The Minister of Tourism, María Amalia Revelo and the president of airline company Iberia, Luis Gallego, signed a promotion agreement for Costa Rica in Europe. The announcement was made during the 2019 International Tourism Fair (Fitur). Revelo stated that this agreement will tighten the friendship of Costa Rican tourism with one of the most strategic allies in Spain. “The signing of this agree...

The Ministry of Public Security through the Drug Control Police have been conducting investigations with the purpose of protecting the exports systems of the country that are being used for organized crime to send drugs from Costa Rica to European countries such as Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and England among others as well as the United States. Searches were conducted at two companie...

Spanish authorities seized 67 kilograms of cocaine that were hidden in a pineapple cargo that originated from Costa Rica. It was this past Sunday that Spain’s National Police informed of the discovery which was made in a market in the city of Madrid, as part of the operation the police arrested suspects in Madrid and Barcelona. Apparently, the pineapples were hollow and stuffed with cylinder...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain updated its website with several safety recommendations for citizens traveling to Costa Rica, this after the murder of a Spanish tourist August 4th in Tortuguero, Pococí, Limón. “It is recommended to travel with precaution. Since there have been some violent attacks against women tourists, it is recommended to take self-protection measures and avoid tran...

Chamanes y Espiritus: tesoros de Museo del Jade, (“Shamans and Spirits: Treasures of the Jade Museum”), is the exhibit that the Jade Museum of Costa Rica took to the Cataluña Archeological Museum in Barcelona, Spain. As part of an international agreement, the European public will now be able to appreciate this exhibit that brings the public close to religious rituals and spirits that our ances...

Manuel Alvarez, a 74 year-old man native from Asturias, Spain was reported missing in Costa Rica by his family, who explained the man traveled to this country on January 10 after he had received a call alerting him of a possible fraud to sell properties he owned here. Alvarez, who has resided in San Francisco, California for many years, owns some properties in Costa Rica and visited the country...

Spanish police report that they have broken up one of the biggest drug trafficking operations in Europe, one that has been operating in Europe for forty or more years. How were they caught? Authorities tagged a suspicious shipment of Costa Rican pineapples, and discovered fruit loaded with cylinders coated with yellow-colored wax, made to look like pineapples. Eleven people were arrested in Malaga...

A series of photographs that show the richness of Costa Rica’s biodiversity, particularly that of the Pacuare Nature Reserve is being showcased at the Royal Botanic Garden in Madrid, Spain. The exhibit organized by the Royal Botanic Garden (RJB-CSIC) showcases a collection of photographs taken by the students of the Official Program of Masters and Doctorate in Biodiversity in Tropical Areas an...

Officials of the Costa Rica Tourist Police division stationed in Limón apprehended a man considered the main suspect in the assault of a foreign tourist on Wednesay, October 11. The suspect, a young man with the last name of Walcott, allegedly threatened the tourist and proceded to take away his cell phone and cash on Wednesday afternoon. According to police information, the victim - a Spani...

Wednesday, September 30 the Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela, Costa Rica was the scene of the 18th capture of a "drug mule" so far this year, said the Ministry of Public Security. Officials with Costa Rica's drug control police (PCD) stopped a 54-year-old Romanian man surnamed Oprisoni who was heading for Spain, and later discovered he was carrying packets of cocaine in his sto...

A joint Eurojust-Europol press release on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 said a network of payment card fraudsters was dismantled through a cross-border action that led to numerous arrests. The credit and debit card skimming affected some 3,000 people in the EU whose information was then used to make illegal purchases in Costa Rica, Europe and other parts of the world. The victims lost at least EUR 500,0...

Spanish national police dismantled the largest international child pornography distribution network to date though pioneering research examining instant messaging groups and WhatsApp messages. The operation monitored 135 users in 18 countries in Europe, Central America and South America who participated in some 96 online pedophile groups. A total of 39 people have been arrested: 17 of them i...

Coast guard officials yesterday confiscated an estimated 30 kilos of marine life and arrested five Spaniards in connection with violating several fishing laws, reported the Public Security Ministry. The men were found in an overloaded fishing boat near the Gulf of Nicoya off the Pacific port town of Puntarenas, using prohibited fishing gear, among other irregularities, by officers of the Calder...

A little-known Salvador Dali portrait of his sister, a work out of the public eye for nearly a century, was sold at auction Thursday in London for 1.8 million pounds ($2.2 million). "Figure in Profile," sold at the Bonhams auction house's Impressionist and Modern Art Sale, is among a diverse range of portraits the prominent 20th-century Surrealist artist painted in the 1920s with Anna Maria Dal...

By Wendy Anders Recent incursions of European tourists into protected marine areas off northern Costa Rica’s Pacific coast has officials concerned about the impact of promoting illegal fishing among visitors, said the Costa Rican National Coast Guard Service recently. Fishermen have been documented aiding tourists from Spain, Italy and Germany mainly in the waters off Guanacaste province’s S...

