The Costa Rican government announced a new nationwide multi-institutional approach to preventing and combating violence against women, said the presidency this week. The focus is on prevention, redefining masculinity, and changing cultural gender norms. The policy envisions involving 22 state entities over the next 15 years to reduce violence against women in a country where over 13o women p...

The Costa Rican Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR, its initials in Spanish) sent out a notice to canopy tour operators in the country this week regarding an apparent expiration of the canopy patent, but the relief appears to be short-lived. For weeks, uncertainty has reigned among the industry since Canadian national, Darren Hreniuk, began attempting to charge canopy tours royalties based on a recent...

John Felix Bender, an American multi-millionaire hedge fund manager was found dead in his bed in Florida de Baru, Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica, with a bullet through the back of his head, in January 2010. His widow, Ann Patton Bender, was the only one at home with him at the time of his death. Since that tragic night, Ann Bender has been through three trials for intentional homicide, has served ni...

Are volcanoes in Costa Rica secretly conspiring to erupt simultaneously, or is there some science behind all the recent gas, lava and ash? Scientists are looking at the connection between the recent eruptions of three volcanoes and the energy released along fault lines. Two tectonic plates meet in Costa Rica: the Cocos and Caribbean,placing the country soundly within the globe's ring of fire, o...

Would you expect to find 19 roosters stashed in the trunk of a car? Well, Costa Rican police officers in the southern San José district of Desamparados were sure surprised when they decided to follow and search a suspicious-looking car. They found roosters stashed in the car trunk along with various implements used for cock fighting including 81 spurs for the roosters. When police were pa...

Costa Rica's lead researcher on snakebites and anti-venom serums says the health problem is unattractive to pharmaceutical companies due to the low profit margin, reported the Spanish news agency EFE this week. In an interview with EFE, Alberto Alape Giron, professor of biochemistry at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) said, “It’s not profitable (for these firms) to manufacture anti-venoms and...

In April this year, KLM Royal Dutch Airline announced they would start two weekly direct flights between Amsterdam and Costa Rica to accommodate growing European winter tourism to the tropical vacation haven starting October 31, 2017. This week the airline said they would be increasing that service to Costa Rica in the first quarter of 2018 with an additional flight. The third weekly flight ...

Around dawn today, Monday, June 26, San José, Costa Rica's police received an usual phone call. A man who had broken into someone's home was fast asleep on the couch, reported Channel 7 Teletica television news station. Apparently the man intended to rob a house in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, a southern San José district, but fell asleep in the living room instead. The home happened to be ...

The London-based company, OpenSignal, which studies coverage and performance of the wireless industry throughout the world, has published its most recent State of Mobile Networks Report for Costa Rica. The company analyzed 32,689,810 datapoints collected from 2,688 users during the period July 31 - October 30, 2016, according to the information on their website. The main deficiency among all t...

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, entered the following statement into the Congressional Record earlier this year to recognize Costa Rica’s strategic role as a democratic partner in the Western Hemisphere: “Mr. President: I rise today to recognize the productive partnership between the United States and Costa Rica. I recently had the cha...

Last week, first vice-president and minister of finance, Helio Fallas, was called to make a statement before the Legislative Assembly's Commission of Income and Public Expenditure as they work to settle the country's 2016 extraordinary budget, said the Finance Ministry in a statement. At his appearance before the commission, the minister said, "you are well aware ... that this extraordinary bud...

Sport fishermen in Costa Rica are even happier than usual these days with regular sightings of larger schools of fish and dolphins, said the Costa Rican Fishing Federation, FECOP. They are chalking the increasing up to tough restrictions signed into law by Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís in 2014 prohibiting tuna purse-seine operations within 45 miles of the coast. "This effectivel...

Diplomatic delegations from several embassies in Costa Rica have confirmed their participation in today’s LGBTI Diversity March which has as a slogan “Human Rights for Everyone”. The confirmed embassies include: USA, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Chile, France, UK, Netherlands, Israel, Mexico, Spain and EU as well as the UN System and its agencies. This is the eight edition of the Diversity Mar...

