History

Costa Rica, Jobs, unemployment Costa Rica’s Unemployment Rate Spirals out of Control With Historic High

There are currently 551,373 Costa Ricans without work: 282,000 men and 269,000 women. These are the latest figures from the National Statistics and Census Bureau (INEC), and indicate that the country has reached a 24% unemployment rate, the highest in the most recent years of Costa Rica’s history. These figures represent an increase of 256,000 more unemployed people from the previous year, and ...

Costa Rica Journalism Costa Rican Journalist Wins Prestigious Pulitzer Prize for “This American Life”

Costa Rican Nadia Reiman has won the first ever Pulitzer Prize given for audio journalism for her ground-breaking ‘’The Out Crowd” episode of the radio show "This American Life". Her work was described by the New York Times as “revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump administration's Remain in Mexico policy”, with heart-breaking details of life in refugee ...

Costa Rica Coronavirus Deaths Costa Rica Covid-19 Update: 89 Cases – 2 Deaths

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica confirmed this Thursday, March 19, the second death of a patient infected with the Covid-19 Coronavirus. Coincidentally the deceased is another male also 87-years of age, same as the first victim. In addition to being a senior citizen this man had previous vascular problems. Two other people have tested positive for the virus bringing the number of people...

Costa Rica Economy What is the Costa Rican Government Doing to Help the Economic Situation due to Coronavirus

Based on the global crisis and what other world leaders are doing for their countries the short answer is NOT ENOUGH! President Carlos Alvarado informed of the directive to banks to readjust credits to help companies and the productive sector face the crisis, this will include: bringing down the credit interest rates according to the conditions of each client, extend the term of the credits, ex...

Costa Rican Female Cartel Leader La Reina del Sur: Costa Rica’s Most Notorious Female Cartel Leader

The Costa Rica Star will be publishing an original exclusive six part series from the upcoming book "Drug Diva", by Star reporter Carol Vaughn, author of "Crazy Jungle Love". These sneak-preview excerpts document the astonishing saga of Cristel Gomez Espinoza, one of Central America's most dangerous and powerful drug capos. Look for the entire book to be released at the end of 2020. Tuesday, A...

Andrea Vargas Costa Rica Historic Win: Andrea Vargas Gets Gold For Costa Rica in 100 Meter Hurdles

Costa Rican athlete Andrea Vargas made her dream come true and made the country proud by winning the gold medal in the 100-meter hurdle competition at the Pan-American Games that are taking place in Lima, Perú. The 21-year-old, who has a 4 year-old daughter, and is a native of the city of Puriscal, trains daily under the direction of her mother. Vargas stopped the clock at 12.82, runner up w...

Costa Rican History, Costa Rica, United States Costa Rican Historian Yamil Jimenez Tabash Gives an Inspiring Lecture in Perez Zeledon

Internationally renowned historian and reverend Yamil Jimenez Tabash gave a lecture to a standing-room-only audience in Perez Zeledon last Friday on an un-sanitized version of the history of Costa Rica – the true history – according to this Perez Zeledonian historian and scholar. Jimenez did not pull any punches, detailing both the locally accepted version of Tico history, and the more probably ac...

Annexation Nicoya Costa Rica Celebrating 194 Years of the Nicoya Annexation to Costa Rica

This Wednesday, July 25 is a holiday in Costa Rica due to the celebration of the 194 anniversary of the “Annexation of Nicoya” (Anexión de Nicoya) also referred to as the “Annexation of Guanacaste”. When we go back in time, we learn that initially what was known as the “Partido de Nicoya” (‘partido’ meaning administrative district) was an independent territory that included the lands located to...

Santa Rosa Historic Museum Costa Rica The Historical Museum of Santa Rosa in Guanacaste Awaits You

One of the most important places in the history of Costa Rica is the Santa Rosa Hacienda in Guanacaste, where the famous “Battle of Santa Rosa” took place back in March 20, 1856 when a troop of close to 500 Costa Ricans defeated a group of filibusters in a very short battle. The “Casona” has now become a historical museum that takes visitors into one of the most memorable chapters of the idiosy...

