With the upcoming Semana Santa holidays, an inspection report sponsored by the commerce ministry yielded startlingly high results in the number of times fishmongers failed to comply with required...
One of the country’s most pristine and biodiverse sections of the near Pacific has been designated as a marine reserve to protect it.
After a crackdown on a club and another raid yielding a substantial amount of drugs, the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública is announcing a zero-hour nationwide crackdown beginning the first of May...
A sudden rise in the water bill is hitting some of the residents and business owners from Playa Hermosa and Esterillos Oeste hard. Both areas are located in the Pacific province of Puntarenas.
The Poder Judicial will be the focus of an extensive report that will be released a week from today. This is another product of the Programa Estado de la Nación that is sponsored by the Consejo ...
Plenty of expats hold or formed inactive corporations to their own dwellings, motor vehicles and boats. This is an asset protection measure, and an inactive corporation does not have to file tax ...
Discovery Communications Inc., owners of Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, has licensed its name to a major eco-tourism project in Guanacaste, according to a tweet Sunday night.
The lack of environmental and municipal permits along with the water distribution crisis in Guanacaste could be major roadblocks for the development of the Discovery Costa Rica theme park, announ...
U.S. officials see immigration from the south not as individual Latin Americans seeking a better life but as a network used by criminal cartels and smugglers to move hundreds of tons of drugs int...
Four U.S. family members, two of them young girls, were rescued Wednesday afternoon at Guanacaste’s Playa Flamingo. Guardacostas said their rented kayak flipped over and forced them to swim ove...
Costa Rica seems to have been spared the hysteria over cattle mutilations, perhaps because there are real predators and real rustlers here.
Restricting hate speech on the Internet seems like a no-brainer until the long-term complexities are considered.
In the last three years, the government under Luis Guillermo Solís transferred about $2.8 million in subsidies to the Catholic Church. The vast majority of funds have been used to support Christ...
The legislative faction of the Frente Amplio political party submitted a bill that promises to curtail, what the party sees as a failing taxation system that allows many individuals and corporati...
The relationship between private security and organizations within the government flits between an understanding as to the necessity of wanting safety for people and property but also an apparent...
The May Day parades in Costa Rica often espouses socialist, Communist and generally left-leaning ideologies. Most of the unions and leftist political parties participate in the pomp and pageantry...
The Cámara Costarricense de Bienes Raíces is working to propose a new bill that would require mandatory licensing for anyone working in the real estate business.
A conflict is brewing between the Municipalidad de Montes de Oca and the central government. The dispute illustrated the lack of power that local governments have in some cases.
The hidden horror of household rapes came to light again this week with an allegation that a 12-year old had become pregnant after relations with her father.
The government's animal health service is blaming high water temperatures and a lack of oxygen for the death of millions of sardines. But the report released Friday does not disclose any root cau...
A major environmental disaster and a mystery have appeared at the northern beaches of the Gulf of Nicoya. Hundreds of thousands of fish have died and are now floating in the gulf or covering the ...
Despite its reputation of not having an military, Costa Rica is quickly increasing its law enforcement personal and the equipment they use. The security minister was at the legislature Thursday a...
Doña Castillo has been selling lottery tickets at the same spot at Mercado Central for almost 55 years. She took over from her mother who had also been selling those lottery tickets at that very...
Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio will remain open for another three months, according to a Tuesday night report by the health ministry.
Most expats probably would never dream of eating horse meat, but they probably have already. There is a steady trade, both legal and illegal, in horse meat in Costa Rica. And most of the horses e...
The finance ministry said Monday it has entered into an no-bid agreement with the state telecom company to rent a data center for $551,898 a month. This is a three-year agreement that can be exte...
New rules are causing headaches among some residents on the Osa Peninsula who want greater and more efficient access to Parque Nacional Corcovado.
A meeting here to promote baseball in the public schools begins Sunday with –- what else? -- a baseball game.
Lawmakers have received a proposal that make shareholders in a company responsible for the firm’s debts with the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social.
The Corporación Arrocera Nacional is a government agency that buys the rice from producers and maintains a market price. Imports have to be approved. And there is a 32 percent import duty. Altho...
U.S. scientists say they will try to find out if solar storms cause whales, dolphins and porpoises to lose their orientation and beach themselves around the world.
The finance minister told lawmakers Monday that proposed increases in taxes would not solve the country’s unsustainable financial problems but that new levies would give some breathing space fo...
The Sala IV constitutional court has given the judiciary 30 days to hide the identification of individuals who are barred from leaving the country.
Judicial agents today raided a home in Liberia and took into custody a man who is the principal suspect in the murder of four university students and a friend Jan. 19.
Dial 911, and help should come, but expats may question exactly how long help will take to arrive in Costa Rica.
Central government officials will renew their $35 million bets on a massive convention center when they hold a cornerstone ceremony this morning at the site.
A new traffic law calls for the removal of license plates on cars owned by foreigners who get caught driving past the three-month limit allowed tourists, according to the Ministerio de Obras Púb...
Duolingo continues to be a winner in language learning, a newspaper study has shown.
IHamaseh Tayari, a United Kingdom resident who holds an Iranian passport, had been on holiday in Costa Rica with her boyfriend for the last week. When she tried to leave, she inadvertently ran af...
Lawmakers have advanced a measure that would put an estimated 2,000 convicts at work in the community on what are being called useful projects.
Investigators trying to find the murder of five young people in Liberia have a tattoo as a clue. According to testimony from the young surviving female victim, a 14 year old, the killer had an As...
A shipping container bearing donated medical supplies for underprivileged people is being held for months over a demand for import duties at the Costa Rican port of Caldera.
Newspaper editors have a kinship with poets because headline writers do much the same job: Arrange words to create a new and impactful way of looking at the world.
The shouts of solidarity and the marching along the beaches or in the streets for women’s rights and other issues of social justice took place in Costa Rica Saturday as well as around the world...
Investigators say that a trio of individuals accused of property fraud hag a great quantity of driver's licenses, passports, identity cédulas, school diplomas and other identification documents.
U.S. expats in Costa Rica are at least as divided and hesitant as those back home. On the day before Donald Trump is inaugurated president, few here wanted to voice an opinion.
Tourists on a six-hour Pacific dophin-watching trip got much more than they bargained for when the motor of their boat failed and they overnighted on the ocean.
Three women and two young men died at the hands of a killer in Liberia, and another young woman barely survived, judicial agents said today. The scene was in Barrio La Victoria, and most if not a...
Chinese-Costa Ricans took to the streets of the capital Tuesday after what some called the last straw in lawlessness. The murder of a Chinese store clerk in La Teresa de Guápiles de Pococí igni...
The U.S. Treasury Department has declined to adopt the same country exemption that would free many expats from burdensome reporting requirements.
Joaquín Jiménez, lifelong resident of San José, has been selling his street treats for about 40 years. With a smile and a wink, he said it is because he likes to talk to people, whether foreig...
The cold front that brought high winds and rain has moved on, and rivers in the northern zone are becoming lower.
U.S. President Barack Obama pulled the plug on Cuban migrants who may be passing through Costa Rica on their way to the United States. The president announced a change in immigration policy that ...
The public works ministry announced Wednesday night that, in addition to the 24-hour closing starting today, the Río Virilla bridge eastbound will be out of commission for six weeks beginning Ja...
Another traffic disaster is in the works. The public works ministry said Tuesday that the eastbound lanes of the Río Virilla bridge on the General Cañas autopista would be closed for 24 hours s...
AN EDITORIAL: Costa Rica can do much more to reduce violence than just doing an ad campaign, as was reported Tuesday.
A proposed tax on corporations is being referred to the Sala IV constitutional court after the measure passed on first reading 40-10 Monday. The action by lawmakers from the Partido Liberación N...
An organization that is an advocate for sex workers is renewing its crusade for legal status for the profession.
An researcher in a new study in Antarctica warns that conditions may mark the beginning of another swift and long-lasting period of sea-level rise that would affect coastal areas and countries su...
The government keeps grinding toward a system where bus passengers will pay their fares electronically. A report Thursday said the project had completed the first phase, which was discussions of ...
The judiciary says it would like a little help in locating 38 criminals that it has misplaced. The Poder Judicial noted Wednesday that it has a website that contains the identification and photos...
The war on sex seems to be faltering along with the drug war. In both cases, the United States and its Costa Rican surrogate are involved in battles punctuated by misinformation and strong ideolo...
Metro area residents might have burning eyes, and those with a respiratory illness may have suffered a reverse in the healing process.
Those Nigerian scammers are starting the new year with a replay of the iPhone fraud. Expats need to be aware because English-language newspapers have published advertising submitted by these croo...
As Costa Ricans return to work today after a 10-day break, they will find a percentage of their colleagues hacking with a chest cough. This is the current wave of the flu virus that has been attr...
As the seconds tick away to 2017, thoughts turn to an exciting New Year’s Eve. But after the hangover, there are some realities to consider that affect expat life here.
International crime is growing so sophisticated that the one-time cartels and terrorist groups are being called threat networks, basically separate groups of criminals working together for mutual...
For many expats the end of the year means the annual encounter with the government as they seek to pay a variety of taxes.
