By Wendy Anders La Carpio, an impoverished neighborhood in the San Jose metro area. (CRS Archive) After participating in the United Nations General Assembly last week, Costa Rica has been reviewing its progress on a number of fronts. The UN has an ambitious goal of ending all forms of social exclusion and to promote inclusive development by the year 2030. The 2030 UN Agenda for sustainab...

By Wendy Anders An eruption at 9:10 p.m. yesterday of Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano was still in progress before midnight when the Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute at the National University (Ovsicori-UNA) made their last update. Readers from throughout Heredia posted comments on the Ovsicori-UNA website about finding significant ash deposits on patios and rooftops this morning...

By Wendy Anders Sept. 22 early morning eruption of Turrialba Volcano. Starting at about 3:20 a.m. and lasting for a solid four hours this morning, researchers at Costa Rica's National University's Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA), reported that the Turrialba's eruptive column reached 2,000 ms above the highly active volcano's crater. Winds have been carrying t...

By Wendy Anders Wikimedia Commons The U.S. Embassy encourages U.S. citizens in Costa Rica to take the necessary steps to vote in the 2016 U.S. elections by participating in Absentee Voting Week next week. Many recent U.S. elections have been decided by a margin of victory of less than 0.1 percent.  All states are required to count every absentee ballot as long as it is valid and reaches ...

By Wendy Anders Pixabay Commons Today cities and countries throughout the world will celebrate World Car Free Day. Costa Rica’s Transportation Minister Carlos Villalta, and Vice-minister Liza Castillo will be literally walking the talk today as they take trains, buses and bike to their meetings, said the Transportation Ministry in a press statement. In no place does the day seem so fi...

By Wendy Anders Karina Córdoba posted this beautiful image of the Turrialba Volcano, taken from Alajuela, on the Ovsicori FB page. The feather of white color indicates the presence of water vapor and gases. After a brief end to a recent 25-hour eruption yesterday afternoon, Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano started spewing ash again. The National University's Volcanology and Seismology Rese...

By Wendy Anders Wikimedia Commons Costa Rica’s National Child Care and Development Network (Red de Cuido Infantil) has added an early childhood education component to 11 of its public daycare centers starting this month, reported the Ministry of Education. The program is Costa Rica’s first step towards offering broad public early childhood education. The Ministry of Education has allocat...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica Reventazon Hydroelectric Plant Costa Rican agencies are strengthening a biological corridor in southern Costa Rica critical to wildlife protection through increased forest-protection incentives for private landowners. The corridor is also known as the Jaguar Pass. In the wake of the recently inaugurated Reventazón Hydroelectric Project that may affect animals w...

By Wendy Anders 11:30 am eruption of Turrialba Volcano, Sept. 19, 2016. Ovsicori-UNA Cartago province’s Turrialba Volcano, which neighbors the densely populated San José, Costa Rica metropolitan area, had four intense eruptions yesterday, Monday, September 19, emitting abundant clouds of ash and spewing incandescent rocks. The eruption continued throughout the night and during all of today,...

By Wendy Anders Facebook photo of NatureAir plane at Pavas airport. Workers have been scrambling to clear ash from Costa Rica’s main international airport, the Juan Santamaría (SJO). Runways, landing strips and outdoor accesses to the boarding gates were cleared sufficiently by 12:05 p.m. today to allow for the airport to be opened, reported aviation officials to the press. Civil Aviatio...

By Wendy Anders 11:30 am eruption of Turrialba Volcano, Sept. 19, 2016. Ovsicori-UNA Costa Rica's main international airport near the capital city of San José is scheduled to reopen today, Tuesday, September 20, at 11:00 a.m., said Gabriela Hernández in the airport operations department. All passengers with flights this morning should contact their airline directly to find out details re...

By Wendy Anders Wikimedia Commons “A computer geek who ran a website for the massive Internet-based Platinum Sports Book was fined $400,000 for his involvement in the illegal gambling scheme,” wrote Sam Pazzano for The Toronto Sun last Tuesday. The London, Ontario native, 59-year-old Gordon Baird, pleaded guilty to bookmaking and contributing to a criminal organization. The organizati...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican Police have given citations to at least 424 bars since January 2015 for a total of 674 legal infractions, stated the Public Security Ministry in a press statement. The citations are for practices including serving customers past operating hours, selling drugs, adulterating alcoholic beverages, unauthorized use of the space, expired or nonexisting business and/or l...

