Fanny Pérez no longer sees her neighborhood of Los Guido, a district of Desamparados in the nation’s capital of San José, in a negative light. “Los Guido is coming back to life,” Pérez, 71, said. “It is not that gray neighborhood from before that gave you a weird feeling when you walked down the street.” Pérez is a member of the security commission in Los Guido, one of several programs t...

CONCACAF champion Costa Rica was placed with host Thailand, Ukraine and Paraguay for the first round of the Futsal World Cup at Friday's draw for the seventh edition of the tournament. Fellow CONCACAF side Guatemala was joined with Russia, the Solomon Islands and Colombia; Panama was put in with Spain, Iran and Morcco; while Mexico was drawn with Argentina, Italy and Australia for the Novem...

Nicaraguan officials have arrested 18 individuals posing as Mexican journalists on assignment to cover a high-profile criminal trial in the Central American country, accusing them of criminal ties and seizing at least seven million dollars in hard currency. The individuals, at least 17 of whom are Mexican citizens according to Proceso, apparently entered Nicaragua on August 22 and told cust...

Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli stated on Wednesday that Panama’s first solar PV installation will hopefully lead to a reduction in the cost of energy across the nation, by means of renewable technologies. The project, located in the province of Herrera in the Sarigua National Park, is being developed through a US$9 million contribution from Italy’s Enel Green Power. Operation of the...

AltusHost, an ISP based in Belize, has to take 25 domains offline that are used to sell and promote counterfeit fashion goods, a court in The Hague ruled Tuesday. AltusHost has to block the websites bestwatchonsale.com, cheap-watch.org, breitlingwatches-replica.com and fakewatchesuk.org among others within three days, judge E.F. Brinkman ruled in a summary judgment in the Civil Court in The...

An accused killer was burned to death Friday by a mob in a suburb of the Guatemalan capital, the municipal fire department said. Residents of Mixco beat Edin Estuardo Canon before dousing him with gasoline and setting him ablaze, department spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters. The mob captured Canon after he allegedly shot Fernando and Erick Mendez, a father and son working together ...

*Picture above: International Designers; Perla Cuellar, Sharlenne Chen, Victoria Thompson, Fritz Botha, Johan Botha, Hazel Gonzalez, Danny Ho. Emerging Designers from South Africa, Costa Rica and USA to be featured at Fashion Week Las Vegas in February 2013 “International Designers set the tone for the February 2013 Fashion Week Las Vegas” The International Emerging Designer Competiti...

More than 60 sensational chairs of art are being auctioned to raise funds for the scholarship and library programs of The Women’s Club of Costa Rica. A Night at the Museum & Sensational Chair Auction takes place Saturday, September 1, 2012, from 6 to 10 pm, in the National Gallery of the Children’s Museum in San José. Fifty-five artists from the Costa Rican and ex-patriot communities have ...

Juan Manuel Arguello, the head of Telefonica Nicaragua, has revealed that the subscriber base of its cellular unit Movistar has reached 2.8 million, of which around 80% are on pre-paid contracts. In an interview with Confidencial.com.ni, Arguello noted that the cellco’s network currently covers 85% of Nicaragua’s territory, a figure which Movistar hopes to increase to 95% by year-end. ...

Chiefs of Police in Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Colombia review today in Managua the capital joint plans to combat violence caused by drug trafficking and transnational crime. According to reports, the military institutions hope to adopt a common strategy to deal in a coordinated way with widespread phenomena like human trafficking, illegal trafficking of drugs and money laun...

A tender is being prepared for the installation of a 200 MW power plant to generate electricity from natural gas, with an anticipated investment of $380 million. The tender is scheduled to be released in October. The start of operations could be in 2015. In an announcement from the Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Edwin Rhodes, it was reported that two companies are already interes...

The drought that has affected most of Guatemala in 2012 ruined half of this year's crops of the two main staples, maize and beans, the agriculture ministry said in a report released Thursday. All but four of Guatemala's 22 provinces are suffering from a lack of rainfall, the ministry said. Maize (corn) is the country's leading crop, with an average annual harvest of 1.67 million tons, wh...

