc...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Let’s think outside the box. There must be a better way to measure public opinion than today’s polling methods conducted by such groups as Gallup, Rasmussen, Reuters, Quinnipiac, Monmouth and Harvard-Harris. Each of these polling organizations practices a varie...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. No sooner does the United Nations vote 128 to 9 objecting to President Donald Trump’s decision to finally recognize Jerusalem as the true capitol of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there, the president cuts $285-million from the annual UN membership fee of whi...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The craziest things heard on mainstream media this week were “Patriotism is a perversion” and “It’s our job to control what people think.” So in the eyes of the ultra-weird-liberal-left media a love of God, country, flag and national anthem are now perverted vi...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. On Nov. 6, 2018 voters in the United States will return to the ballot booth for the mid-term elections to cast their votes for the future of America. Will the Democrats regain control of the U.S. Congress by winning back the U.S. House and Senate or will they dim...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica voted against the United States’ decision of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. During the United Nations General Assembly which had the presence of 193 member countries, 128 voted in favor of the resolution which condemns the decision of the United States; 9 nations voted against the resolution and 35 abstained. Although the resolut...

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Security announced they have invested in the purchase of four new vessels to help battle organized crime in Costa Rican waters. “With satisfaction we announce that the ships GC110-1 Libertador Juan Rafael Mora Porras and GC110-2 General Jose Maria Cañas Escamilla (both donated by the United States to the Costa Rica coast guard service) are already painted and ...

Photo Credit: NC11 Costa Rica A man, native from Wisconsin, USA, was detained by the Costa Rican police on Wednesday afternoon, accused of sexually abusing his step-daughter who has a mental disability. The foreigner was reported by his wife who is Costa Rican, apparently, the woman witnessed the moment in which the man committed the abuse, she immediately reported him and when the police d...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Lady Justice is trembling. Recent revelations of favoritism are swirling around the upper management of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and overseer the U.S. Department of Justice. These events appear to show that Lady Justice’s blindfold came off several y...

A power outage affected the Atlanta Airport, one of the most frequented in the world, for over 11 hours, this caused hundreds of cancelled and rerouted flights and thousands of passengers stranded. In a time of the year when the number of passenger increases considerably the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport suffered an electrical failure at around 1 p.m. Sunday, December 17. The service...

A Costa Rican woman of last names Mora Sibaja was arrested in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica under charges of Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling. According to the investigation which began in 2016, the woman charged between US$8,000.00 to US$10,000.00 to smuggle people to the United States through different routes; Mora would receive 50% of the payment in Costa Rica and the balance was paid befor...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Alabama Judge Roy Moore was too hot to handle for voters who handed the U.S. Senate seat to Birmingham attorney and Democrat Doug Jones which reduces the margin of Republicans in the senate by one leaving their slim majority even slimmer at 51 to 49. Jones won ...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.   There is much to read-between-the-lines with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony before congress centering on the FBI’s special investigation into Trump-Russian connections and Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s defiant resignation speech before the U....

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.   God bless retired Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz – a staunch Democrat! This 79-year-old high-profile criminal and constitutional law attorney is one of -- if not the best legal mind -- contributing to the public debate concerning everyth...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Last week liberalism suffered a major shock that won’t blow over anytime soon. Kate Steinle’s killer walked away from murder and manslaughter charges in a San Francisco, California courtroom stunning the nation. All of a sudden those “not guilty” verdicts ca...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. At the White House “Merry Christmas” is in while “Happy Holidays” is out. Former President Barack Obama referred to the Christmas season as “Happy Holidays” so not to offend non-Christians in a Christian-majority nation. But that has all changed. No soone...

An American tourist died as a result of the injuries caused by a tiger shark while she was diving in Isla del Coco, Costa Rica; the dive master that was with her suffered serious injuries but survived. According to the Fuerza Pública (Costa Rican Police) the accident took place this Thursday, when apparently the tourists were in a scuba diving activity with a private company. The boat See Hun...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. It’s time to read the tea leaves, gaze into a crystal ball and make a prediction that Republican Judge Roy Moore will win big in Alabama’s Dec. 12 special U.S. Senate election that has gained national attention in recent weeks due to repeated, unproven allegati...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. The political ‘Star of the Week’ is Leeann Tweeden who blew the sexual-assault whistle on former Saturday Night Live funny man Minnesota Sen. Al Franken – a far-left Democrat. She claims Franken “forcibly kissed and fondled” her eleven years ago. In present da...

Costa Rica was chosen as the first country in Latin America to implement the new concept of Subway restaurants. This new model will be inaugurated on Wednesday, November 15, with the assistance of senior officials of the corporation at a regional level, who will expand the details of the restaurant of the future, the evolution in the business model, from the visual, technological, experience for ...

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 arrived back in Washington on Tuesday following g a 12-day Asian tour of Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, where he met again with the one-and-only, the notorious Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who hosted ...

Costa Rican airport authorities seized a weapon and ammunition from a U.S citizen as he attempted to board an international flight, said the Public Security Ministry. The incident took place at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) outside of the capital city of San José, Costa Rica. The man had failed to report he was carrying a firearm and ammunition, which are not permitted on f...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Filthy-dirty, hard-ball politics are at play in Alabama as former state Supreme Court Chief Judge Roy Moore and current U.S. Senate Republican candidate -- faces last-minute bombshell allegations about sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old girl from 38-ye...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  Two elections were held Tuesday – New Jersey and Virginia – and both resulted in wins for two Democratic incoming governors in what political observers say may be the beginning of their hopes to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and t...

This Saturday, November 11 at 8 p.m. at the downtown San José, Costa Rica National Theater, U.S. and Costa Rican musicians join together for a delightful and inspiring concert dedicated to friendship between the two countries. Award-winning U.S.-based Medical Musical Group's chorale and symphony will perform together with Costa Rica's Coro Voces de Libertad, directed by Carol Guzmán, and the Un...

Friday, November 10, the United States Embassy and Consulate in San José, Costa Rica will be closed in commemoration of the U.S. federal holiday, Veterans Day, In May 1938, this day was set as a commemoration of world peace and to celebrate what was known as Armistice Day, when it was customary to honor the veterans of World War I. "However, in 1954, after the Second World War, its name was ch...

Così, the Boston, Massachusetts-based fast-casual restaurant chain known for its homemade flatbread, opens its eighth eatery in Costa Rica this Friday, November 10. The new Così locale will be inaugurated in the northern San José suburb of Guadalupe, in the canton of Goicoechea, at the Distrito Uno shopping plaza. Situated next to Distrito Uno's new Auto Mercado grocery store, Così in Guadal...

Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Trade Alexander Mora was in Miami, Florida last week for the VII International Banana Congress organized by Costa Rica's Corporación Bananera Nacional (Corbana). Participants spanned those involved in the entire value chain, from production to sale, of the fruit, and included at least 600 representatives from 40 countries. Bananas were one of the products that...

A U.S. citizen by the last name of Krause, who is on the Interpol alert list for sexual abuse crimes in the United States, was turned back Monday, November 6, 2017 after arriving at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) outside of San José, Costa Rica. Costa Rican immigration police stationed at the airport saw that Krause's name came up on an Interpol alert list when they did a routi...

The U.S. Embassy in San José, Costa Rica is pleased to announce upcoming outreach sessions in the southern towns of Dominical and Pérez Zeledón. Consular staff will be on hand next week to render routine services and hear inquiries. A special information session in Pérez Zeledón will be held on visas for non-U.S. citizens. To RSVP for passport renewals, notary services, and federal...

A 41-year-old Costa Rican named Navarro Quesada pleaded guilty in the Pennsylvania Western District Court to the crimes of conducting mail fraud and money laundering. Navarro Quesada was arrested in February at the Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport in Madrid following an alert sent to the International Police (Interpol) by U.S. authorities. The Costa Rican man admitted to having used a website d...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Four words from the 1979 movie-war-classic ‘Apocalypse Now’ are ringing out for real from south-central Texas: “The horror! The horror!” On a typically beautiful, peaceful Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs a lone gunman -- dressed all in black -- parked h...

Southwest Airlines inaugurated a new U.S.-Costa Rica route today to offer daily flights between San José's International airport (SJO) and the Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) in Florida. The first flight for the new service left southern Florida at 11:30 a.m. today, Sunday, November 5, and arrived at the Juan Santamaría airport at 1:28 p.m. Southwest Airlines announced plans for ...