By Wendy Anders Turrialba Volcano eruption on September 17, 2016, Ovsicori-UNA. This morning's 11:30 Turrialba Volcano eruption was estimated to have reached 4,000 ms above the volcano's crater, and another apparently similar eruption which is still underway hours later, began at around 3:34 this afternoon, reported the National University's Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ov...

Updated on Monday, September 19. By Wendy Anders Source: OVSICORI The Turrialba Volcano is in a new phase of eruptive activity, reported the National Costa Rican University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA) today on their Facebook page. Starting last Tuesday, September 13 volcanic tremors have been recorded daily. These have caused plumes of 100 - 400 mete...

By Wendy Anders Dreams Las Mareas Guanacaste, Costa Rica Hotels in Guanacaste, Costa Rica’s northern Pacific province, report spending an average of US$120,000 per month to provide drinking water to their guests, reported CRHoy, a Costa Rican Spanish digital news media, earlier this month. Business leaders, who say they will probably need to lay off workers to cut costs due to the additi...

By Wendy Anders The Criminal Court of Liberia ordered two more months of detention for two suspects by the last names of Alfaro and Castro who were arrested in June on money laundering charges. The men, one of whom is a bus driver, and the other, his assistant, were found crossing the border with large sums of cash hidden on their bodies, reported the judicial press office Friday. In June...

By Wendy Anders Breaking News Police have just captured the first of the four people wanted for robbing a pineapple plantation in Chomes, Puntarenas yesterday. He was hiding in a vacant lot. The four made off with CRC20 million (about US$36,000) in a hold-up yesterday afternoon, reported AM Prensa, a Costa Rican Spanish digital news site. The assault occurred when the plantation cont...

Managua, Sept. 15 - A 5.9-magnitude earthquake has hit the Pacific coast of Nicaragua close to three volcanoes, the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER) said Thursday. The temblor stuck at 23:57 p.m. local time on Wednesday (5:57 GMT) at a depth of one kilometer, three kms to the north of El Hoyo volcano, in Las Paz Centro municipality, León province, the institute said. So f...

By Wendy Anders Jason Noah Feinman barely survived being shot 14 times while pulling out of a bakery parking lot in downtown Escazú on the morning of March 18, 2015. This week he gave testimony via videoconference as the trial of two men suspected of the homicide attempt began in Pavas, a western San José neighborhood, reported La Nación, Costa Rica’s leading Spanish daily. Speaking from ...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s National Lifeguards Association have recorded 118 drowning deaths in the country so far this year, they reported in an interview with Monumental Radio (93.5 FM) today. The country’s average annual 160 drowning deaths, in rivers and oceans combined, is considered by health specialists as very high, Luis Hidalgo, the non-profit association’s president said to Monum...

By Wendy Anders Jeffrey Mora Calderon from Barva de Heredia was convicted last month of producing pornography using a 14-year-old girl, and distributing the pornographic materials, reported AM Prensa, a Costa Rican digital news media. The 14-year sentence was handed down by Costa Rica’s First Judicial Circuit Criminal Court on August 18, the assistant prosecutor for gender affairs told AM Pr...

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 The University of Washington will partner with the Costa Rican Federation of Fisheries (Fecop) to study sport fishing in Costa Rica, reported Central America's Summa business magazine. The study aims to understand the environmental, social, and economic issues and dynamics involved with sport fishing, an industry that the University of Costa Rica estimates provides employment...

By Wendy Anders Man watching porn. Photo for illustrative purposes, Flickr. Yesterday morning the Minors Section of the Judicial Investigative Agency (OIJ) conducted two simultaneous raids in Escazú and Cartago, both in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, to gather evidence for an investigation on a 17-year-old male teen who is suspected of production, possession and distribution of child pornogra...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Chamber of Restaurants (Cacore) has teamed up with Quatro, a legal and tax advising firm, to aid current and prospective restaurant owners better manage their businesses, and improve profitability and sustainability. Frequent changes in the economic environment, an oversupply of restaurants, and constant changes in legislation are the three main factors that can ...

By Wendy Anders In November 2006, Costa Rica and the state of New Mexico in the United States formed a civil-military partnership under a United States Department of Defense program managed by the U.S. National Guard to exchange and develop best practices in disaster response, emergency management, education, drug demand reduction, border security, and counternarcotics. The National Guard St...