The body of the president of the union at the National Autonomous University of Honduras was found in a well in the eastern city of Juticalpa, relatives said. Juan de Dios Saenz's body was discovered Wednesday in a 70-meter (230-foot) well at his house in Juticalpa, which is in Olancho province, the labor leader's sister, Marta Saenz, said. The university union president, who lived in Te...

Two local bosses of the Mara Salvatrucha gang have been killed by their underlings in El Salvador offering a glimpse at the tensions underlying the criminal pact that has precipitated a dramatic reduction in violence this year. As the newspaper El Diario de Hoy has reported, two alleged commanders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, were murdered Aug 20 in Soyapango, a sizeable suburb of San Sal...

The Costa Rican government has mandated electronic invoicing for doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, dentists, and other professional people. In order to reduce tax evasion, these professions will be obliged to issue e-invoices later this year. A draft resolution states that all professionals will be required to produce proof of income in electronic form and must also provide digital...

The National Insurance Institute of Costa Rica is putting out to tenders contract services for the renovation and equipping of a building that will house the Jade Museum in San Jose. INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC TENDER No. 112008-UL-2012LN Contract for professional services for a turnkey project including preliminary studies, draft environmental feasibility study, development and implementatio...

A Guatemalan court has sentenced an ex-police chief to 70 years in prison for the 1981 disappearance and torture of a university student, in what Amnesty International says is a strong message that even after three decades justice can be delivered. On Tuesday a court in Guatemala City found Pedro García Arredondo, former chief detective of the now-defunct National Police (Policía Nacional,...

Belize missed a $23 million bond payment and asked foreign creditors to renegotiate the small Central American country's foreign debt, which totals about $1.1 billion, Belizean media reported. Prime Minister Dean Barrow said his government did not have the funds to make the debt payment due on Monday and is also unlikely to come up with the required amount in the next 30 days, Radio Stereo ...

A Guatemalan man described by U.S. authorities as formerly one of that nation's top drug traffickers has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. Prosecutors said Wednesday that 43-year-old Mario Ponce-Rodriguez also must pay an $8.8 million judgment to the U.S. He was convicted in May by a jury of conspiracy to distribute cocaine into the U.S. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration o...

A partnership to promote imports and re-exports of apparel and fashion between Asia, the Colon Free Zone (CFZ) and Latin American destinations was signed by the Panamanian company Exclusive Brands Logistics Corp (EBL) and Damco Panama. The logistics deal is the first of its nature for the fashion industry in Panama. The hub will handle approx. 35,000 CBMs of goods per year. EBL is a leadin...

An Android app designed to calculate the exact amount of fertilizer needed to be applied to crops has been invented by a Taiwanese national who is performing his alternative military service with a technical mission in Belize. Lai Chun-fa, who graduated from the Department of Information Management at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said Tuesday that the idea was inspi...

Strong pitching, solid defense and powerful bats have carried the team from Tokyo to a berth in the international final at the World Series following a 4-1 victory over Panama on Wednesday. Kotaro Kiyomiya homered in the first, and starter Ryuji Osada struck out seven. The left-handed Kiyomiya displayed prodigious power for a 13-year-old slugger. His blast landed nearly halfway up the hi...

Hotel Byblos in Costa Rica to host "Kids Saving the Rainforest" fundraiser to support the only local government sanctioned wild animal rescue center near Manuel Antonio National Park. Hotel Byblos Resort in conjunction with Kids Saving the Rainforest will be hosting a community fundraiser to collect funds and supplies to enable the continued care and operation of the only locally government...

The newly approved project establishes tax calculations based on the historical value of the properties, not applying the rates developed by the Ministry of Finance in 2008. The tables compiled by the Ministry of Finance "equate the value of agricultural land to urban and tourism projects, which made the price of farms engaged in agriculture go through the roof", reported Nacion.com Th...

There are three farms in Central America who auction online varieties of coffee such as geisha, mocha and yellow catuai, in small batches of about 300 pounds. Two of the farms are in Guatemala and one in Panama. They use this system of auction specialty coffee production, taking advantage of the emergence of "micro-roasters", who buy in small batches, of no more than 10 bags, coffee that ...

After consultation with the productive sectors Guatemala's government has decided to join the group of Central American countries negotiating a free trade agreement with Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Guatemala had ruled out the idea of participating in the negotiations for a free trade agreement which Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras began with Switzerland, Iceland, Liech...