Through smatterings of rain, the Tope Nacional parade continued through Paseo Colón Monday with enough booze to sink a ship and a lot of decorated horses with their costumed riders.
The tourism ministry and the agency that runs the Caribbean ports have plans to turn the Limón docks into a home port for passenger ships.
The government is coming up with $2.1 million to buy lands for squatters who were evicted or who face eviction from the Finca Chánguena.
The tamal still reigns as one of the archetypical dishes found in most of Latin America.
Health officials say that in Costa Rica flu season is all year long. The tropics host a list of respiratory viruses that are active all year, according to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social....
'The nine days before Christmas are when the faithful take to the streets to imitate the biblical trek by Mary and Joseph for a place to stay in Bethlehem.
The Fuerza Pública said Tuesday that its officers detained 52,425 persons already this year on drug offenses.
Consumers will pay 1 percent less sales tax if they pay with a credit or debit card under a bill that won final passage Monday.
Corruption problems within the police forces are far greater than 115 officers whose dismissal the Seguridad Pública minister announced Thursday.
The flood of fake news has reached the real news headlines. Hillary Clinton, a frequent target of untruthful news-type stories, called such articles a danger that must be addressed quickly becaus...
The Defensoría, the nation's ombudsman, has put out a call for various sectors of the population to promote the importance of human rights and defend them. Here are some gripes that expats have ...
A long-time participant in a property dispute is trying to rally others similarly affected to bring such situations to the attention of the new U.S. administration.
Expats who may be sick of elections will be unhappy to learn that the drums are starting to beat for Costa Rica's presidential vote in February 2018. So the year that starts in less than a month ...
The environmental agency has give a go-ahead to the reconstruction of 107 kilometers of Ruta 32 from Matina to Río Frio.
The legislature received this week a bill to formalize the control of the government over medical and what is being called wellness tourism.
Cantons hit by Hurricane Otto now face a spike in illnesses in the aftermath. The Ministerio de Salud said Tuesday that it had stemmed an outbreak of diarrhea in one of the public shelters.
A travel Web site operator with the unique name costarica.com says in U.S. court papers that it lost rights to the domain to a hacker.
No one can fault Costa Ricans on their fabled generosity. The country’s residents always come up with unexpected donations after disaster strikes.
Government and local officials are assessing the damage today in the wake of Hurricane Otto that killed at least eight persons in northern Costa Rica.
A high probability exists that Hurricane Otto will not make landfall in Costa Rica. The system collapsed into a tropical storm Wednesday morning and started movement to the north. That gave hope ...
The Poder Judicial has confirmed that the Fundación Rahab was the organization that initiated a criminal case against David Strecker, a U.S. citizen, on a charge of writing about sex tourism in ...
Relentless rains have provoked evacuations, wrecked roadways and caused slides in the southern zone. One slide smashed into a building housing the director of the Golfito campus of the Universida...
Internet and phone connections are essential for effective communicators and for success in business. A new study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panamá shows that connections ...
A private firm has taken a step forward on the obvious possibility of a dry canal across the northern part of Costa Rica.
Those not involved in the drug trade as dealers or users might not understand the economics that leads gangs to shoot competitors in the street.
A proposed law would require everyone doing business to register and pay a fee to the economics ministry and also would create an elaborate bureaucratic structure to promote entrepreneurship.
Expats and Costa Ricans continued to vent Wednesday for and against the results of Tuesday’s election. One misinformed reader emailed “to all you losers who supported Clinton against Trump in...
Donald Trump gave a conciliatory victory speech early today, but most Latin Americas are deeply concerned.
The Ministerio de Hacienda admitted Monday that its customs unit had impounded 5,000 packages sent from abroad. This affects more than 1,500 would be recipients, it said.
What better way to welcome December, the month of Christmas, than with the illumination of the Museo de los Niño. This is a very big deal directed to families, so much so that major downtown roa...
My mother got home late than night in 1948 because she was tied up swinging the election for Harry Truman.
Caribbean coast residents are upset today in the wake of a theft last Thursday. They are less upset with the petty thieves than with Fuerza Pública officers who never showed up despite multiple ...
Customs inspectors are taking a closer look at arriving air travelers with big suitcases, according to the Ministerio de Hacienda.
A legislative committee is considering a bill that would eliminate mandatory pricing by members of colegios, those government created professional organizations. There are many but not all have m...
On top of complex criminal networks that may, among other dangers, move terrorists into the United States, U.S. military planners are worried about increased Russian activity in Latin America.
Lawmakers Monday gave initial approval to a bill that would impose a moratorium on evictions in the country’s maritime zone.
Politicians are well known for playing fast and loose with the truth. Witness the presidential elections in the United States.
The Comisión de Fiestas de San José began the countdown Thursday for the big Christmas parade, the Festival de la Luz. The event draws perhaps as many as a million spectators and participants t...
Costa Ricans have a soft spot for overkill, at least in statistics. In an assessment of poverty in Costa Rica, a lot of survey firms would randomly select a bit more than 1,000 homes and conduct ...
They say that someday insects will take over the earth. But first, they probably will take over the menu.
Expats who own inactive corporations to protect assets like vehicles and homes are being put in a bad light by a new proposal.
Mayors from the metro area are scheduled to meet for two days, starting Wednesday, to set up a developmental agenda.
While Costa Rica seeks to put a lid on carbon dioxide emissions, tons of much more powerful methane gas are being liberated each day from the nation’s oceans.
The response Thursday to a bus disaster showed the country at its best. Not only did the Cruz Roja, fire fighters, hospital workers and police demonstrate their training, but even farm workers an...
Anyone who worries about health knows that salt should be limited. But salt is a preservative as well as a flavor enhancer in food.
A.M. Costa Rica cannot endorse either of the leading candidates for the U.S. presidency. Both appear to be inept, irresponsible and dangerous.
The Sixth Annual Freedom Online Conference opens today in Escazú full of contradictions. One of the principal supporters is the United States, one of 30 members of the sponsor, the Freedom Onlin...
For Costa Ricans, the Constitution is not the highest law of the land. That document is outranked by international agreements that have a continual impact on the social system here.
Some U.S. expats here say they are not voting in the general election Nov. 8. The reasons range from simple apathy to rejection of candidates of both major political parties.
That thick steak on the plate might have come from a critter that whinnied instead of mooed. Expats who buy their dinner at non-standard outlets are vulnerable to getting mystery meat.
Costa Rican society is full of little hidden taxes that benefit a minority. There is the stamp for the Cruz Roja. The lawyer’s monopoly, the Colegio de Abogados, has a stamp.
Extensive hurricane damage in Haiti is likely to result in more illegal immigrants slipping into Costa Rica on their way to the United States.
Lawmakers defeated a proposal to give speedy consideration to a tax on corporations when 25 of the 41 present voted against the idea.
Costa Rica is getting five times as many refugee requests this year as it can handle administratively, according to an expert on the topic.
Migrants who have money continue to move through Costa Rica and to the countries to the north even though Nicaragua officially has closed its border.
Government officials agreed Monday to launch an effort to reduce the number of employees who are working off the books in Costa Rica.
The HBO channel on the various national cable television networks is showing “Spotlight” as one of the featured films for October.
Many have launched criticisms of the country’s judicial system. Now the fiscal general, the nation’s top policeman has said the problem is the inconsistencies in the criminal policies that ha...
Crime sometimes is like a bolt of lightning, and the victims just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The government said that it will begin moving illegal migrants to two new and temporary camps near the country’s northern border.
An expat businessman now in Guanacaste has been thrust into the limelight again because the murder of his wife in Georgia reached its 10th anniversary.
A bill in the legislature, No. 20043, seeks to create a national structure for lifeguard training and certification. The bill also orders municipalities that have beaches designated as dangerous ...
The government has not prompted Costa Rica as a telecommuting location for foreigners. But some landlords are doing that now, and several travel and relocation agencies also have promoted the con...
We present you with a simple news quiz.
Like everyone who had a front-row seat to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey and the subsequent investigation, I think I know who killed her, and it was not her 9-year-old brother Burke.
Costa Rica’s president was in accord with other world leaders Monday when he called for countries of origin and those of transit and destination to collaborate to help migrants.
An independent San Diego, California, television station has done what many networks promise. They went there.
The nation’s public health agency wants to deliver medicines to remote areas by drone, but the biggest hurdle might be bureaucratic.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would apply a small tax to plastic drink containers and those small cardboard boxes known as tetrapaks.
Two unions of employees who work in the nation’s public health agency said Tuesday that there are 600,000 patients on various types of waiting lists and that workers face threats in order to ke...
A lawmaker seeks to end the curious Costa Rican practice of law officers covering the faces of criminal suspects.
An environmental report of dust problems in the lower Nicoya peninsula cites tangible dangers, particularly to the 1,446 youngsters who live there and are the most vulnerable.
Everyone knows that Costa Rica confiscates tons of cocaine each year. Usually the drugs come from boats captured in the Pacific or from hidden places in international trucks.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that, if passed, will have an impact on society by outlawing discrimination. For the first time, discrimination would be a criminal offense drawing prison terms.
The Defensoría de los Habitantes says it is launching a major study on the use of agricultural chemicals in Costa Rica.