The 2017 Social Progress Index, published by the Social Progress Imperative, regional partner of the INCAE Sustainable Development (CLACDS) ranks Costa Rica in position 28 of 128. This year´s index shows that global leaders are facing two worrisome tendencies: a decline in personal rights, personal security, tolerance and inclusion and a slow and uneven progress globally. ¨At the Social Prog...

From July 14 to 26, downtown Santa Ana, a small city located about 10 miles west of San José, will be transformed into a fairground and cultural festival, said event organizers. The traditional patron saint festivities, known as "fiestas patronales" in Spanish, are being augmented with participation by the Santa Ana Chamber of Tourism to include a wide offering of free and fun activities. Be...

The Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (CADEXCO, its initials in Spanish) said it is concerned about the stagnation in exports in the country's priority sectors, according to reports in Central America's Summa business magazine this week. The agricultural sector, which represents 28 percent of the country's exports and is the largest employer in rural areas, has shown no growth this year compar...

Photo Credit: Mauricio Cortés / Rincón de la Vieja eruption seen from Upala The National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI), reported an eruption at the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste at 2:56 p.m. this Friday, June 23, where the column reached 2000 meters above the crater and 3,916 meters above sea level, (12844.48 ft). According to the report by ...

The Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers informed that this Saturday, June 24, a total of 155 thousand residents of San José will not have water service due to the preventive maintenance of the pumping stations of Puente Mulas 1 and 2. The first cut will affect 145 thousand people, the service will be interrupted starting at 8 a.m. and through 7 p.m. The affected communities include...

As is typical around the new moon, tides will be higher than usual starting tomorrow and lasting until around Wednesday of next week on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, detailed a report by Omar G. Lizano Rodríguez, coordinator of the Oceanographic Information Module (MIO, its initials in Spanish) at the University of  Costa Rica's Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Lim...

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Judith Garber is in San Jose, Costa Rica this week. Her 3-day visit will focus on environmental issues and sustainable trade, said the U.S. Department of State's office of the spokesperson in a statement Tuesday. On June 20, Garber met with Costa Rican Minister of Environment ...

On June 21, 2017, the former head of the Costa Rica Public Force (Fuerza Publica) was detained and arrested near Orotina for possible drug smuggling. Pizarro and three others were stopped on Highway 27, at Kilometer 57, in the Province of Alajuela. They were traveling in a truck with a false truck bed which contained 237 kilograms of cocaine. Pizarro was appointed Director of the Fuerza Publica...

The Costa Rican company Go Pato will launch their new drone delivery service “Go Pato Now” on June 26, the express service already has the authorization to operate provided by the Civil Aviation Direction. Go Pato is a messenger / personal assistant service that delivers packages around the country but also shops for things you may need and you don’t have the time to get yourself or you simply ...

Get ready for some great hoop in August when the University of Nevada men's basketball team arrives in Costa Rica for a week of matches. The Wolf Pack will take on the Costa Rican national men's basketball team and also squads from Canada from August 18 - 26. “We are so excited to take our foreign tour trip this year to Costa Rica in August,” said Eric Musselman, head coach, in a press relea...

The Seattle, Washington-based Starbucks is celebrating five years of operations in Costa Rica this week, and has announced its continued expansion both locally and in the rest of Central America. The chain has 35 stores in the region with 11 in both Costa Rica and El Salvador, seven in Guatemala, and six in Panama. Starbucks' first outlet in Costa Rica opened at Avenida Escazú. This year it ...

Terrazas Lindora received the world architecture award Prix Versailles 2017 as the best shopping center in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The Prix Versalles is an international award given out by the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) together with the International Union. Terrazas Lindora received the recognition back in May 12 in Paris, France. This ...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) announced the third phase of its solar conversion project, whose ultimate goal is to have all traffic lights running on solar power in the year 2022, said the institution in a press statement yesterday. This year, an additional 76 stop lights will have photovoltaic systems. The project has received US$1 million in funding from the Co...

With thousands of unresolved refugee applications, and more coming in each day, the country's Ombudsman's Office urged the country to comply with deadlines established under the law for processing the cases. In May alone this year 501 people applied for refugee status in Costa Rica, according to the General Directorate of Migration, bringing the total of pending refugee applications to 3,519. ...