New Sounders midfielder Mario Martinez, who participated in the London Olympics with the Honduras national team, mentioned today that he will be re-joining that team next month for Olympic qualifying. “I think the Olympics was a big step; coming here to Seattle is another big step. In September, I’ll be with the national team playing,” he said. “So, yeah, I think if you look at it all toget...

The governments of El Salvador and India signed a technological, scientific and innovation cooperation agreement as part of the First Political and Bilateral Cooperation Talk held in the capital of San Salvador. Officials from both countries agreed to further develop existing programmes and to open new cooperation paths with the aim of increasing investment, tourism and support for small an...

Following the arrest and speedy release of Salvadoran drug kingpin 'Chepe Luna,' analyst Hector Silva Avalos looks back at the trafficker's friends in high places who have helped Luna escape justice many times before. Jose Natividad Luna Pereira is a man who owes his success, and his freedom, to his good friends. By the end of the 1990s, this man -- who is either Honduran or from Pasaquina ...

GET HIGH IN A CLOUD FOREST Considered Costa Rica's green jewel, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is located just outside the town of Santa Elena. This conservation area covers 10,500 hectares and reaches a height of 1650 metres above sea level. It is called a cloud forest because the canopy is consistently shrouded by mist. The Monteverde attracts an increasing number of visitors each...

A bill is promoting the transfer of powers of the National Council of Port Concessions, to a Maritime Port Council. The project, presented by Victor Granados, entitled, "Ports and Maritime Law", proposes the establishment of a Maritime Port Council, which would have as its responsibilities planning issues and sea-port policies in the country. The Maritime Port Council would become the new...

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda will become the 12th foreign leader to become an honorary citizen of Seoul. Chinchilla (54) arrived in Korea on Sunday to meet with President Lee Myung-bak and leaves on Wednesday. She receives the honorary citizenship from Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon. Chinchilla is the first directly elected female presi...

Low revenues force Coopretrabusur to convert planted area to palm oil production. The Cooperativa de Trabajadores Bananeros del Sur (Coopetrabasur) is to transfer 115ha of a banana plantation in southern Costa Rica to a different crop, according to Costa Rican newspaper La Nación. As a result of low revenues, the co-operative will now cultivate palm trees on the land. Ronald Cardenas,...

To aid coastal planning, CATHALAC has developed a profile of the relative vulnerability of Central America’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts to the hazards of storm-induced coastal erosion and storm surge, using geo-spatial modeling. A profile of the relative vulnerability of Central America’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts to the hazards of storm-induced coastal erosion and storm surge is now a...

Representatives of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) met in Honduras yesterday in the central city of Comayagua, Honduras, to prepare the first summit on migration with the European Union. The high-level meeting is scheduled for January 2013 in Chile. To establish a regional strategy that promotes a holistic view of migration processes, both interregional and b...

After being on the backburner for over three decades, The Hague is finally ruling on a spat between Colombia and Nicaragua over a set of islands that includes San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina in the Caribbean Sea. While Nicaragua will argue that the border between the states should be located between its coast and Colombia’s—and not be defined by the 82nd meridian—there is little ch...

Five months into a historic ceasefire between El Salvador's street gangs, Investigators profile the complex history of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). While the MS-13 is more commonly associated with menacing tattoos and violent initiation ceremonies,  Investigation into the gang's history shows that this was not always the case. When starting out at the bottom of the food chain in ...

The Republic of China is to conduct a feasibility study for the construction of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the country. A press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica reads: COMEX and the China Development Bank have signed agreement to initiate a feasibility study. On Thursday the President of the Republic, Laura Chinchilla, witnessed the signing of a Frame...

German botanist Rolf Blancke, a long-time resident of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, and Zona Tropical Publications are seeking funding on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com to publish the most comprehensive book for the general reader ever produced on tropical fruits of the world, with descriptions of over 330 fruit species, lush photographs, and range maps. If funded, the book will be rel...

Battery Energy drink friends in Costa Rica will be happy to hear that the Battery Energy Drink product family is growing. The Battery Hydro 33cl can is joining Battery Original, Sugarfree and Gingered on store shelves all over the country. With the launch of Battery Hydro, a new era of energy drinks has begun in Costa Rica. Battery Hydro combines three functionalities in one product: energy...