The U.S. Coast Guard appears to have moved its policy of shooting at the boats of smugglers further south. The latest reported incident, a fatal one, happened in the Pacific west of Costa Rica’...
The open government initiative, Gobierno Abierto, is asking residents to give their opinions on where they find corruption in their daily lives.
The capital’s main meeting spot has been off-limits since February because the concrete expanse also is the roof of the Museos de Banco Central. And the roof has long been a source of leaks.
Expats can be forgiven for ignoring news stories about the Costa Rican budget and the national deficit. In the long run though, national finances, however boring, have a lot do to do with the qua...
An expat advocacy organization wants the leading U.S. presidential candidates to outline their positions on a number of issues affecting overseas Americans.
The finance minister was almost apologetic Wednesday when he outlined the national budget for next year.
We think Trump was wrong when he said he would deport all those who are in the country illegally.
Killing adult mosquitoes is not enough to eliminate the zika virus,Texas researchers have determined.
Lawmakers passed on first reading Monday night a bill that discourages marriage by persons under 18. The measure also stipulates prison penalties for older individuals involved in sexual relation...
Residents of Playa Hermosa and Playa Panamá in Guanacaste plan to present a petition to the state water company today begging for better service
Costa Rica has a 2012 law prohibiting calling the country a sex tourism destination. Based on an internet search, the law has not had much impact.
Expats reacted favorably Thursday to an A.M. Costa Rica editorial urging the Costa Rican government to just say no to the drug war.
Correos de Costa Rica came out with its annual national park stamp.This year the Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas on the Pacific coast is featured as well as the leatherback turtles (Dermochelys...
We are suggesting that Costa Rica just say no to the war on drugs. And we renew our call to have the country legalize both marijuana, cocaine and the related substances.
The United Nation’s Children’s Fund is urging that the United States do not detain illegal youngsters who are successful in sneaking into the country.
Modern myths always have been with us, and many, sad to say, were created by the news media. But today the Internet seems to rank high on myths, which become more shrilled as the November electio...
The meeting Costa Rican officials attended in Washington,. D.C., Monday was unusual. The schedule said they would meet with Vice President Joe Biden. President Barack Obama showed up, too, even t...
The New Economic Foundation ranked Costa Rica again first on its annual Happy Planet Index. But more and more news outlets are tumbling to the fact that this means something other than what the w...
Music may seem free when it flows from a radio, the television or an internet hookup, but like everything else someone has to pay.
The environmental ministry presented the Paris climate accord to lawmakers Wednesday for approval. This is the agreement Costa Rica and other nations approved last December which now needs legisl...
Moving money into and out of Costa Rica is becoming more difficult even if the motive is clearly legal.
The Obama administration plan to put 200 or more youngsters from El Salvador in temporary quarters in Costa Rica is unusual and substantially less than what had been announced earlier.
Finca Los Cusingos, the home of the famed naturalist Alexander Skutch for more than 60 years, attracts wildlife lovers and those wanting to see a sample of the simpler life of past times in Costa...
An estimated 60,000 persons showed up on Jacó Sunday for the finals of the World Surfing Games. Even though Costa Rica’s team finished out of the money, the successful week-long event was a vi...
A small percentage of readers are true believers in the theory that governments are sowing the atmosphere with evil chemicals.
The purpose of the $35,000 campaign is to raise awareness of women to street harassment and to warn off aggressive men.
Casa Presidencial reported that one illegal migrant, a Haitian, has been deported. But the solution to Costa Rica’s growing migrant problem may be along way off. A vice minister said Wednesday ...
Better berries is the goal of an organization that has been formed by strawberry producers.
One of the more powerful weapons in the arsenal of the Costa Rica’s tax collector is something called Artículo 144.
One problem is that a phrase or concept can stick in the mind and falsely present itself as an original thought days or weeks later.
A man reported to live in Costa Rica, Laurence Keith Allen, has been indicted in New York on a charge of illegal gambling. Others in the indictment are accused of extortion, arson, racketeers and...
Expat reactions were mixed over a proposed law that would freeze suspicious property transfers to reduce fraud.
A lawmaker who is a presidential candidate has proposed a law that would let the Registro Nacional freeze transactions that are suspicious.
The central government is trying to come to grips with the new flood of migrants who are entering the country illegally at the rate of from 100 to 150 a day.
Costa Rica got a bad rap last week when a local mom went public with her 7 year old’s bot fly problem.
An international survey of expats puts Costa Rica first in having the best weather.
The pilgrimage symbolizes the difficult path of life upwards to a Christian heaven or, perhaps, a Buddhist nirvana. Those Costa Ricans who were on the trail Sunday or who will be on the trail tod...
Another group is trying to corner its labor market. A legislative committee just voted out a proposal to create a colegio for political scientists.
There is a pretty good chance that an electronic list of the nation’s company shareholders will not be online any time soon.
Costa Rica will host for six months about 200 people from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as part of an Obama administration plan to bring more Central Americans into the United States.
The central government is creating a plan so that interested citizens can take to the fields, forests and mangroves to enforce environmental laws.
The inevitable crocodile attack on a surfing tourist came as no surprise to some Tamarindo residents because they have been pointing out the danger for months.
Although most of the terrestrial world is covered in trees, there are precious few vertebrates that make the canopy their home and subsist solely on a diet of leaves.
This week University of New Mexico experts come out with a major finding. They determined that milk was the best way to stop the burning from eating chile peppers.
There are many traffic trouble spots in the metro area. But the route from La Uruca into Heredia most certainly is cursed.
Casa Presidencial announced the resignation of Guillermo Santana as head of the state rail lines in an unusual Sunday night news release. The release said that Santana was leaving for personal re...
The possibility of terrorism attacks and the racial divide are causing some in the United States to look to other lands.
The presence of the Italian Mafia here extends much further than the silent ownership of a few sportsbooks.
Based on the amount of blood found in her Playa Langosta home, Barbara Struncova most likely was a murder victim even though her body never was found, judicial investigators have concluded.
The government has authorized staggered shifts for public employees and suggested the possibility of a four-day work week to reduce traffic congestion in the Central Valley.
There are some pretty smart creatures living in coastal Costa Rica, and they are not humans.
A few early birds can be seen making the pilgrimage to Cartago. The few will become a crowd and then a flood culminating in the Aug. 2 celebration there.
The country formally nominated Christiana Figueres to join the crowded field seeking to head the United Nations. The nomination took place at a campaign-like event in the Teatro Nacional.
A supreme court magistrate brought up one of Costa Rica’s dirty little secrets when she visited lawmakers Wednesday.
The proposal to ban war toys is back in the legislature again, and the security minister gave his support for the measure Tuesday.
The central government is mobilizing a number of agencies to assist, protect and prevent abandoned individuals and street people.
The beginnings of the rainy season brought a spike in the number of children with respiratory disease. A few youngsters have died of complications from respiratory syncytial virus.
The U.S. State Department came out with its annual human trafficking report Thursday, and once again the summary involving Costa Rica is internallly inconsistent.
As sports fishermen take to the Pacific today there are about 2.8 tons of sailfish they will not catch.
Researchers announced two major developments Tuesday in the battle against the zika virus. One group of researchers said that two vaccines being tested now on mice have proven to be extremely eff...
Lawmakers soon will consider a proposal to give municipal governments four more years to develop a zoning plan.
British citizens have voted to leave the European Union, but Costa Rica is working hard to affiliate the country with yet another international organization which seeks to change profoundly life ...
If zika causes brain deformations, microcephaly, how come this epidemic is restricted to Brazil, asks a New England medical think tank.
Despite the British vote Thursday, the European Union still is Costa Rica’s second largest trading partner. The decision by British voters to leave the European Union is not expected to have a ...
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have unveiled what amounts to a $161 million looting of the Medicare and Tricare health insurance systems.
One case that should be a warning to expats took place Tuesday morning in Esparza. Officers stopped a car and found that the driver was carrying $5,000 in U.S. 20-dollar bills along with about $1...
Costa Rica’s importance to drug dealers in the United States is declining as cocaine is losing favor and being replaced by heroin made in from México. That is the opinion of a man who should k...
Despite a constitutional court prohibition and environmental opposition, the central government is trying to put together a consensus to reinstitute shrimp fishing by trawler nets in the Pacific ...
Lawmakers will be asked to expand their number to include two seats reserved for members of the country’s native communities.
Sometimes that shot of Johnny Walker just doesn’t taste right. Some expats probably will blame their own mood or perhaps the lingering effects of a snack or dinner.
The World Surfing Games in Jacó got a boost Tuesday when the World Health Organization said that large gatherings do not mean a greater risk of zika virus transmission.
The government has reversed itself and has suspended plans to ease prison crowding with a continued release of inmates.
The central government has slipped in another tax by decree. The tax ups the national exit tax at airports by $2 to $31.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declare El Niño dead. This is the giant weather phenomenon that has left Guanacaste and much of the Pacific coast parched. The situat...
Some members of the U.S. Congress want to counter all the tall tales being distributed by the Russians and the Chinese, if any.
A Donald Trump presidency in the United States likely will be bad news for Costa Rica.
The legislature Tuesday gave final approval to a plan to let the nation’s rail institute borrow up to 40 percent of its gross worth.