To strengthen the country's national strategy on low carbon livestock (a program referred to with the initials ENGBC in Spanish), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the National Institute of Learning (INA) have joined to enhance the country's sustainable livestock production with more resources. Mauricio Chacón Navarro, manager of the national livestock program and coordinator ...

Costa Rica will see the growth of gourmet coffee and chocolate options with the expansion of Britt outlets. "Britt, besides being a gourmet brand of coffee and chocolates, is characterized by the high level of service that strengthens the creation of memorable experiences. The Britt Chocolateries try to instill a taste for good chocolate. We have seen that the customer who already consumes our ...

Costa Rica and Japan yesterday signed a financing for the sum of about US$240 million (25,991 million yen) for the construction of the Borinquen I geothermal energy plant, reported the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). This will be the third geothermal plant in the country, coming after the Miravalles and the Las Pailas projects. The 55-megawatt facility in the northern Gu...

Costa Rica’s Attorney General's office notified the Labor Ministry that the ministry is correct in applying retirement benefits to same-sex partners in the same way they do for heterosexual partners. "The response of the Office of the Attorney General helps to determine with legal certainty and clarity the path the national pensions directorate should take for the implementation of this legal c...

Costa Rican health officials will be assisted by four U.S. helicopters next week on a first-ever building project in the remote indigenous Talamanca region in the country's Limón province. The country's public health system administrators, the Costa Rican Social Security Agency or CCSS, will require the fly overs to do an exploratory tour, and also to transfer construction materials that will b...

A U.S. native by the last name of Baylor was refused entry into Costa Rica on June 15 for traveling with a stolen passport, reported local Channel 7 Teletica TV news. The man somehow managed to evade security checks at the country's main Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela near the capital city, and entered the country anyway, said the report. Police then issued an alert, and a...

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS, its initials in Spanish) will offer hormonal and psychological treatment to transsexual individuals, in order to avoid both physical and emotional complications; reported the agency yesterday, Monday, June 19. Last week, the CCSS board of directors approved an agreement instructing the medical management to establish an interdisciplinary health prof...

This week, Costa Rica embarks on a high-level tour in Japan to seek new markets for investment, trade and technical support to build capacity in Costa Rica, said the Costa Rican Investment and Development Agency (CINDE). "Strengthening trade ties with Japan is part of our government's efforts to diversify our economy. This work tour involves ... the promotion of investment, events with potentia...

Roger Leiva Calderon, President of AQUA and co-founder of FUDEBIOL Biological Center of Quebradas, led this year’s campaign to plant 500 new trees near and bordering the Quebradas River of Costa Rica’s Southern Zone. The last of the of the 500 trees was planted on Sunday, in celebration of El Dia del Arbol (The Day of the Tree), celebrated annually on June 15th, as signed into law by President Alf...

During a visit to Costa Rica, Minister Barbara Hendricks of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) of the Federal Republic of Germany, announced support in the amount of 15 million Euros to aid Costa Rica work on mitigation and adaptation to climate change, reported the Costa Rican government. During a visit that began on Friday 16 ...

The Coto 47 airfield along Costa Rica's Pacific coast, in the southernmost area of the Puntarenas province, about 10 miles form the Panamanian border, just got a major overhaul. The investment exceeded €1.02 billion or roughly US$1.76 million, and will benefit businesses, residents and visitors in the southern Pacific region, said the Costa Rican government in a press statement. Coto 47 (IAT...

Jorge Mario Marín, legal representative of the inventor of the canopy and its patent holder in Costa Rica, responded to a recent announcement by the Costa Rican Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) in which they said they would follow on the recent court ruling that returned the patent to its inventor. "We find it very unfortunate that the authorities of the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) have i...

The Butterfly Palace & Rainforest Adventure in Branson, Missouri announced big plans for increasing conservation efforts for butterflies in 2017, including a major land purchase in Costa Rica. “We are committing $90,000 over this next year to help save butterflies and the rainforests they call home,” said Butterfly Palace owner, Bruce Herschend, in a press release. The money will go towa...