By Wendy Anders Hidro Santa Cruz, a subsidiary of the Spanish transnational Ecoener-Hidralia, announced it will not continue in Guatemala after eight years of indigenous resistance to the hydroelectric company's plans, reported Spain’s daily El Diario. In an official statement, the company announced its waiver of the rights associated with the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Camba...

Madrid, Dec. 1 — Spanish authorities arrested 34 people, including seven tennis players, for allegedly fixing tennis matches to obtain favorable gambling outcomes, police said last Thursday. Maria Jimenez, spokeswoman for the Civil Guard — Spain's national, militarized police force — said in a press conference that the detained players were all male and occupied spots between 30-360 in Spain's ...

By Wendy Anders Spain is now Costa Rica’s entryway to Europe’s markets with the opening of new commercial headquarters inside the Costa Rican Embassy in Madrid, announced Procomer, Costa Rica’s foreign trade promotion agency, last week. Over the past five years, exports from Costa Rica to Spain have grown 120 percent, with 144 Costa Rican companies exporting 340 products to Spain last year, ...

Warsaw, Nov. 2 — Cristiano Ronaldo took advantage of his recent visit to Warsaw, Poland to visit a Polish boy who woke up from a coma when he heard a goal by the soccer player during a televised match. Ronaldo, from Portugal, is a forward for the Real Madrid team, and is often ranked as the world's best soccer player. He has long been a role model for Dawid Pawlaczyc. Cristiano Ronaldo and ...

SPAIN PROSTITUTION  Alicante, Spain, Sept. 18 — The Spanish police have dismantled a group dedicated to human trafficking, prostitution and drugs, and managed to arrest six suspects. Police officials announced that this group is part of a criminal organization specialized in sexual exploitation of women of different nationalities to make revenues that have been transferred to Brazil. The ma...

Wikimedia Commons A New Jersey resident who was gored as he ran with the bulls in Spain's famous San Fermin festival in Pamplona on Wednesday has described the experience as the highlight of his life. Matthew Levin, 39, had clambered onto a fence during his first ever running of the bulls when a charging bull slammed into him and his friends completely by accident, driving a horn into his l...

Wikimedia Commons A terrifying and chaotic running of the bulls on Friday left a toll of 16 thrill-seekers injured and two of the eight participants gored were in critical condition, officials said. Of the wounded, five were American citizens, three of whom suffered goring injuries, the regional government said. One American, identified only by his initials P.G., received a 10 centimeter...

Flickr Commons Police around the globe arrested 79 suspected members of an international child pornography network on Monday. The arrests were made in 18 different countries, including the United States, Spain, and several Latin American countries, following 200 raids in 47 cities as part of Operation No Borders. At least 19 of the arrests were made in Spain, primarily in Madrid. Span...

Wikimedia Commons Algeciras, Spain, Jun 20 (EFE).- The Spanish Civil Guard in the southern port of Algeciras seized 280 kilos (615 lbs.) of cocaine hidden in a container shipped from Brazil, the security corps reported in a statement. An investigation by Spain's Civil Guard aided by Brazilian police intelligence found the drug hidden in a container transporting a legal cargo of sugar. On...

(YouTube / ODN) Spain’s Minister of Justice, Rafael Catala on Monday proposed leaving some US $4 billion to $17 billion worth of gold and silver on the seafloor off the coast of Colombia in order to avoid conflict over its ownership. The treasure is the cargo of the legendary galleon San Jose, a Spanish ship that was sunk in 1708 near the coast of Cartagena of the Indies, which was discover...

Roses now adorn the spot where the Jesuits were gunned down on the UCA's campus on Nov. 16, 1989. They were planted by Obdulio Ramos, husband to Julia Elba Ramos and father to Celina Ramos, who were killed along with the Jesuits. Photo by Charles Barry. Jesuits.org Washington, Feb 5 (EFE).- A U.S. district judge on Friday approved the extradition to Spain of a retired Salvadoran army officer w...

Flickr Commons Mexico City, Jan 16 (EFE).- The arrest in Spain of a former chairman of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has roiled the political scene in Mexico, where the main opposition parties demanded that President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration take legal action against the politician. The center-right National Action Party, or PAN, insisted that the "full we...

Wikimedia Commons By Juan Carlos Gomi Bogota, Jan 11 (EFE).- The Spanish galleon San Jose did not sink off Colombia under attack by English ships, as contemporaneous accounts say, and perhaps it did not go down in the Caribbean with its load of treasure due to a powerful explosion, as English commodore Charles Wager reported, nautical researcher Daniel de Narvaez MacAllister told EFE. Th...

Taliban operating in Afghanistan. Wikimedia Commons Kabul, Dec 12 (EFE).- Ten people, including two Spanish police officers, died in a Taliban attack on a Spanish Embassy compound in the Afghan capital and an ensuing gun battle, a nearly 12-hour incident that ended early Saturday and represented a new show of force by the insurgents. Both the Spanish and Afghan governments confirmed Saturda...