Costa Rica Gold Abangares Eco-Museum: Learn About the Times of the “Gold Fever” in Costa Rica

The Abangares Eco-Museum usually doesn’t appear in the lists of “places you must visit” in tourism sites, many people, in fact, don’t even know it exists, but it is a wonderful place full of history and that offers visitors an insight to what the Tico “Gold Fever” was like back in the late XIX century and beginning of the XX century. The museum was founded in 1991 and it stands in the same pla...

Mummies Exhibit Costa RIca Some of the World’s Most Ancient Mummies Will be on Exhibit at the Jade Museum in Costa Rica

The University of Tarapacá in Chile, confirmed the exhibition of the mummies of the Chinchorro culture at the Jade Museum in Costa Rica from May 11 to May 31. The ancient mummies of the Chinchorro culture are over 7000 years old. The Chinchorros inhabited what is now northern Chile, the coast of the Atacama Desert from Ilo in Peru all the way to Antofagasta in Chile, they lived off fishing, hun...

Costa Rican Authors April 23 is World Book Day: Learn About 5 Costa Rican Authors

Today we celebrate World Book Day, a day when we celebrate stories and the love of reading. To commemorate this day we leave you the following list of top 5 Costa Rican authors. Joaquín García Monge: (1881-1958) Considered the created of the Costa Rican realism novels he created international magazine Repertorio Americano (1919-1958) which was red in many Hispanic countries and was published fo...

Bills of Costa Rica The History and Colors of Costa Rica’s Bills

While in the United States all bills are the same color, in Costa Rica like many other countries the bills are full of color and history. Perhaps you have never really paid attention to the bills, as a matter of fact, it is safe to say that if you ask a group of Costa Ricans the majority will be able to tell you the colors but won’t be able to say whose face is in each bill, or what other impor...

Costa Rica April 11 April 11 in Costa Rica Commemorates 162 Years Since the Battle of Rivas

This Wednesday, April 11 is a holiday in Costa Rica, do you know why? The country commemorates 162 years of the Battle of Rivas also known as the day of the National Hero, Juan Santamaria. The Battle of Rivas took place in Rivas, Nicaragua between the filibuster army lead by William Walker and Costa Rica's army lead by President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, General José Joaquín Mora Porras and G...

Bullfighting Costa Rica Style VIDEO Learn What “Toros a la Tica”, Bullfighting Costa Rica Style, Is All About

“Toros a la Tica” or Tico Style Bullfighting, is a traditional activity in Costa Rica, although most popular as part of the end of the year activities in Zapote, in reality it takes place all year round in different bullrings around the country. Even though there is no actual “bullfighting” here, this is just the term used to describe the activity, which involves rodeo style activities and “tor...

Nate in Perspective: A Brief History of Costa Rica’s Natural Disasters

Nate is being called one of the biggest natural disasters in Costa Rica's history by government analysts, due to its widespread heavy rains that generated destruction in all but the country's Caribbean coastal areas. Tropical Storm Nate which struck last Thursday, October 5, may vie for the worst disaster in the country's modern history due to its multiple impacts and magnitude. A national e...

Costa Rica National Symbols Costa Rica’s National Symbols, How Many Do You Know?

Costa Rica is a small country with a rich culture, however, more often than not Ticos have problems identifying some of their own National Symbols, and this is something foreigners don’t usually have information on; therefore, considering we are celebrating today 196 of independence in Costa Rica, we offer you the complete list of Costa Rica’s National Symbols. National symbols are important to...

How Orange Peels Regenerated a Forest in Costa Rica

In the mid-1990s, 1,000 truckloads of orange peels and orange pulp were purposefully unloaded onto a barren pasture in a Costa Rican national park. Today, that area is covered in lush, vine-laden forest. A team led by Princeton University researchers surveyed the land 16 years after the orange peels were deposited. They found a 176 percent increase in aboveground biomass -- or the wood in t...

