Source: Wikimedia Commons HSI Media Release -- The Court of the Union of Tres Ríos made a major ruling in favor of animal welfare in Costa Rica after convicting a person for breeding dogs in an illegal breeding facility, or puppy mill. Humane Society International /Latin America applauded the court for its historic ruling, the first against a puppy mill. HSI worked with the National Animal Hea...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Prison officials in Costa Rica are on high alert as intelligence reports suggest that associates of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, could be plotting a daring escape. Such was the report published this morning by daily tabloid Diario Extra, which includes statements by Reinaldo Villalobos, Director of Social Integr...

Wikimedia Commons At electronic music clubs and bars that cater to LGBT crowds in Costa Rica, revelers and couples are increasingly using a drug that enhances their sensorial experience while facilitating anal intercourse. Amyl nitrite, a vasodilator that in the early 20th century was often prescribed in the treatment of angina pectoris, is currently undergoing a resurgence in Costa Rica, a...

Source: MSP Ministry of Public Security / Official Communique CP-1319-2015 – Police officers assigned to the port city of Limon, located in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica, rescued five sea turtles in the nick of time, thereby preventing their slaughter by nefarious poachers. The incident occurred in Moin, near the area located between the beach and the maritime shipping docks. Officers ...

Source: Southwest Airlines DALLAS, July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) is launching a three-day sale offering extra low fares for fall travel to its international destinations from ten domestic cities including Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore/Washington, Dallas, Denver, Houston (Hobby), Chicago-Midway, Orlando, Orange County, and San Antonio. Customers can take advantage of...

WestJet CALGARY, July 20, 2015 /CNW/ - WestJet today announced it is launching new non-stop service to Florida, Mexico and Costa Rica, as well as adding more than 85 flights across its growing domestic and international network, as part of its winter 2015-2016 flight schedule. WestJet's regional airline, WestJet Encore, will also begin service three times a day to Boston, its first U.S. destin...

The Observatory on Seismology and Volcanology of Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: OVSICORI) of the National University is monitoring a new earthquake cluster in the province of Cartago, not far from the Irazu volcano. According to an update by the OVSICORI geologists, more than 400 seismic disturbances ranging between one and three degrees on the moment magnitude scale have been detected over the last...

Seeds of Hope staff with the girls they rescue in Costa Rica For more than three years, a woman from the United States has provided advocacy and hope to young victims of sexual exploitation in Costa Rica. Penny Williams, a businesswoman from Southern California, was recently profiled in the Valley Roadrunner, a newspaper serving the community of Valley Center near San Diego. Ms. Williams' non-...

A missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, founded in the United States by Joseph Smith in the 19th century, was found dead in the home where he was staying while conducting his religious work in Costa Rica. The incident occurred in the rural community of Sarapiqui, located near the western edge of the Caribbean region of our country. The Mormon missionary had arrived in C...

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Media Release -- A third location for Operation Jairo, the 2015 Sea Turtle Defense Campaign, will be launched in Florida this week. The campaign will bring Sea Shepherd volunteers from Belgium, China, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States to the shores of southeastern Florida’s Greater Fort Lauderdale area beginning on Wednesday, July 15. Opera...

Francisco Morazan Park in San Jose. Source: Wikimedia Commons Couples in the midst of intercourse and prostitutes flashing intimate body parts to prospective clients are the two most common sexual acts that officers from the Municipal Police, Transit Police and Fuerza Publica encounter as they conduct their daily patrols across Costa Rica. According to a late 2014 report filed by metro reporte...

A criminal defense attorney has been arrested and charged under suspicion of smuggling cocaine into a Costa Rica prison. According to a news report by metro reporter Manuel Estrada of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the legal professional has been identified by the last name of Ruiz, and he was caught in act by corrections officers at the San Sebastian prison, located in the northern districts of San ...

Sea Shepherd Media Release – Volunteers for the 2015 Sea Turtle Defense Campaign Operation Jairo are currently on the ground in Costa Rica and Honduras, defending endangered nesting turtles and their eggs from poaching. With an average of only one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings surviving to adulthood, these imperiled marine animals need our help in order to have a fighting chance against extinctio...

La Fortuna, Costa Rica :The Costa Rica Tour Company is expanding to La Fortuna, Costa Rica to accommodate a growing luxury adventure vacation market. Baby boomers now control 80% of all financial assets, account for half of all consumer spending and 80% of all leisure travel, according to Covington Capital Management.The first baby boomers reached the average retirement age in 2013, and with milli...

