Costa Rica's National Coast Guard seized over one ton of cocaine being transported on a small-scale fishing boat in the country's Pacific, said police sources Monday. The operation was carried out on Monday when the Coast Guard intercepted the boat and detained its four crewmen 144 kilometers off the coast of Quepos, Puntarenas province, in Costa Rica's central Pacific. After inspecting the ...

With over 41 million international arrivals in 2015 and an average growth of 5 percent, Latin America’s travel and tourism industry has incredible potential to help generate growth, create jobs and enable regional development, said a recent report by the World Economic Forum. Costa Rica ranked fourth in the forum's 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report. Researchers said wh...

With hundreds of vacationers hitting the beaches during the weeklong Easter break in Costa Rica, many got a jolt this morning just after 6 a.m. when a 4.2 magnitude quake struck near Playa Hermosa in northern Guanacaste on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, said the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory (Ovsicori) at the Costa Rican National University. The 6:08 a.m. tremor was registered at a ...

The beginning of the rainy season will also bring the long-awaited opening of the completely overhauled main access bridge connecting San José with the international airport in Alajuela. After some unexpected recent delays, transportation officials said they estimated the new 6-lane Alfredo Gónzalez Flores bridge over the Virilla River would be fully ready and open by the end of May. Until t...

El Salvador was badly shaken by a 5.1 earthquake just before 6 p.m. yesterday, Monday, April 10. The quake was the strongest in a series of hundreds tremors that began Sunday and lasted until this morning, reported the Salvadoran Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MARN). Due to the proximity of the “seismic swarm” to the San Salvador metropolitan area, authorities decided to moni...

More than 15 teams from Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States and Slovakia will face off later this month in a sport fishing tournament at Quepos’ Pez Vela Marina. This round, from April 20 - 21 is designed as a competitive warm-up prior to the World Fishing Tournament, which will take place April 24 - 28 also at the marina in Quepos, near Manuel Antonio National Park...

Sunday, a teenage boy and his mother were brought in to the public prosecutor's office in Liberia, Guanacaste for questioning, said the judicial investigative police agency (OIJ). The youth is suspected of having raped his 14-year-old sister on three occasions between January and March of this year. The mother and son were arrested Sunday afternoon at the home of the two children and their m...

The Minister of Environment and Energy (Minae) Edgar Gutiérrez testified last week before the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly about the presence of 150 illegal wells along the coast in the district of ​​Santa Cruz, Guanacaste in the county of Nicoya. “The wells could jeopardize the water resource of the canton, since they threaten to end or contaminate the underground aquifers, leaving the com...

Tamarindo, Guanacaste: Today, Monday, April 10, the Municipal Council of Santa Cruz in the northern Costa Rican province of Guanacaste ordered a 22-day halt to the construction of a restaurant and cafeteria in the popular tourist beach town of Tamarindo. The construction of the new business came under the spotlight by local residents last month when they started building on a site the municipal...

On April 3, a delegation from the Russian Federation's aerial landing troops arrived in Managua, Nicaragua to plan future joint military exercises with the country's government, said the digital Russia Beyond the Headlines (RBTH). The end date for the maneuvers is unknown, as the military says they need to study the situation. Experts say that the decision to hold military exercises in Nicaragu...

The body of U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, Cody Oser, was found in a creek in the Comarca Ngäbe Bugle district in Northern Panama and identified on Sunday, April 9. The 24-year-old left his home town of Broomfield, Colorado for his Peace Corps tenure on July 5, 2016, according to posts on his Facebook page. He and 46 other volunteers in Panama were sworn in September 20, 2016 by U.S. Amb...

Experts say 2017 will bring a below-normal hurricane season, as a potential El Niño may limit the development of storms. Last season spawned 15 named storms, seven of which were hurricanes. The 2017 season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, follows the deadliest in over 10 years for the Atlantic basin. Last year's was also the costliest Atlantic hurricane season since 2012, and Costa Rica saw ...

- The United Nations considers Costa Rica an exemplary sustainable tourism destination. The General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2017 as the “International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development,” and elected the President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, as special ambassador for the activity. Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, said the recogni...

The Ministry of Public Security confirmed that 11 a.m. Saturday, while monitoring highways around Ciudad Colón, a town west of San José, officers found a large bag of synthetic drugs abandoned along the road, said Juan José Andrade, director of the national police force. They assume that whoever had been transporting the synthetic marijuana, called K2, threw it out to avoid being detected by po...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson Love him, despise him or just plain can’t stand him President Donald Trump is on the move everywhere you look around the world and at home. World headlines are screaming from Syrian gas attacks killing children, North Korea’s nuclear threats...

The Costa Rican nonprofit group, Asociación Mar a Mar (The Sea to Sea Association), is developing a unique outdoor experience that will allow hikers to traverse the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast in two weeks. The trail is called El Camino de Costa Rica. “Our aim is to have every hiker in the world want to walk El Camino de Costa Rica, or part of it, at least once in their lifet...

Costa Rican and Nicaraguan business leaders met yesterday to hammer out a cooperation agreement to further trade between the two countries, said the Costa Rican Private Sector Business Union (UCCAEP, its initials in Spanish) Members of Nicaragua’s Superior Private Business Council (COSEP, its initials in Spanish) traveled to San José for the 1-day session aimed at strengthening relations and co...

Police in Montes de Oca, otherwise known as San Pedro, the eastern San José district where the main University of Costa Rica campus is situated, responded to a call yesterday morning after witnesses saw a group of young men acting strangely outside of Venue Bar. The Public Security Ministry reported that police officers assisted 15 youth who were apparently under the influence of a strong drug....

The Payless footwear chain store announced this week it has filed for bankruptcy in the United States and Canada, and plans to close some 400 stores. No Costa Rican stores will be affected by the financial difficulties. The Kansas-based firm, which has accumulated debts in excess of US$1 billion, said it had filed papers in a court in St. Louis, Missouri, and had also pleaded before the cour...

The United Nations System and the Government of Costa Rica signed a new Development Assistance Framework for Costa Rica 2018- 2022 (UNDAF) on Friday, March 31. The document defines the cooperation and support pledged by the UN to the country over the next five years in a program named "Nobody Left Behind", said Danilo Mora Díaz, communications officer for the UN System. The activity was atte...

An ambitious proposal presented yesterday to Costa Rican transportation officials envisions a subway with three lines crossing the province of San José from east to west and from north to south, said the Federated College of Engineers and Architects (CFIA). The entity's pre-feasibility study was handed over to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT); it would cost an estimated US...

In Cutris, San Carlos, near Costa Rica’s northern border with Nicaragua, police arrested several men for allegedly panning for gold and using dangerous chemicals, said the Ministry of Public Security yesterday. Police are now asking for assistance from environmental organizations and the local community to aid them in restoring the area by helping remove trash and debris left by the gold panner...

Yesterday, in the county of Nandayure, district of Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rican Coast Guard and Police officials intervened when a 25-year-old Swedish man named Andersson wielded a machete and seemed poised for an attack. Police believe he may have been under the effect of drugs, as neighbors recounted that the Swede, machete in hand, had been shouting that he was trying to kill some pigs he...

The Coalition for Development Initiatives (Cinde) identified these 10 emerging cities as having the greatest potential in Costa Rica to start attracting new types of investment and increase economic opportunities; they are San Carlos, Liberia, Carrillo, Orotina, Puntarenas, Perez Zeledón, Limón, Pococí, Siquirres, and Turrialba These cities are located in counties which have “a significant degr...

This year's road fatalities among motorcyclists are showing a worrying increase over previous years, with an average of 15 motorcyclists having lost their lives on the roads every month so far this year, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT). From January 1 - March 31, 2017, 54 of the 126 road deaths, or 43 percent, were among motorcyclists, said the MOPT. Note that only t...

In recent months, the Public Security Ministry has destroyed 450 arms which were decommissioned by state agencies who are decreasing their use of armed guards, said Roberto Méndez, head of the private security bureau within the ministry, in a phone interview As the ministry takes steps to comply with international arms control mechanisms, they are also looking for ways in encourage alternative ...

Recent weeks have seen an increase in actions targeting Uber drivers in the San José, Costa Rica metropolitan area - from tickets to removing their license plates, to occasional street scuffles. The ongoing uncertainty swirling about as to whether or not other types of taxi services are permitted to operate in Costa Rica has created a climate of tension in which "official taxis" have tended to ...

Costa Rica continues its trend of achieving near total renewable energy production with a first quarter record of 99.06 percent, said the National Energy Control Center (CENCE) Hydroelectric makes up the bulk of energy production, which makes the renewables grid vulnerable at certain dry times of the year. State Electrical Institute (ICE) officials said that with summer climaxing in April in...

In the early morning house of  Saturday, April 1, a couple signed into a hotel in downtown San José. Only one of them left alive. Some people in the hotel noted that the man left the hotel about a half an hour after the couple had gone up to the room, but the woman failed to come out of the room for many hours. Hotel staff were alerted to the suspicious scenario. Hotel staff entered the room...

The first primary for Costa Rica's upcoming presidential elections was held by the center-right National Liberation (PLN) party yesterday. Political aficionados have been on tenterhooks as the results for the "verdiblancos" (the green and whites, as they are nicknamed) have slowly rolled in. Party members were pleased with the turnout, but many were not happy about what seemed to be an anomaly ...

Drivers beware: The Water and Sewerage Department (AyA, its initials in Spanish) just started replacing potable water pipes in downtown San José. That means ripped up roads, and probably a bit of mayhem as traffic gets rerouted on the narrow and traffic-choked streets. It also will mean better quality water and an improved drinking water system. The city-wide infrastructure project is fairly ma...

After several weeks of relative inactivity, Cartago's Turrialba Volcano started puffing out ash again starting a few days ago, reported the National University's Seismology and Volcanology Observatory (Ovsicori-UNA). Over the past several weeks, the volcano has been emitting vapor and gas, but very little ash, in what has become a fairly regular pattern for the Turrialbla - periods of calm punc...

An 5.6 magnitude earthquake registered at 5:54 p.m. in Panama today, Sunday, April 2, was felt strongly in many parts of Costa Rica, according to hundreds of local reports posted on the Ovsicori-UNA Facebook page. The National University's Seismology and Volcanology Observatory (Ovsicori) reported the event as having an epicenter 6.1 km northeast of Cerro Punta in Panama (the exact coordinates ...

Faithful to its mission to assist those who require help at sea, the Costa Rican Coast Guard on Friday came to the aid of an American sailboat with mechanical problems in Panamanian waters near the Costa Rican border, reported the Public Security Ministry today. Officers stationed at the Golfito Coast Guard station who were patrolling with the  SNG 82-3 patrol boat, the Juan Rafael Mora, travel...

Preliminary data from the 2016 census show a decreasing birth rate and increasing mortality, said the Costa Rican Census and Statistics Institute (INEC) today. In 2016 there were 1,815 fewer births in Costa Rica than in 2015. In relative values, a birth rate of 14.31 per thousand inhabitants was observed in 2016, while in 2015 the rate was 14.86. Mothers from Costa Rica and Nicaragua account...

Last year, Costa Rican police detained an Ecuadorian boat 100 kms off the coast of Golfito in Costa Rica's southern Pacific. The boat was found to be manned by two Ecuadorian and one Colombian in addition to over a half ton of cocaine. Costa Rican Coast Guard official were alerted to the suspicious boat by Colombian officials. The three were sentenced this month by the Golfito Criminal Court...

Costa Rica’s public health system continues to strengthen care for mothers and newborns. Last year, the 65,281 babies were born at Costa Rica’s public hospitals, reported the CCSS (the Costa Rican Social Security Agency, which runs the public health system). Of these, 588 were twins, and nine were triplets. The hospitals have recently introduced screening procedures ("tamizaje" in Spanish) tha...

A petition challenging restrictions on Internet usage approved by Sutel was brought before the Costa Rican Constitutional Court by the National Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes) earlier this month. The court has asked for further clarifications before reaching a decision as to whether to suspend or uphold the new policy, called "uso justo" or "just use", approved by the telecomm...

You don't have to travel far this Saturday to experience cultures, food and celebrations from around the world. Tucked away right near downtown Santa Ana on the verdant campus of United World College Costa Rica or Colegio del Mundo Unido Costa Rica, the annual UWC Festival will have something for everyone to enjoy. From guitar and funk music, to food for sale, dances from all over the world,...

— Costa Rica’s exports grew 1.4 percent in 2016. The Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) reported this week on Costa Rica’s economic activity. Data from 2016 show an annual growth in exports of about 1.4 percent over 2015; rising from US$9.4 to US$9.5 billion. The country’s “non-traditional” exports, like medical devices and technology-related exports, are second only to fresh pineapple ...