Costa Rica Museums Roads, Carriages and Carts a Temporary Exhibit at the Costa Rica National Museum

The Costa Rica National Museum takes you through the history of transportation in Costa Rica. Photos, historical objects and a 100 year old carriage that belonged to former President Tomás Guardia (1870-1882) offer us an idea of what life was like in this country back in the XIX century. From mules, carts and carriages, to the streetcar, cars and the construction of the train to the Atlantic...

President Trump Should Use Camp David for Hosting Visitors

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 Every time President Donald Trump leaves the White House in Washington for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the mainstream media gets all fired up about the taxpayer expenses incurred by such trip. Critics are right in that the...

Thousands of Hectares of Forested Ecosystems in Costa Rica Wiped out by Pineapple Growing

Thousands of hectares of forested ecosystems have been cleared in Costa Rica to provide cropland for pineapples in recent years, according to what Mauricio Alvarez, president of the Costa Rican Conservationist Federation (FECON) told EFE on Tuesday. "In 15 years, they cut down 725,000 trees, (causing) irreversible damage to the country. Complaints were never able to stand in the way ... althoug...

Ex-Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega undergoes surgery for brain tumor

Surgeons have performed an operation to remove a brain tumor from former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, his daughter, Sandra, said on Tuesday without providing details on her father's condition. "It's over, but we don't know anything yet about his condition," Sandra Noriega Sieiro said. The 83-year-old Noriega is in "stable condition" after the nearly four-hour operation a...

Hidden for Almost a Century, Salvador Dali portrait of his sister sells for $2.2 Million

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...

Germans Evacuated on Christmas While WWII Bomb Defused

AUGSBURG, Germany, Dec. 25 -- Authorities took four hours to successfully defuse a 2-ton bomb from World War II after more than 54,000 people from Augsburg were evacuated on Christmas day. Hundreds of police and firefighters were involved in the nation's biggest evacuation since the Second World War, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Bomb specialists from the Bavarian city of Würz...

Costa Rica Reaches Settlement With 12 In Vitro Seekers

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica accepted responsibility for violating the fundamental rights of a second group of people who could not access In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) during its ban in the country, reported Elmundo.cr, a digital Costa Rican Spanish language news media. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) made public on Tuesday that it approved of th...

Antigua and Barbuda Asks Harvard University for Slavery Reparations

By Wendy Anders Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1769, Wikipedia. Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, called on Harvard University “to demonstrate its remorse and its debt to unnamed slaves from Antigua and Barbuda” whose lives were abused to establish the Harvard Law School (HLS), reported Caribb...

More than Motorcycles: Harley-Davidson Mini-Series Launches Mon.

Los Angeles, Sep 3.- The story of the legendary motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson is coming to the small screen in a three-episode mini-series that aims to bring TV viewers the sounds and sights of the iconic American bikes. Produced by Discovery Channel, "Harley and the Davidsons" will premiere tomorrow, Monday September 5, in the United States, and features "Game of Thrones" actors Michiel Hui...

Archaeological Sites Worth Visiting in Costa Rica

Photo by Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Costa Rica is famous for many things as a tourist destination: beaches, national parks teeming with wildlife, zip lining, rafting, volcanoes, etc. Yet, so many of the country’s subdued treasures are often overlooked. Among these attractions are a few very nice archaeological sites. There are no sites to rival Teotihuacán, Copán, or Machu Picchu. St...

Rio 2016: A 16-Year Olympic Medal Drought for Costa Rica

Now that all athletes who represented Costa Rica at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics have returned, organizers are reflecting on the country's long-running medal drought. Costa Rica has participated in 19 Summer Olympics and 10 Winter Olympics. The historic medal count stands at four: one gold, one silver and two bronze. The last time Costa Rica brought back hardware was in 2000, when the Olympics ...