A 25-year-old mother in Guácimo has become the unwilling central figure in a dispute over the government’s decision to release criminals to reduce prison overcrowding.
Artisans in Sarchí are taking steps to market their furniture products collectively.
The Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo will not rule on a request by private investigators and others to halt the release of criminals before they have served they sentence.
Public school grads do not measure up academically as well as those who attend private schools, so a lawmaker wants to level the university admissions.
Costa Rica usually is not considered a land of mysteries. There are no wee people running around and goblins hardly ever visit.
Shoppers in Costa Rican supermarkets known they are in uncertain territory. The large economy size costs more per unit than the regular size. Two bottles of Coke Light wrapped in plastic sometime...
Expats need a spreadsheet to tell one mafia from the other. Costa Rica is an important country for a number of criminal organizations that generally are lumped under the term mafia.
Judicial investigators detained nine Fuerza Pública officers Thursday and said they were members of an organized gang that invaded homes to steal and rob.
Staffers at the U.S. Embassy will raise the rainbow flag of sexual diversity Wednesday to show support to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and intersexuals, the embassy said in an announce...
About 40 African migrants managed to cross the Río Colorado by boat in extreme northeast Costa Rica Wednesday morning. Then they walked unmolested by any police agencies along the Caribbean coas...
Home-grown reported cases of the zika virus now number 58, according to the Ministerio de Salud. There are 44 cases in Garabito, the canton that includes Jacó. But the latest report also said th...
The Defensoría de los Habitantes wants to tighten firearm regulations and estimated that there are 500,000 legal and illegal guns in the country.
A ranking official of the finance ministry said Monday that legitimate tax avoidance is a fallacy. That was the title of a press statement she released that maintained that taxpayers should not p...
Judicial investigators have confirmed the discovery of human remains in the Parque Nacional Corcovado. The remains are presumed to be those of Cody Roman Dial, an Alaskan outdoorsman who vanished...
A group of expats and others are seeking to create a sustained effort to halt the growing number of zika virus cases in the Jacó area. The outbreak threatens the World Surfing Games and the $36 ...
A detailed study by one of the top scientific organizations in the United States concludes that there is no substantiated evidence of risks to human health from current commercially available gen...
Part of the sales tax on alcoholic beverages ends up at three government-related but private organizations.
The vacation rental business Mead Brown in Jacó appears to have stopped servicing its customers.
The community of Jacó, which is hosting an international surfing championship in August, is facing a double whammy. The problems are similar but not as grave as that facing Brazil which is hosti...
Scientists said they thought Turrialba was entering a quiet phase, but no one told the volcano.
The mayor in the canton that includes the Pacific coast community of Jacó confirmed Tuesday an outbreak of the zika virus there.
Bribery of customs officials is one of the main challenges in the fight against smuggling and fiscal fraud, according to Margarita Villalobos, who heads the Dirección de Inspección Fiscal at th...
Only a few corporations set up by the Panamá law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. involve Costa Rican entities. The question remains how many Costa Rican individuals will show up on corporate records ...
The journalism organization promoting the Panamá Papers disclosures said it will release mountains of searchable information today at 2 p.m.
The Turrialba volcano increased its activity Thursday and began emitting an average of two eruptions hour.
The U.S. Independence Day celebration will be July 3 at the Cervecería picnic grounds west of San José.
Today is World Press Freedom Day, and it also is a few days from my 52nd anniversary of being a newspaperman. That’s not exactly accurate. There was time spent getting the paperwork to eventual...
With the advent of the rainy season, the time that Costa Ricans call winter, do expats have to be reminded to avoid golf during thunderstorms?
A dengue outbreak has hit the population of Dominical town on the Pacific coast. Residents report at least 20 cases in the last two weeks and blame a nearby dike for creating the mosquito breedin...
AN EDITORIAL: Lawmakers are likely to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in loans for a valley electric train. The calculations seem to be based on a false premise.
Fuerza Pública officers manhandled and then detained a contract reporter for A.M. Costa Rica because he was video recording police activity in an early morning sweep in Barrio California Friday.
Costa Rican officials already are promising to rebuild The Black Star Line, the iconic, 94-year-old community center in Limón Centro that fire destroyed Friday. A Costa Rican official equated Th...
A plan to encourage ownership of electric vehicles eliminates taxes, import fees and even the annual road tax.
Trade unions will be collecting signatures to allow voters to approve a new minimum wage of about $900 a month for unskilled workers. That is more than double the current legal minimum wage.
Costa Rican officials expect a flood of Colombian ex-guerrillas and narcos once peace is reached in that country.
Crocodiles have been apex predators for at least 55 million years. Their bite is the strongest ever measured in an animal, and they are experts at ambushes. Scientist consider them to be very sma...
Federal officials are investigating at least one case of attempted tax fraud involving a Costa Rican expat family. There are likely more victims here.
The national health service says it is concerned by the growing number of individuals afflicted with kidney disfunction.
Fans of choripanes, churrasco, vacio and chorizo can find those famous succulent cuts of the Pampas at a number of places in San José.
Excavations to widen the Panama Canal have been a boon to researchers who have discovered much about the isthmus and, by extension, Costa Rica.
A legislative committee reported out a bill reinstituting an annual tax on corporations Tuesday, 7-2. Opposition votes came from the committee chairwoman, Rosibel Ramos of the Partido Unidad Soci...
Ann Patton Bender has filed a criminal charge against a top executive in the Costa Rican customs department alleging appropriation and illegal retention of some $7 million in jewels that has been...
Today is called the Día del Aborigen Costarricense, which will be marked mainly in public schools.
Activists for the legalization of marijuana seek to modify a bill to allow civilians to grow and process the plant under the concept of personal use, according to Gerald Murray, general director ...
The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the case for voting rights that currently are denied to 1.4 million Canadians living abroad for more than five years.
The U.S. State Department human rights report, released Wednesday overlooks aspects important to Americans. Among these are the unconstitutional detention of a sex tourism blogger, land invasions...
The drought has turned much of forest, brush and grassland into tinder, and the national emergency commission issued an alert Tuesday because there are fires in many area of the country.
When explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa saw the expanse of the Pacific in 1513 he must have been filled with awe. The explorer was about to spark a wave of exploration and trade that gave the Spani...
The legislature’s latest effort at social engineering puts a cap on annual rent increases consistent with inflation.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Costa Rica’s own Molly Pitcher. She is Natalicio Francisca Carrasco Jiménez, who became a national symbol when she left her culinary duties, ...
The Cruz Roja said that more than two hundred persons suffered injuries this morning when two trains in the valley line collided head-on in Pavas.
May expats would be surprised to know that they are suspicious characters because they own offshore corporations.
The World Surfing Games will be in Jacó from Aug. 6 to 14. The International Surfing Association announced its decision Tuesday.
A new proposed law would cap the number of ministries in the executive branch at 12. Depending on how they are counted, now there are at least 18 and perhaps 22.
So far no Costa Rica political figures or business leaders have been named, but more information based on leaked documents from a leading Panamá law officer are promised.
The El Niño-provoked drought and the economy has taken its toll on agriculture, but there are signs of recovery.
Those who are seeking a clean, issues-oriented presidential campaign are in the wrong universe. Politics, whether local or national, always have been gutter affairs.
Most expats know that the import duty on books is negligible, just 1 percent of the stated value. But are they aware of the biggies?
There is a criminal network bringing a high volume of personal-use goods, such as clothing and perfumes, into the country, according to customs director general Benito Coghi.
Starting in December, if the case advances, an arbitration panel will consider, among other allegations, if the country is responsible if officials rebuffed in bribery attempts take revenge again...
The $1.4 billion Reventazón hydro project is expected to go on line next week and begin providing power to the national grid.
The method of fishing probably is older than modern humans. In fact, there probably would not be modern humans if ancestors had to outsmart the wily trout with a royal coachman dry fly plunked in...
The executive branch said Tuesday that it would resubmit the controversial shrimp trawling bill to the legislature.
Americans overseas and their advocates in Congress are reacting to a new law that allows the government to void the passport of anyone owing $50,000 or more of taxes.
Ann Bender may be back in the United States, but her legal problems are hardly resolved. The most pressing issue now is some $7 million in precious and semi-precious stones that she and her husba...
Eat your vegetables, the usual admonition for children, also can be applied to the blood-sucking bug that spreads the worrisome chagas disease.
In a little more than two years 259 minors have gone missing and have never appeared, according to judicial investigator statistics.
The rain in the capital Thursday settled the dust but it was not the start of the rainy seasons. In fact, the Instituto Meteorological Nacional says that the advent of the annual rains will be a ...
The Irish immigrant’s love of conversation and camaraderie quickly led to immersion into politics in the new country.
The central government said Tuesday that it would take steps to provide better health services to the isolated Alto Telire territory in the Talamancas.
By the time this piece gets published, 20-year-old Magalys de Loyola should be arriving to join her mother and sisters in Orlando, Florida.
The country is the beginning stages of planning a national cybersecurity strategy, but unlike many Latin American countries, there does exist criminal penalties.
Despite the efforts of the consumer agency that is part of the economics ministry, consumers have an uphill fight for rights in Costa Rica.
An even dozen teen girls have been reported missing since the beginning of February.