Source: MSP Last week, officers from Fuerza Publica (the national police force of Costa Rica) assigned to the Caribbean region rescued a green sea turtle that was likely on its way to being butchered. The incident occurred in the port city of Limon during an operation conducted by members of the Special Intervention Unit (Spanish initials: UIP), who were working together with Fuerza Publica...

Source: MSP Five men were arrested earlier this week after police officers found them in possession of a butchered sea turtle from a virtually extinct species that is just starting to return to Costa Rica. According to an official communication from the Ministry of Public Security, the incident occurred in Moin, a coastal district of the Caribbean province of Limon.   Officers from ...

Source: U.S. Embassy The National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica will be augmenting its marine and shore patrols in the Pacuare sector of the Caribbean province of Limon. According to a news report filed by Angie Guerrero of online news daily CRHoy.com, four to five Coast Guard officers per shift will be assigned to patrol Pacuare in light of the attacks on volunteers from the Sea Shepherd ...

U.S. State Department Stafford Fitzgerald Haney was formally introduced as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Costa Rica on Tuesday afternoon at the San Pedro office of the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano. He arrived in our country over the weekend. During his press conference, Ambassador S. Fitzgerald Haney, an econo...

Source: Fuerza Publica Since March, officers from Fuerza Publica (the national police force of Costa Rica) assigned to the Caribbean port city of Limon have been conducting nighttime beach patrols for the purpose of bringing protection to the sea turtles that massively arrive during nesting season. When the officers working the night shift attend roll call and receive their patrol briefing,...

Source: Sea Shepherd SEA SHEPHERD Media Release -- A group of 11 volunteers working with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Sea Turtle Defense Campaign Operation Jairo were physically attacked by poachers last night during a peaceful patrol of Costa Rica’s Pacuare Beach to locate and protect nesting endangered turtles and their eggs. Two volunteers sustained minor injuries. Upon spotting t...

The R/V Martin Sheen. Source: Sea Shepherd Sea Shepherd Media Release -- Fresh off the successful first leg of its vaquita porpoise defense campaign Operation Milagro in the Sea of Cortez, Sea Shepherd USA’s sailing research vessel the R/V Martin Sheen has arrived in Costa Rica, where Sea Shepherd has begun an ocean research and public awareness campaign. Now sailing under the command of Ca...

Carlos Arredondo Peace activist Carlos Arredondo, known for his heroic actions to assist victims of the terrible Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, is not in agreement with the capital punishment imposed on convicted terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Speaking to daily tabloid La Teja a few weeks ago, Mr. Arredondo explained that: “I was hoping for life in prison. What will happen now that he has bee...

Coco Island. Source: Wikimedia Commons Rare avian species are being decimated by voracious rodents in the pristine Costa Rica island that inspired Jurassic Park. According to a recent news report filed by science journalist Michelle Soto of national newspaper La Nacion, four bird species in Isla del Coco (Cocos Island) are easy prey for rats that arrived on pirate ships nearly 500 years ago. ...

WASHINGTON & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global well-being improvement leader Healthways, Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY) and world-leading management consulting firm Gallup have released their comprehensive analysis of well-being around the world, the Gallup-Healthways State of Global Well-Being: 2014 Country Well-Being Rankings Report. According to the report, Panama was the nation with the highe...

SEED FREEDOM Press Release -- Personalities from the eco-scientific and organic agriculture environments are speaking up against the letter from the American Embassy, in which the Costa Rican government is put under pressure to adopt transgenic seeds. Vandana Shiva has joined the International Alliance for monitoring transgenic bio-colonialism in centers of origin of biodiversity and countries ...

A tracking device installed in a vehicle stolen from an expat resident from the United States helped law enforcement agents take down a den of thieves located in the southern suburbs of San Jose. According to a news report filed by Patricia Duran of daily tabloid Diario Extra, a 37-year old man is in custody for his alleged role in this larcenous ring. As previously reported by The Costa Rica S...

Source: Flickr Commons UPDATE: Daily tabloid Diario Extra reports that the 46-year old expat resisted the carjacking and was shot during a struggle that occurred outside the vehicle. An expat from the United States by the last name of Morehead sustained a gunshot wound and was rushed to the hospital after an apparent carjacking in Costa Rica.  According to a news report published by online ...

Source: OIJ A top law enforcement agent in Costa Rica has been arrested under suspicion of being involved in a bizarre intimidation scheme that resulted in the wrongful detention of three visitors from the United States, one of them a former police officer. Early reports on this strange situation indicate that the strong-arming may be tied to unethical practices in the lucrative real estate ma...

They miss Jairo. Source: Sea Shepherd (Sea Shepherd Press Release) -- Volunteers from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Operation Jairo campaign, currently protecting sea turtles and their nests in Pacuare, Limon, Costa Rica, have warned that poachers in the area are planning actions against their personal safety. Operation Jairo Ground Leader for Costa Rica, Brett Bradley reports that he...

LONDON, June 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Escalating civil strife and the consequent refugee crisis have been among the key drivers in increasing the cost of global violence containment, according to the 2015 Global Peace Index published today by the global think-tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace. Since 2008 the total economic impact of violence has increased by US$1.9 trillion (+15.3%). ...

Source: Marta Castro Facebook Three surfers waiting for sets at a prime spot in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica this past weekend were surprised to see a deer rush out of the forest and jump right into the water, whereupon it walked on the shallow reef section before swimming out to meet the breakers. According to a news report filed by Marcela Cantero of national newspaper La Nacion, the...

Flickr Commons LYON, France – (INTERPOL Press Release) -- Car parts, fuel, food, detergent, cigars, shampoo and steel were among fake goods worth nearly USD 60 million seized in a two-week operation across the Americas and the Caribbean. Codenamed Maya II, more than 2,000 interventions by police, customs, investigators and Intellectual Property (IP)...

One of the most lucrative film enterprises in history features Costa Rica as a fictional backdrop; alas, our country has not been able to profit from this sci-fi relationship -until now. The buzz created by the release of Jurassic World could translate into a Jurassic perk for Costa Rica in the form of increased tourism. Reviews for the long-awaited summer blockbuster are in, and for the most p...

University of Costa Rica Campus Yesterday afternoon, pedestrians and motorists transiting near the main campus of the University of Costa Rica were surprised to see a nubile woman and two young men walking in the middle of a busy roadway, completely naked and carrying planters. As a result of this au naturel display, which took place at the same time rush hour was beginning in the capital c...

Source: MSP Officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica were busy earlier this week in the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica as they intercepted a large shipment of compressed and vacuum-sealed marijuana aboard two motor vessels: one named “Leon” and the other “FIFA.” Four suspects were detained in the operation, which started with maritime surveillance by means of vis...

FINCA LUNA NUEVA, Costa Rica—Representatives from organizations as diverse as Texas A&M University, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Patagonia, Greenpeace and The Millennium Institute are participating in a three-day conference in Costa Rica. The participants are working together to develop and promote a significantly different approach to food production, land use and climate chang...

Poacher caugh in the act. Source: Sea Shepherd SEA SHEPHERD Media Release -- Just days after the May 31st launch of sea turtle defense campaign Operation Jairo, Sea Shepherd volunteers have located and stopped a poaching operation on Costa Rica’s Pacuare Beach. Shortly after darkness began to fall on the night of June 4th, Sea Shepherd volunteers were preparing to begin their nightly beach ...

Kayak screenshot on June 3, 2015 During a few weeks in June and July, low airfare hunters flock to select websites in search of travel deals to Costa Rica. Finding these deals takes a certain amount of skills and luck; to this end, joining an online community of bargain hunters will greatly help. Take, for example, the flight shown on the screenshot included in this article: Round-trip from Bo...

WireService.ca Media Release (06/01/2015) FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash - In January, Sea Shepherd USA purchased two recently decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard patrol vessels, the USCG Block Island and the USCG Pea Island. Both are 110-foot Island-class fast patrol vessels. The two ships now renamed the Jules Verne and the Farley Mowat,purchased in Baltimore, are now berthed in Key West, Florida. Sea Sh...

The adult victims. Source: Fuerza Publica The brutal murder of two children and their parents in a small town in Costa Rica has devastated the community of Copey, located in the Dota Valley, a region renowned for its quality coffee. Although the facts surrounding this horrible incident are somewhat cloudy, law enforcement agents and investigators are considering the possible involvement of a U...