By Wendy Anders Starting at about 2:00 a.m., Costa Rica's highly active Turrialba Volcano sent up a column that was mainly gas and vapor, with a minimal amount of ash, reported the National University's Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (Ovsicori-UNA). The colossus has been lying low for over a month after, after over the past year having had several strong eruptions that have co...

By Wendy Anders Wikimedia Commons A directive issued by the Costa Rican Security Ministry several months ago regulating the use of firearms by private security guards is being challenged in the country’s Constitutional Court, reported 93.5 FM Monumental Radio today. The challenge has being filed by Libertarian Movement party legislator, José Alberto Alfaro. Gustavo Mata, speaking with...

By Wendy Anders Each year, the United States determines the major illicit drug producing and major drug-transit countries; the major sources of precursor chemicals used in the production of illicit narcotics; and major money-laundering countries, according to the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) published today on the U.S. Department of State’s website. Costa Rica was ...

By Wendy Anders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruMVrMElzmQ Suspects wanted in the shooting of a Rumanian man outside a Santa Ana restaurant at 1:30 p.m. today remain at large. Updated at 6:45 p.m. Names of those injured and other details on the shooting have been updated and corrected with accurate information from police sources. This afternoon at around 1:30 p.m., two men fled the s...

By Wendy Anders Results of the second study on “public transparency” in which 206 of Costa Rica’s governmental agencies’ websites were scrutinized were made public today. Progress was found to be slow. The Municipality of Palmares was the only agency to score above 70 (out of 100) on ‘citizen participation’, which means their website allows for a moderate level of citizen involvement. ...

By Wendy Anders File photo Even the faithful aren't exempt from common crimes in Costa Rica. The latest church this year to be robbed in Costa Rica was the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Catholic Temple in the canton of Mora, which neighbors Santa Ana west of San José, reported Costa Rica’s tabloid El Diario Extra today. Based on police reports from municipal Mora police, the theft too...

By Wendy Anders Source: PRC FM The China-Latin America 10th Annual Business Summit is set to take place in China's northern Hebei Province in October, reported the China Xinhua News Network Corporation today. Chinese officials visiting Costa Rica say the activity is intended to boost economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, and with the Latin American region as a whole. ...

By Wendy Anders The first steps towards using dogs for detecting cancer in humans are being taken by the Costa Rican Canine Association, a civic group working throughout the country to promote and educate on dog-related issues to “have a positive impact on society,” according to their website. The Teletica Channel 7 news station last week reported on their latest push to train dogs in detect...

Mexico City, Sep 11 (EFE).- Thousands of people took to the streets in 120 cities across Mexico this weekend to protest President Enrique Peña Nieto's plan to amend the constitution to recognize same-sex marriages. The National Front for the Family organized marches Saturday in 29 Mexican states to express opposition to the same-sex marriage proposal unveiled by President Peña Nieto in May and ba...

By Wendy Anders EFE reported today on a CNN report that John Hinckley, the man who tried to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981 - wounding the president and three other people in the process - was released from a Washington, D.C., psychiatric hospital on Saturday. Hinckley was released from St. Elizabeth's Hospital, CNN said, Attorney Barry Levine, who had earlier c...

By Wendy Anders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvvkIGUA9Oo&feature=youtu.be A 59-year-old man was arrested today on charges of aggravated pimping at a clandestine bar/hotel in Guachipelin, Escazú, an upscale suburb west of San José, Costa Rica’s capital. After Judicial Investigative Agency police (OIJ) received a tip-off early this year they began investigating the building, which led to...

Part II in a series on 2018 Winter Olympic hopeful, Andre Moreno Hamm. By Wendy Anders It’s not the way most colllege students start their year in the U.S., but bi-national Andre Moreno Hamm, Costa Rica’s Winter Olympic hopeful slopestyle skier, isn’t your usual student. And right now, his studies at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah are on hold while he's in South America for a sk...

by Wendy Anders This week, the state-owned Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR) announced a new series of bank accounts that require fewer requisites to open. The three different types of accounts make banking in Costa Rica accessible for the first time to foreigners, youth, elderly, and others who may previously have found it difficult or impossible to supply the paperwork required to open a...