The consumption of fish is just short of mandatory for Catholics during Semana Santa. That is why there are large displays of sardines and other canned sea food at the local supermarket. That als...
Both Democratic candidates for U.S. president supported alternate energy sources as a solution to halt sea level rise Wednesday.They did not suggest government action such as sea walls or dikes.
They say that when a person has a hammer, everything looks like a nail. For Costa Rica, the hammer is the new index of social progress that is being promoted by Casa Presidencial to evaluate the ...
The Museo Nacional has come out with promotional videos and booklets for the stone spheres in the canton of Osa on the south Pacific coast.
The tax would generate $50 to $80 million annually for a security ministry slush fund. This is a dedicated tax that would not be part of the national budget.
A legislative commission has come to a compromise text of a bill protecting animals, and the draft gives private organizations the right to enforce the law. The bill also requires animal owners t...
Wind generators appear to be gentle ways of producing electricity without the greenhouse gases of thermal projects and the river blockage of hydro systems. But what is not widely known is the dow...
Nosara got a big tourism boost Wednesday when a New York Times reporter profiled the Pacific coast community. The article will appear in the printed newspaper Sunday, the newspaper said.
Residents and visitors are paying 20 percent extra for food products because foreign shipments are taking an excessive amount of time to clear agricultural inspections. That is the view of Randal...
A strange property dispute is developing in northeast Costa Rica. Government agencies claim that a U.S. citizen is trying to sell lots on land that belongs to the coastal development organization...
Be it electronics, home appliances, clothing, books or a childish gadget for the apartment, importing from abroad to Costa Rica can be both a rewarding and challenging experience.
Warning for crooks: Sticking up a car mired in traffic can be hazardous to your health.
The government came out Thursday with a two-pronged effort to get new taxes. One the one hand, the Ministerio de Hacienda warned of the impact of a credit downgrade by Standard & Poor's. Then the...
The Sala IV constitutional court has rejected an appeal to stop the eviction of some 100 families on Finca Changuina in Palmar Sur.
Tourism organizations and the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo began a pilot project Wednesday to counter the zika virus in Nicoya.
The only sure thing about chili is that everyone has a different opinion on what makes it good.
The culture ministry says the Festival de las Artes in August this year will be at a location yet to be determined in the southern zone.
The country has its first fire of the Christmas season when an overheated extension cord ignited a tree at a home in Barrio la Colina in Tirrases de Curridabat.
Expats frequently face the problem of counterfeit products, be it razor blades or even kitchen appliances. But even more dangerous to the health are counterfeit drugs that may not even contain an...
Expats planning to celebrate St. Patrick's Day will have to dig down deep because the local liquor outlets are selling Jameson for 26,000 colons a bottle. That's more than $50, and that's not eve...
The danger of a tsunami is not restricted to the Costa Rican Pacific coast. The Caribbean has the potential for a devastating series of tall waves, according to the scientific literature.
Costa Rican officials hope to begin design work on a new Sixaola bridge later this year after the project works its way through the mandatory approval process.
The economics ministry said Friday that it had issued modifications in the regulations covering cement that eliminate technical obstacles for selling the product.
Ryan Piercy said Monday that his abduction was an attempt of extortion toward Casa Canada.
The Banca para el Desarrollo creates a way small businesses can obtain financing. The project has been approved by the legislature. A little known fact is that the government is expecting to skim...
A proposed change in the nation's sales tax laws would raise some 600 billion colons or about $1.34 billion a year in new income for the government.
Readers may or may not be involved in the National Security Agency’s mass interception of online communications between individuals in the United States and abroad.
Not only Costa Rican business operators and investors are concerned about plans for new taxes. The major opposition party in the legislature spoke out against the plans Wednesday.
The top U.S. general in South America is warning lawmakers on Capitol Hill of areas of weakness where Islamic State fighters could attempt to infiltrate the Western Hemisphere.
Many Ticos and expats believe the law that assesses a yearly tax on companies in Costa Rica is dead because of a recent Sala IV ruling finding parts of it unconstitutional. Some people are still ...
Animal health workers have uncovered 44 cases of brucellosis in cows grazing around the Volcán Turrialba. The infected animals present a danger for persons who drink their unpasteurized milk.
The poster child for colonial blunders has to be Ireland, a tiny island divided by religion and politics.
Ancient plant breeders in Guanacaste may have created the papaya fruit that is found in stores today.
Police said they stopped three men carrying a suspicious bag in Tortuguero Wednesday. Officers quickly found that the bag contained three iguana.
Two crusaders against genetically modified crops will present their case Friday at a press conference. They are U.S. lawyer Steven Druker, who has been campaigning against modified crops for more...
OUR EDITORIAL: Most of those who will gather Tuesday to hear Steven Druker and Jane Goodall condemn genetically modified crops probably are sincere. They share the same fears about science that M...
Expats in the Golfito area say they are under siege from home invaders and other varieties of crooks.
Volcán Turrialba has been emitting as much as 5,000 tons of sulfur dioxide a day. Volcanoes are some of those unpredictable factors that influence climate change calculations.
The culture ministry is making a $1.5 million bet that cantons outside San José Centro will appreciate culture.
The Solís administration announced a pan Thursday to reduce extreme poverty. One innovation is to assign social workers to supervise poor families and their use of government services.
Less than an hour from San José one the most accessible spots in the national park system allows a short hike through untouched forest. The Quebrada González station is just off the main Brauli...
Gated communities in Costa Rica are double-edged swords. They usually give residents more security but take away individual rights at the same time. Ley 7933, Ley Reguladora de la Propiedad en Co...
The economics ministry is emphasizing the impact of high consumer interest rates.
Catholics by the hundreds turned out Monday night for a procession in downtown San José. The walk from the Mercado Borbón to the Catedral Metropolitana made the television nightly news.
An economics ministry report earlier this week showed that Costa Ricans owe 933 billion colons or about $1.77 billion on their 5 million-plus credit cards. A check of a similar report June 10, 20...
The United Kingdom has moved to curb abuse of anonymous companies, which are widely used for tax evasion and criminal purposes.
Costa Rican lawmakers have moved to crack down on a long-running practice that has cost the country untold millions in property transfer taxes.
A 74-year-old B&B operator from Playa Langosta died Tuesday morning from a beating administered April 1 by home invaders, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.
A three-judge panel Wednesday acquitted expat Sheldon Haseltine of defamation in the latest development in his 17-year battle over property.
As the central government plans to present legislation to raise taxes, the private sector is circling the wagons.
José María Figueres, the man many see as the country's next president, met Thursday with Luis Guillermo Solís and later said that the uncertain fiscal situation cannot be resolved just with mo...
The murder of a Pacific coast B&B owner during a home invasion is the logical consequence of an upswing in this form of crime.
Of the four men found in a vehicle Saturday night with firearms, two-way radios, gloves, ski masks and plastic ties for presumed victims, only one has been ordered into preventative detention.
Law enforcement officials are struggling to find solutions for increasing murders, drug smuggling and other crimes that suggest failure of the country's institutions.
Promoters of a $700 million international airport in Limón said they had difficulty generating interest under the Laura Chinchilla government, but now the Solís administration appears to favor ...
The report on the state of Costa Rican justice reads more like a history text and does not address current problems.
The battle by Costa Rican opponents to genetically modified crops took a surprising turn Tuesday. Researchers from Ghent University and the International Potato Institute said they discovered tha...
The long-running battle to ban the book "Cocorí" and artistic works related to it has flared again. The minister of Cultura y Juventud, Elizabeth Fonseca Corrales, has yanked the funding for a s...
So what happens when your country is no longer listed as the happiest in the world? At the very least, that misleading claim cannot longer be used to lure tourists. Costa Rica was once listed as ...
Mother Nature delivered another blow to the country Thursday when an eruption of the Turriabla volcano let to the closing of Juan Santamaría airport in Alajuela and the Tobias Bolaños runway in...
The Dirección General de la Policía de Tránsito will have new rules after Oct. 23 to crack down on loud vehicles.
The legislature is cooking up a new tax law on companies. Of course, they are. The country does not want to lose any tax revenue.
At least several times a month a reader send an email to describe how they have been defrauded in a real estate deal in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica's financial troubles are over, according to a sometimes clever online publication. The publication reported in March that park rangers in Isla del Coco discovered the long lost Treasur...
Someone inflicted damage on the bridge erected over the Rio Moín to provide access to the APM Terminals construction site, said the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad.
The nation's postal service has honored the downtown Anglican church, El Buen Pastor, on its 150th anniversary.
News stories about property thefts and similar scams that steal from expats and would-be expats usually feature the economic loss. Not as often do news stories address the physical, psychological...
A change in the legislative leadership means that the executive branch will have a harder time getting new taxes approved.
The two articles that follow by readers were in response to news stories about the problem of property theft in Costa Rica.
The tourism, hotels and restaurant chambers have issued a blunt criticism of the 27 municipalities that enforced a dry law over Semana Santa.
The prediction for the Turrialba volcano is not what air travelers want to hear. A volcano expert said Tuesday that the mountain will be having its ups and downs over the next few months.
A proposed law now in the legislature would make fundamental changes to the way Costa Rica provides exoneration from taxes for certain activities and agencies.
The American Colony Committee has quietly posted an invitation to U.S. citizens for the annual July 4 picnic. The day is a Saturday, but the committee said it still will be able to use the Cerver...
People in business say that anyone who starts and keeps a company running here for a year deserves a medal. How about 40 years?
The tourism institute's $3.3 million year-long promotional scheme is at the halfway mark, and an evaluation of the key Web sites shows that the campaign is not very popular in it target markets.
Putting a worker on a new legal payroll as required by law is a pain. Not making an employee legal is asking for trouble.
The postal service has issued twin stamps marking the country's educational achievements.
A report on the failed Festival International de las Artes described a confused bureaucracy, lapses in communication and lack of institutional oversight.
If you live near Cartago and you think you are seeing ghosts, the apparition may not be Aunt Millie. That also is true out on the Pacific earthquake belt.
U.S. citizens caught in a property scam in Costa Rica better not expect any help from U.S. Embassy staffers.
A proposed law to fight tax fraud seems to set up a judicial system within the Dirección General de Tributación
The drama of the dead heart patients reached the legislature Thursday when Sofía Bogantes testified.
A proposed regulation by a government agency unknown to most expats seeks to impose what appears to be a national zoning plan. (This plan subsequently was withdrawn.)
Having workers compensation for all employees is the law in Costa Rica.
Some Cartago area residents are betting that the Turrialba volcano will produce a major eruption at the next full moon, June 2.
The new four-lane bridge at Sixaola is expected to make major changes in the sleepy Caribbean coast and in the adjacent northern Panamá.
Swiss police have detained at least 10 soccer federation officials and associates today on corruption charges that originated in the United States. Among those held is Costa Rica soccer federatio...
A good reason exists why farmers and ranchers along the Pacific coast are suffering. Rain there from Jan. 1 through Wednesday was about 85 percent lower in Guanacaste than normal.
The U.S. government's official forecast anticipates a less active than normal Atlantic hurricane season.
The legislature approved Thursday on first reading a bill that would create a system of alert when a minor disappears. Final approval is expected today or tomorrow.
The neo-Gothic San Rafael Arcángel church is ready to face another century after an extensive restoration paid for, in part, by the government.
A man who could be a key witness in the 2010 disappearance of a female tourist in Tamarindo has been jailed in Denver on a identity theft charge.
A central Pacific animal welfare organization has joined a campaign to save the lives of wild animals.
Costa Rican workers find the system complex too. Others cannot cover themselves because it is overly expensive for them to do so.
Regretfully and reluctantly, A.M. Costa Rica today calls for the legalization of marijuana and cocaine.
The central government says that its response to the drought in Guanacaste began with a presidential decree in September.
When tourists come to Costa Rica's beautiful beaches they probably are not aware that danger lurks beneath the waves.
For both a citizen band permit and one of three classes of an amateur radio license, the decree specifically calls for a copy of a cédula or DIMEX, the Documento de Identidad Migratoria para Ext...
What U.S. expat has not been surprised by flats and cartons of eggs sitting out on the supermarket shelf.
Costa Ricans who apply here for a visa to enter the United States never get a detailed reason if they are denied. This is one of the situations that creates hard feelings.
The national tourism chamber has given backing to what it called the right of consumers.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is being singled out as a tax dodger because of its creative use of overseas tax havens and 78 subsidiaries.
Expats who want to bring medicines from their home country have a tough time when the pills are not listed with the Ministerio de Salud.
AN ANALYSIS: Costa Ricans like to think of themselves as living in a peaceful country where respect for institutions reigns. That self image is likely to be put to the test as economic realities ...
When a minor is reported missing, law enforcement and the state telephone company will send a message and photo to 4 million residents, the security ministry said Monday.
Costa Rican pork farmers are feeling the impact of the free trade treaty now, and other agricultural producers are likely to begin to feel the pinch. Many of the tariff reductions are staged in o...
The U.S. visa system is recovering slowly although State Department officials are unable to say exactly what went wrong.
A legislative proposal seeks to counter the mostly for-profit model of Costa Rica's radio and television programming.
A fraud prosecutor revealed Thursday the existence of an organized crime enterprise involved in stealing real estate, mostly from foreigners.
Lawmakers have received a bill that would create another layer of bureaucracy in the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo specifically for medical tourism.
Notaries will be paying more each month to guarantee their activities because a Cartago legal practitioner noticed that the amount had not been raised since 1998
First World governments and academics are beginning to look at the domestic cost of medical tourism.
A little quiz is based on news stories that have appeared recently.
One of nearly 100 U.S. fugitives living in Cuba is Assata Shakur, who was better known to me as JoAnne Chesimard. She has been called a major league terrorist but also a revolutionary fighter aga...
The detention of former lawmaker Justo Orozco focused public attention on the motel trade in Costa Rica. Orozco is accused of trying to trap a woman in one of the motel facilities and committing ...
The U.N. human rights commissioner has expressed concern that Chinese companies and financing institutions have little concern about human rights violations surrounding projects promoted and fina...
Expats may not realize that they are living amid a varieties of psychedelic options. The tropical jungle is like a big drugstore.
President Luis Guillermo Solís blamed blockading taxi drivers for forcing a helicopter ambulance flight Wednesday. The president did not go far enough. The security ministry said that two person...
The proposed Nicaraguan canal is completely within that country, but Costa Ricans are beginning to realize that the project has a direct impact on this country, too.
Restaurants and tourism operators were big losers Wednesday when informal taxi drivers blockaded major highways. Both the Cámera Nacional de Turismo and the Cámara Costarricense de Restaurantes...
Democratic and Republican lawmakers are promoting a change in the U.S. tax rules that would create what is called the same country exemption.
The Poder Judicial unveiled another aspect of its plan to attack the possible infiltration of drug gangs into the judiciary. The plan is to maintain a free hotline or email account.
Costa Rican tourism operators might be missing a bet by not embracing cryptozoology, that is the study pursuit of unknown animals.
The state telecom company said it filed a Sala IV appeal Wednesday to defend the rights of its workers. The case stems from publication of the salaries the workers receive.
None wishes to be named, They fear extortion, kidnapping or worse. They have become critical observers of the financial scene, and a few even talk to reporters to share opinions.
Anyone with a company in Costa Rica is required to have legal books. The problem is the books are easy to lose or misplace. It is impossible to do business or maintain a company without the books...
The transport ministry has set Aug. 4 as the date to pick a contractor to erect a new $40 million building.
When Marnelly Ortiz Bermúdez realized her home was on fire Tuesday morning, the 35-year-old mother chased after and grabbed her 2 year old son Jorge Arturo and raced for the front door.
An animal welfare organization engineered the liberation of 64 dogs and followed up with a court conviction of the owner of an illegal puppy mill.
The country's porous borders are continual scenes of smuggling, and there is no way to figure out what quantity of merchandise gets through.
The Consejo de Seguridad Ocupacional has approved rules that cover employees who work outdoors in hot conditions. The new rules are linked to an effort to reduce the cases of kidney failure in Gu...
The prosecution's case against well-known lawyer Arcelio Hernandez Mussio was aided by emails he had exchange with U.S. investors.
Once again the U.S. State Department issued a human trafficking report on Costa Rica that failed to mention that adult prostitution is not penalized here. This has been a repeated omission from t...
Most of the pilgrims on the way to Cartago today and through Saturday probably do not realize that what they are doing probably predates even modern humans.
If there ever was a slam-dunk defamation case, it would be the one that two Caribbean coast expats could file against the Municipalidad de Talamanca, its mayor, its council president and dozens o...
Opponents of genetically modified crops will soon face a conundrum. Rice cultivation is a major producer of methane, which is a gas 20 times more effective in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide i...
Operators of two local airports have been under investigation since last year because they have instituted their own landing fees for passengers, according to the Dirección General de Aviation C...
The current administration is praising itself for only spending 37.2 million colons ($70,500) on food in the last year ending this June and just 7.4 million ($14,000) on alcohol. The amounts are ...
The system is faster, more efficient and easier to understand. It is also designed from bottom up to spy on its users.
Casa Presidencial ha included within its recent agenda for lawmakers the proposal for a non-political intelligence-gathering agency.
The country's fiscal deficit could be brought down drastically by cutting the public payroll, reducing existing and future pensions and capping salaries. None of this appears to be possible despi...
News of the atomic bomb had been released several days earlier. The Aug. 7 newspapers, at least in the New York area, did not appear to have photos. So the historic nature of the event was lost f...
Lawmakers are moving to provide more protection for minority investors in the nation's business enterprises. The measure is being characterized as a way to improve the investment climate in the c...
A tax package that the central government says it will send to the legislature this week disproportionally affects expats. The measure would double the tax on transferring real estate, create a 1...
The government's tax proposals, published Tuesday, certainly got the attention of expats. Most who wrote A.M. Costa Rica Tuesday wanted to know details that still are unavailable.
Any passengers with concerns about being slapped with extra fees when their commercial aircrafts land at a private field in Costa Rica probably will not get much help from the civil aviation auth...
Small and medium hotels and restaurants in the tourism business will get a change to refinance their debts stemming from the economic downturn from 2008 to 2011, according to a bill that advanced...
An expat cattleman has taken a major step in his effort to create a signature beef line for Costa Rica.
A lot is happening on the tax front in Costa Rica. The news is not so good for locals and expats alike. All is not lost. There are a couple of facts related to taxes that are actually good news.
Just 10 years ago the boyero, his bueyes and his oxcart were designated as intangible human heritage. To mark the anniversary, there will be a design contest on this theme.
Thursday will see another protest by unions whose members are unhappy with the tiny raise proposed for public employees by the government.
Four ministries will roll out a proposal today for a new agency to promote innovation.
The Solís administration is being characterized as a ship adrift. Politicians and news outlets are zeroing in on the administration, perhaps motivated by distaste for the proposed new taxes.
Investigators have said nothing official about missing U.S. citizen Brian Lynn Hogue since the initial report of his disappearance in mid-June.
There are 26,000 individuals or firms who have not submitted at least one sales tax monthly report this year, the Dirección General de Tributación, the tax collector, reports.
The national emergency commission and the Municipalidad de San José will stage a disaster simulation Sept. 3 in which some 60,000 persons are expected to leave their schools and jobs for a mock ...
The central government is about to shoulder $48 million in debt to build what amounts to an elaborate farmer's market in Sardinal.
Other expats might be surprised to learn that Canadians living in Costa Rica can lose the right to vote in their country's elections. Local organizers of a crowd-sourcing campaign for a court app...
Despite three recent tragedies in the Gulf of Nicoya boat captains still are taking chances with the lives of tourists, according to the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas.
As Costa Rica struggles to reach its goal of carbon neutrality in the next decade, not much is being said about sea level rise, which is inevitable.
Expats grumble when they have to pay the monthly electrical bill. But those in industry have bills in the thousands of dollars each month.
The security minister told legislators Thursday that 2015 may end with 537 murders due to organized crime organizations operating here. That number would be nearly 19 percent higher than last yea...
Plenty of expats are paying into an informal committee to maintain the security of their gated community or to keep up the subdivision roads and common areas.
A cutting edge technical paper says that all kinds of microorganisms, including those that can harm human health are found in beach sand. A University of Miami researcher and an international tea...
America always has been vulnerable to droughts. A prolonged drought from 800 to 1000 A.D. destroyed the classical Mayan civilization. Whole cities were abandoned.
A prominent Pacific coast expat said that he and three companions were the victims of a mob of protesters near the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia.
A new system is online that will allow those in business to check electronically the validity of a person's identity.
The Fuerza Pública administration is unhappy with a new YouTube video that accuses officers of abuse of authority. But this is free speech, and there is not much that police officials can do.
Judicial agents pick up a well-known sex tourists Friday, and the case raises a multitude of free speech issues. The arrest also might be the beginning of a crackdown on Web sites and businesses ...
AN EDITORIAL: The government cannot make this fact go away by making it a forbidden topic. The country has chosen not to prosecute prostitution, and that is a fact, too. Even the U.S. State Depar...
The price of gasoline has dropped about $16 a barrel, but motorists here will have to wait for a month before the pump price reflects the decrease.
Wednesday will be an historic day for the metro area. The day will see the inauguration of the Los Tajos sewage treatment plant.
Being a fraudster must be a good business, because the complaints are proliferating.
A court hearing is expected today for the Key West man who is facing a charge of promoting Costa Rica as a sexual tourism destination.
Just 14 years ago, Costa Rica was in crisis because terrorists had taken over aircraft and used them as missiles in New York and Washington.
There may be as many as 10,000 firms that send U.S. students overseas, and the business is approaching $2 billion a year. To help the students and parents make an informed decision, a U.S. lawmak...
The Solís administration announced a plan Monday that would pay companies that hire new employees.
Amnesty International has recommended decriminalizing the sex trade as a way to improve the human rights of sex workers and lessen the risk of their human rights being violated.
OUR ANALYSIS: Like so many of the government's proposals, the latest plan for energy seems more like dreaming.
Notaries have been put on notice that they have to affiliate with the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social. If they do not, they will be unable to work as a notary, said the Dirección Nacional d...
A legislative committee approved Thursday night a substitute text for the anti-tax fraud bill presented by the central government more than a year ago.
Ann Patton Bender, the poster girl for judicial excesses in Costa Rica, finally left the country Saturday, but not before navigating another bump in the road courtesy of the courts.
An 85-year-old Cuban-American turned up dead and stuffed into a barrel on his finca in Coloradito de Corredores last Sept. 6. Quickly squatters moved on to the property and set up tents and rude ...
Lawmakers approved for the second and final time a $48 million loan to build a wholesale produce market in Sardinal, Guanacaste. The money would come from the Banco Centroamericano de Integració...
Costa Rica has three bills in the legislative hopper that would prohibit discrimination. These bills come despite a long history of legislation and international agreements that would seem to do ...
The country ranked 20th in a survey of expat family life. The survey comes from InterNations, the expat organization.
A 50-year-old Costa Rican mystery is about to become a movie. Argentine documentary film makers are arriving today in Costa Rica is search of more information and perhaps even the Fuerza Aérea A...
The long-suffering Costa Rican coral have yet another antagonist gaining ground. Coral reefs are important as home to marine species, and they suffer from a multitude of maladies, some natural an...
If sudden, violent death generates the phenomenon known as a ghost, the Barrio Otoya area in northeast San José must be ankle deep is spectres.
The transport ministry says it has awarded contracts to place warning signals at 91 rail crossings.
A legislative commission presented Monday a new rewrite of the country's firearms laws. Under the proposal, all foreigners except those with permanent residency are prohibited from possession a f...
The U.S. Embassy here has advised a dead man to take his case to the local courts. And it took staffers nearly a week to do that.
The country earned 52nd place in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.
Today is the end of the fiscal year, and those in business can only hope for better times in the next 12 months.
Members of the coast guard are taking credit for saving 7,800 turtle eggs that might otherwise have been snatched by thieves.
A lot of visitors worry about snakes in the jungle. They might be surprised to know that many snakes live in the city and go about their daily lives without causing any trouble.
The judiciary issued a formal statement expressing the governmental branch's sorrow at the deaths of two women in which their male companions are the principal suspects.
Criminal justice professionals and criminologist from all over the hemisphere begin a three-day meeting today in San José. Wednesday they will hear from a Costa Rican who probably has more first...
A San José retailer who does business with expats who are leaving the country said Monday that the cost of living is tops on the list. But in second place is the difficulty in finding friends, p...
A coalition of unions has called for a national strike Oct. 16, a Friday. This is the strike that has been long promises by mostly public employees to protest changes in the way salaries are comp...
Expats who responded to a news story Tuesday disputed the idea that failing to make friends is a reason foreigner leave Costa Rica. But they did to for different reasons.
Leaf-cutter ants can much through ornamental vegetation, trees and garden crops overnight leaving naked branches.
The dry season is coming earlier this year, although that may not be cheerful news to farmers and ranchers.
At the center of public concern is a critically injured 22-year-old man who is in Hospital Calderón Guardia.
Medical researchers are still confounded by chronic kidney disease, the ailment that seems to affect disproportionally sugarcane workers in Central America.
Motorists in the metro area will think today that they have been transported to the hottest part of Satan's lair.
A coalition of women's groups plan to present a proposed law to the legislature within three months to make illegal such street activities as whistling, flattering comments, obscene gestures, sta...
Modern day pirates are invading communities along the coast of the Gulf of Nicoya and attacking fishing boats there, too.
The finance ministry's new Web-based reporting system has caused confusion among many taxpayers, and they have sought face-to-face help.
Costa Ricans can be creative in the manufacture of weaponry. There is no secret that firearms can be purchased easily on the street, despite government prohibitions.
Banco de Costa Rica has upset some expats because it has instituted low limits on dollar emissions from automatic tellers.
The president proposed a series of steps Sunday night that are designed to improve the national economy. Nearly half of the proposals are based on borrowed money.
Expats complain about high, extortive prices, but then they head to the supermarket for the ritual turkey for Thanksgiving.
But global warming appears to be a minor concern of humanity when compared to super volcanoes, 800-foot tsunami waves, plagues, droughts and giant earthquakes.
Some may call it a voluntary tax on stupidity, but for other the Christmas lottery is a lot of fun for an investment less than a dinner out.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit the use of warlike or violent video games, war toys, military ranks in public agencies and even salutes among members police forces.
The Christmas displays are starting to appear in stores, and another sure sign that the holidays are nearing is the announcement Thursday that the Festival de la Luz will be Dec. 12.
Government officials are cheering the improvement from 79 to 58 in the World Bank's annual assessment of its business atmosphere and 188 in other countries.
A train stop at Juan Santamaría airport is a logical improvement, and students at Tecnológico de Costa Rica and a French university have outlined how this can be accomplished.
A private-public coalition against underage prostitution has been running a secret Web site to entrap foreigners. That was the revelation Wednesday at a press conference in Casa Presidencial.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved Thursday on first reading a plan to provide financially distressed tourism operations up to $175,000 each in a low-interest loan.
At least 10 persons died by knife or firearm from Friday until Sunday, according to Judicial Investigators. Among the total are three persons found in a common grave in Rancho Redondo de Goicoech...
