Source: Facebook Karen Quesada is a glamour model who cuts a familiar figure in the lingerie show circuit in Costa Rica, but she is also becoming known for her political inclination. Miss Quesada is formally seeking election a municipal seat in the Guadalupe district of the central canton of Cartago, the former capital city of Costa Rica. Miss Quesada is not the only lingerie model running ...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Oct 1 (EFE).- Real-estate magnate and Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said that if he won the 2016 election and became president, he would send Syrian refugees home. "If I lose, I guess they're staying. But if I win, they're going back," Trump said Wednesday night in Keene, New Hampshire, adding that there could be terrorists among the refugees. ...

By Mario Villar United Nations, Sep 26 (EFE).- