Committed to bringing the world bold and distinct flavors, Chili’s® Grill & Bar recently introduced Costa Rica residents to their first taste of the restaurant company’s Southwestern-inspired, classic American favorites and upbeat environment. Costa Rica, which was recently named the happiest country in the world by the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index (HPI), warmly embraced the A...

Following the exchange of notes of ratification, the Free Trade Agreement between the two nations will become effective on 19 October 2012. A press release from the Foreign Ministry of Nicaragua reads: An exchange of letters on the bilateral Nicaragua-Chile protocol, a Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Central America, was held this morning between the foreign minister, Samuel Santo...

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced the designation of Air Transat to operate scheduled international air services between Canada and El Salvador, providing more flight options for travellers. "The designation of Air Transat to serve El Salvador will contribute to the growth and competitiveness of the Canadian airline industry a...

In 1974, 23-year-old Juan Sostheim was tapped as director of Burger King in Europe. He opened the company’s first franchises on the continent and introduce millions to a phenomenon known as the “Whopper.” Today, the former fast food king has traded in his crown for a new title: owner of Costa Rica’s first carbon-negative company, a sustainable farm and eco-resort known as Rancho Margot. ...

Does MTV have a "logo no-go" problem in Latin America? Sam Panama Trading Co. has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the network and parent company Viacom alleging that it expected to make a ton of money selling clothing and luggage products featuring the MTV brand. A licensing deal was signed with MTV Networks that allowed the company to offer products in 30 countries in Latin America ...

Nicaragua's legislature has approved a bill authorizing construction of an oil refinery, an inter-oceanic pipeline and other facilities, a $6.6 billion project to be partially funded by close ally Venezuela. According to the bill, approved Thursday by a vote of 80-4 with one abstention by the Sandinista-controlled unicameral National Assembly, the "Bolivar's Supreme Dream" industrial comple...

The first official meeting of the EMPRETEC Latin America Forum was hosted by EMPRETEC Panama in Panama City last week, following a regional training workshop that brought together EMPRETEC directors and trainers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to share experiences and discuss new developments. Participants reviewed the Empretec + material...

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced the opening of its new operations center in San Jose, Costa Rica. The center houses employees in the business’s Finance Operations organization, who will support Thomson Reuters accounts receivable and other customer transaction-related activities. The Thomson Reuters Costa Rica op...

In an event exclusively for qualified investors, the Hacienda Pinilla resort complex in Costa Rica, which measures 1,800 acres and has hotels, a golf course and residential communities, will be auctioned. The U.S. company United Country Real Estate, in partnership with Colliers International, will perform the live auction on Nov. 15 in Dallas, Texas. The event will be for qualified in...

Guatemala, which suffers one of the highest murder rates in Central America, has given Arnold & Porter a $575,000 four-month pact to promote tourism and investment by pursuing its legal, media and public policy objectives in Washington. According to the pact that runs through Dec. 31, the agreement is “justified by the need to attract foreign investment and tourism through improvement in Wa...

60% of the world's population have no access to banking services, although 85% have a mobile phone. Brett King, founder of the first mobile banking service in the U.S. and the UK, and specialist in innovation in financial services, was at the XII Latin American Congress on banking automation, which is being held in Panama. He states that the key "to popularize and expand banking services ...

Fifteen Panamanian truckers claimed they were assaulted while driving in Costa Rica from January through August, five more than all of 2011, according to the Panamanian National Cargo Transportation Chamber (CANATRACA). The most recent case involved Nicolás Araúz, a father of four who was shot twice in the head by unknown gunmen on Costa Rica’s Peñas Blancas highway while transporting a tru...

The current rates for investment in dollars available in Costa Rica represent attractive options- which are scarce right now, compared to the international markets. From a report by Aldesa on its blog Pulso Bursátil: Interest rates internationally in dollars are still at historic lows and the market consensus suggests that this Thursday, the U.S. Federal Reserve will accompany the stat...

New World Oil & Gas this morning confirmed that drilling will shortly begin on the B Crest project in the Petén Basin, northwest Belize. This follows the arrival of the ThermaSource drill rig into Belize. Crest B is the first of three drill ready prospects that New World has identified since it acquired an interest in the Petén Basin acreage last year. "New World is entering a tremend...

An inflation of 5% is expected for 2013, yet the amount allocated for salaries in the national budget for the year has increased by 9.7%. The total amount of the state budget will increase by 7.7% in 2013, while the amount for wages to be paid to government officials will grow by nearly 10%. An article in Elfinancierocr.com reports that "although this year the expenditure for salary paym...

Marriott International (NYSE:MAR) announced today plans to open a new 200-room Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Santiago in the fourth quarter of 2014, under an agreement with Falabella Group, the largest retailer in South America, with operations in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. Situated immediately adjacent to the existing 280-room Santiago Marriott in the Las Condes business distric...

Hacienda Matapalo was once marketed as being the best-selling Costa Rica real estate with over $65 million in presales -- ten months later the tone has changed substantially. Amongst the myriad of reports now surfacing on the recently foreclosed project, investors remain skeptical that they will ever seen their money again. AG Abogados is a legal firm that specializes in intellectual pro...

The Costa Rica Star reported last week on the 3 new cities being developed in Honduras. Honduras has unveiled a radical free-market plan to establish three "charter cities" in the violence-racked Central American nation. The government this week signed an agreement with US developers MKG group to begin building the cities – complete with their own governments, laws, courts, police forces...

The Costa Rica Star has recently reported on a Facebook founder renouncing his US citizenship to avoid paying taxes, and of course Mitt Romney's offshore accounts have sparked discussion on the topic. If you’re following this year’s election news, you’ve probably seen Romney come under fire for his offshore accounts. While his campaign isn’t offering explanations for keeping money in place...

In Costa Rica the ban on installing geothermal generation plants in protected areas has created the need to generate electricity using oil which pollutes the environment. An article in Nacion.com reports on the practical difficulties preventing Costa Rica from achieving its proclaimed goal of carbon neutrality by 2021. As an example, it cites the adoption of clean technologies in trans...

Photo by Giordano Ciampini Gregorio Guevara Espinoza, 60 years old, is one of the best-known tailors in Nicoya. Known as "Goyo", he passes hours in a corner of the living room in his house in the center of the city. With scissors in hand and his sewing machine, during these days he prepares most of the apparel for elementary and high school students who will participate in the processions o...

Nicaragua pulled off an excellent showing at the recently held Sourcing at MAGIC Trade Show, where local companies successfully promoted the country’s fast-growing textiles, apparel, and footwear sectors to buyers and sellers from around the world. At the “Closer to Home: Sourcing the Americas” panel participated in by PRONicaragua executive director Javier Chamorro Rubiales during the four...

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) of Costa Rica has gained the approval of the nation’s Commission to Promote Competition (COPROCOM) to advance the purchase of cable TV operator Cablevision. Under the terms of the proposed deal ICE will become the owner of all shares, infrastructure, and services to Cablevision customers. After reviewing the proposed purchase by the state...

Investors can begin construction in six months on three privately run cities in Honduras that will have their own police, laws, government and tax systems now that the government has signed a memorandum of agreement approving the project. An international group of investors and government representatives signed the memorandum Tuesday for the project that some say will bring badly needed eco...

Fair Trade USA has announced that two groups of independent, small-scale coffee farmers have achieved Fair Trade certification. As part of Fair Trade USA’s Fair Trade for All initiative, these new pilot programs will provide 800 small farmers in Costa Rica and Colombia access to the opportunities and benefits of Fair Trade, including: fair prices, safe working conditions, direct relationshi...

After the failure of the first tender, the government of Costa Rica published in October 2012 a tender for the construction of new hangars for COOPESA. With capacity for up to six large scale aircraft, the new hangars will be built on the south side of Juan Santamaria Airport, costing approximately $12 million. The total investment required for the transfer of the COOPESA hangars from th...

Managua, Nicaragua – How much does a 3 bed house cost in Central America? It may seem like a simple question, but in countries like Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, where official property statistics are not available, it’s hard to find reliable market comps. This leaves buyers entering the market relying only on thin slices of information for their investment decisions - a glossy bro...

The councilors of Carrillo, Guanacaste approved by a unanimous vote the regulation plan in Playa Matapalo in favor of the RIU hotel, without even reading the document that they presented with lack of information. This was denounced by Elpais.cr, Francisco Davila, Prosecutor of Guanacaste´s environmental organization, who attended last weeks session and asked for a digital copy of the docume...

The following article is part of a series on the Rainforest Alliance’s effort to bring fair and sustainable trade to coffee growers in Guatemala. Read the rest of the Guatemalan coffee series here. Guatemala is a country of colonial architecture, exotic jungle ruins, cloud forests, beaches, active volcanoes and a rich indigenous Mayan culture. It is also known for producing some of the worl...

When Charles Brewer was shown the piece of land in Guanacaste province, Costa Rica, back in 2006, he knew immediately it was what he had been looking for. Located on the Central American nation’s Pacific coast, it consists of 1,200 acres of rolling hills, with numerous overlooks, a crescent beach and roaming monkeys. Brewer, an Atlanta Internet millionaire turned New Urbanist developer, saw...

A directive from the Taxation authority transforms the sales tax paid for packaging and packing material into an additional cost for industries. A statement from the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica (CICR) reads: Industrial products seriously affected with new guideline by tax authority. -Rising prices of domestic products compared to imported ones is a blow to competitiveness, p...

Two legal projects have been approved on fiscal transparency and fiscal management, including streamlined procedures for lifting bank secrecy. A statement from the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica reads: TREASURY CELEBRATES APPROVAL OF FISCAL TRANSPARENCY AND STRENGTHENING OF TAX MANAGEMENT The Treasury welcomed the adoption on the second reading of Bill number 17677 for Compliance...

A group of 20 public and private trade organization representatives from Costa Rica toured Port Everglades in Hollywood, Fla., last week, to observe the port's operations and facilities, and learn about its expansion plans. Costa Rica ranks as the port’s second-largest export and third-largest import trading partner, accounting for about 50,000 20-foot equivalent units, or 76 percent of Fl...

The 2012 Belize Marketing Summit held August 23 in Belize City represents a “quantum leap forward” for marketing not only for this tiny Caribbean country, but for smaller organisations and developing nations worldwide, summit speaker and Chaa Creek owner Lucy Fleming said today. “It wasn’t so long ago that successful marketing, at least on a global scale, depended on a large budget and usua...

If the "very good" and "balanced" negotiations between Trinidad and Tobago and Guatemala continue as expected, the two countries should be signing four agreements by December 21, 2012, in time for the change of the Mayan era of 13 Bak'tun or 144,000 days, Guatemalan Ambassador Guisela Godinez Sazo said on Tuesday. The four agreements comprise a reciprocal protection of investments agreement, a...

Dear Readers: We want to take this opportunity to say thank you for your ongoing time in reading our news content. We do not take this for granted and are thankful for your choice to read news with The Costa Rica Star. Since launching in December of 2011, we have grown day by day into what many would call, a top contender position for English news covering Central America. Our original f...

AltusHost, an ISP based in Belize, has to take 25 domains offline that are used to sell and promote counterfeit fashion goods, a court in The Hague ruled Tuesday. AltusHost has to block the websites bestwatchonsale.com, cheap-watch.org, breitlingwatches-replica.com and fakewatchesuk.org among others within three days, judge E.F. Brinkman ruled in a summary judgment in the Civil Court in The...

A tender is being prepared for the installation of a 200 MW power plant to generate electricity from natural gas, with an anticipated investment of $380 million. The tender is scheduled to be released in October. The start of operations could be in 2015. In an announcement from the Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Edwin Rhodes, it was reported that two companies are already interes...

The Costa Rican government has mandated electronic invoicing for doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, dentists, and other professional people. In order to reduce tax evasion, these professions will be obliged to issue e-invoices later this year. A draft resolution states that all professionals will be required to produce proof of income in electronic form and must also provide digital...

Belize missed a $23 million bond payment and asked foreign creditors to renegotiate the small Central American country's foreign debt, which totals about $1.1 billion, Belizean media reported. Prime Minister Dean Barrow said his government did not have the funds to make the debt payment due on Monday and is also unlikely to come up with the required amount in the next 30 days, Radio Stereo ...