Political Cartoons: An Endangered Journalism Practice

Cartoon by Clay Jones Since the 18th century, news readers have found some of the most incisive, acerbic and brutally honest commentary about current affairs in the form of political (editorial) cartoons. Regrettably, political cartoons in the 21st century have been in a state of demise that many believe is related to the death of printed newspapers; however, the death of editorial cartoons...

Colombia Guerrilla Conflict: More Than 8 Million Victims

FARC guerrilla unit marching in 1998. Wikimedia Commons The names of the more than 8 million victims of Colombia's decades-long armed conflict will be inscribed on trees in an expanse of the southeastern province of Vaupes to be known as the "Forest of Peace. Supported by the Colombian government, the Forest is an initiative of the NGO Saving the Amazon. The group began planning the proj...

Suspected Tomb Raider Gets Raided in Costa Rica

Source: OIJ On Friday afternoon, agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) raided a home in San Miguel of Naranjo, a coffee-producing region located in the province of Alajuela. The raid was the culmination of a week-long investigation related to crimes against the archaeological record of Costa Rica. According to an official press release issued by OIJ, agen...

Israel Buys Gas Masks from WWII Nazi Supplier

Wikimedia Commons The State of Israel has been buying gas masks for decades from suppliers who also sold them to the Nazi regime, Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported Wednesday. The country obtains its gas masks from two companies: the German firm Drager and the American MSA, which used to be German and whose previous name was Auer. Based on recent findings, both companies manufactu...

Sweet Home Costa Rica: A Story About U.S. Quakers and Pacifism

Early Monteverde community diner., Source: John Campbell by Jody Jenkins How far would you go for your beliefs? It’s a question more pertinent than ever in today’s globalized world brimming with moral issues easily accessible with the swipe of a fingertip on any smartphone. In a virtual age where tapping a “donate” button equates to activism, how do we decide which causes are really worth ri...

Fugitive Cartel Boss, Previously Arrested in Costa Rica, Speaks

Photo from one of various Twitter accounts attributed to Caro QuinteroMexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, a fugitive from justice since 2013, said in an interview with Proceso magazine that he did not kill U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 and denied that he was trying to grab control of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Caro Quintero, considered one of Mexico's mo...

Luis Guillermo Solis National Holiday: Costa Rica President Dances, Slips and Falls

President Solis President Luis Guillermo Solis fell on his backside during a cultural celebration commemorating the Annexation of Nicoya to Costa Rica. The spill took place during the performance of El Torito, a traditional dance that symbolizes the cultural heritage of the Guanacaste province. President Solis was in Nicoya on this national holiday to report on the little progress made by h...

Imprisoned Dictator Manuel Noriega Undergoes Psych Exam in Panama

Wikimedia CommonsFormer Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega was taken Friday to the Legal Medicine Institute for the physical and psychiatric exams ordered by the court hearing the case against him for the death of union leader Heliodoro Portugal back in the 1970s. The defense attorney for Panama's one-time strongman, Ezra Angel, told EFE briefly this Friday that Noriega's examinations ...

The Annexation: How Nicoya Became Part of Costa Rica

By Jack Donnelly Mexico and Central America gained their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news did not reach Costa Rica until October 11th, but Independence Day is still celebrated here on September 15th. Actually, there is a small movement to change the date, but the 15th is still the official holiday.   It took some time for the Central American countries to sort ...

Costa Rica is Accepted Into the Venice Commission

Venice Commission in session During a meeting in Strasbourg, and following a request by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica on 6 July 2016, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe invited the country to become the 61st member state of the Venice Commission. The Venice Commission is the common name for the European Commission for Democracy through Law. This is an advis...

Canadian Prostitution and the Early Trump Family Fortune

(Wikimedia Commons) United States voters who wish to learn more about how presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made his fortune, which he claims to be valued at billions, should start with historian Gwenda Blair's book “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built An Empire.” According to Ms. Blair's book, the recent generations of the Trump family made money the old fashi...