A newspaper staffer is at the point of obtaining her long-awaited driver's license, so here is a baker's dozen of rules for her that they don't teach in traffic school:
The manager of the stalled Las Olas development in Esterillos Oeste said that neither the local government nor the police have taken action to eject squatters from the property.
The government is embarking on another survey of sexual practices. Casa Presidencial said that 3,200 persons would be questions through the country in order to, in the words of Vice President Ana...
Many shoppers are unaware of the dangers that lurk in a bottle labeled honey.
A U.S. expat lost his left eye Friday afternoon when another motorist broke his windshield with a rock.
A bill to prohibit the use of plastic bags by commercial establishments passed from a legislative committee to the full assembly Thursday.
High profile murders are tarnishing Costa Rica's international reputation. This is bound to affect high season tourism. But tourists should be more concerned by luggage theft and street robberies...
Each week a handful of expats here voice their complaints via email to A.M. Costa Rica.
The government's plan to give early release to hundreds of convicts is generating predictable discussion in the legislature.
Those leaving the country would have to pay $4 extra in taxes, according to a measure that received approval in a legislative committee Tuesday.
A decision by Correos de Costa Rica involving the content of a commemorative stamp clearly shows a divide between Costa Rican and U.S. cultures.
The immigration director says that the law covering her agency needs a reform.
Some 1,100 Cuban migrants were denied entry into Nicaragua when they tried to cross Costa Rica's northern border Sunday.
Any expat who has had to walk in stocking feet through a U.S. airport knows that officials have put a lot of emphasis in securing the country from plane passengers.
El Niño is expected to continue to strengthen and go down in the history books as one of the strongest ever, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The 36 percent of television viewers who are not hooked up to cable will be the target of a campaign to prepare them for the end of analog transmission Dec. 15, 2017.
One reason there are some 1,600 Cubans stranded in Costa Rica is because the United States affords special treatment to migrants from that country.
Concern is growing among some researchers and environmentalists that the lionfish in the Caribbean might make their way to the Pacific.
U.S. and Honduran officials are trying to determine the correct identity of five men who arrived at Toncontín airport in Tegucigalpa Tuesday night.
Judicial investigators searched a lawyer's office in Ciudad Quesada Thursday, and this appears to be related with an effort to find a missing U.S. expat..
Judicial agents detained a U.S. resident from Escazú Saturday just as he was leaving the country by air. The charge is rape of a minor, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.
After much anticipation, Alajuela’s City Mall opened Nov. 11. Developers should have waited longer.
The finance ministry embarked on a campaign Monday to combat smuggled alcohol, but by the ministry's own figures some 60 percent of the contraband comes in through legal channels.
Government officials expressed optimism Tuesday night that a solution is coming for the problem of the Cuban migrants. Still the government of Nicaragua has been characterized as intransigent in ...
When those in the business talk of sustainable tourism, they mainly mean operations on the ground here. But tourism increasingly is being accused of causing damaging effects worldwide.
Marketing researchers have a better idea of what is going on inside the heads of shoppers than the shoppers do themselves.
As expats bow their heads today, they can be thankful that they are not in Denver where the temperature is around 35 degrees F.
The government that is very skilled in giving way other people's money will give away some of its own next week.
AN EDITORIAL: An estimated 150 world leaders and climate experts, non-profit organization representatives and others are starting today to meet in Paris to maintain a static world.
Another troubling health dimension has been added to that virus with the funny name. Researchers are reporting that the mosquito-borne virus may lead to severe brain infection.
Some expats who own corporations are worried about the status of the annual tax, the impuestos a las personas juridicas.
Swiss authorities detained early today Alfredo Hawit Banegas of Honduras, president of the soccer federation that covers the Caribbean, and North and Central America. This is the federation to wh...
The Museo Nacional is exhibiting creatures that lived in Costa Rica up until about 11,500 years ago. These are the giant megafauna that are now extinct.
Ocean environmentalists and even those in the fishing industry are unhappy that the central government is pushing a bill to reinstate trawler nets for shrimp fishing.
The central government says that a tax on corporations collects 45 billion colons a year. That's about $85.5 million.
Again this year expats are making sure that Costa Rican children have a Christmas.
Scientists have been studying the Sept. 5, 2012, Sámara earthquake and have concluded that there was a relationship between the event and a quake 450 kilometers to the northwest and nine days ea...
Expats do not need a super computer to tell them they will not win the $2.6 million Gordo lottery Sunday.
Savings Unlimited investors have won what one called a Pyrrhic victory with the conviction of Luis Milanes.
A U.S. university says it has developed a strain of pigs that resist an incurable virus disease.
There is nothing that defines the Christmas season in Costa Rica more than the tamal, the corn dough treat carefully wrapped in banana leaves and baked and then boiled.
The country's reliance on international agencies will be put to the test Wednesday when the International Court of Justice issues its decision on the land dispute between this country and Nicarag...
El Niño that has brought record drought to western Costa Rica is expected to begin to diminish by February.
Representatives of the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank met with Costa Rican officials and some legislators Monday to push for approval of more taxes.
The International Court of Justice reaffirmed Costa Rica's sovereignty to land south of the mouth of the Río San Juan in a decision announced Wednesday.
AN ANALYSIS: Most Costa Ricans were thrilled that the International Court of Justice reaffirmed the country's sovereignty over the Isla Calero.
There may not be a white Christmas, but rompope is the Costa Rican lubricant for wassailing.
Rudolph can stay home and watch late-night television Christmas Eve. Santa will not be needing his nose so bright this year.
On a typical Friday morning at the Atenas farmers market you will hear a conglomerate of languages, everything from Spanish to Mandarin as well as English, French and German.
Dec. 31 is the deadline for paying the annual marchamo or road tax without penalty.
Residents of San Jeronimo de Perez Zeledon are expecting a boost in tourism now that an alternate and shorter route has been established to reach the peak of Cerro Chirripo.
Each year Costa Ricans and visitors become victims. They include individuals who are far more athletic and skilled in the water than you are.
Call it the battle of the fiestas. Both the Fiestas de San José in Zapote and the upstart corridas de toros in Belén are opening Christmas Day for a run through Jan. 3.
A proposed new draft of a tax on corporations does not contain an exemption for registered small and medium enterprises.
Costa Rican officials announced a breakthrough Monday in its effort to help Cuban migrants move north.
An announcement Tuesday from the Ministerio de Trabajo estimated that 45.7 percent of the employees in Costa Rica work in what officials called informalidad.
2016, is another leap year. That means the calendar has a Feb. 29, a Monday this year
Medical professionals did not expect the arrival of a wave of influenza cases in November, December and now January. Typically August and September are the top months for flu season in Costa Rica...
A fortunate fact was that my high school locker was of the long variety. Had it been shorter, I might not have been able to stow my shotgun there while I went to class.
The country's financial minister said Monday that he is trying to make a deal with lawmakers so that the administration's tax plans are passed.
Those who have died of swine flu in December range in age from a 3-year-old male patient at the Hospital Nacional de Niños to a 77-year-old woman from Ciudad Quesada.
Criminals gave Costa Rica another black eye Tuesday when they violently robbed Dutch expats who run a hospitality operation in Sarapiquí in the northern part of the country.
The executive branch will be presenting another tax bill to lawmakers, according to the Cruz Roja, which will benefit from the measure.
The circumstances that make a person a U.S. citizen again are being questioned. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is questioning if his opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz, is a natural born ci...
The Costa Rican government and the Cruz Roja are taking steps to improve the safety of tourists at the nation's beaches.
Unlike many immigrants from the south, they are legal, the newspaper said.
Anyone with an email account knows that there are plenty of spam messages. Industry estimates are that from 52 to 58 percent of emails are unwanted spam.
For some expats, the appropriate Christmas Carol might better be "The 12 Pounds of Christmas" because that is what they put on with all the holiday food and drink.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had brought his program to fight poverty and discrimination against blacks to Chicago.
Costa Ricans take pride in having the country rank high on world happiness scales, even though some of the surveys might be questionable. But now comes a possible answer. Researchers report that ...
Either the legislature needs a good editor or someone else is making laws. The latest problem involves the text of a law that was designed to cap disproportionate pensions for lawmakers who serve...
IInternet service appears to be in a state of decline, but the reason still is unknown.
Biologists say they have captured photos of one of the most elusive dogs in the world.
The arrival of the lionfish in eastern Pacific waters seems inevitable, and the only question is how will the creatures make the move.
The Sala IV constitutional court has rejected an appeal that could have jeopardized the property rights of occupants along the coasts.
Internet service for expats ranges from annoying to terrible, according to responses by readers to a news story last week.
The zika virus has come to Costa Rica in the person of a 25-year-old Desamparados resident who picked up the disease while visiting Colombia, according to the Ministerio de Salud
The central government is under the impression that the poor have non-digital television sets.
Dan Fowlie is back in Pavones, where he again says unscrupulous persons have stripped him of the land he owns there. And he seems a bit irked that La Nación quoted the immigration director as sa...
The central government has put up a demonstration site to show how officials plan to deliver public information to citizens.
A top tourism official admitted to a legislative committee Thursday that the tourism statistics include plenty of Nicaraguans.
Romance is in the air, St. Valentine's Day is coming, and men have but one thought: "How am I going to stay out of trouble this Feb. 14."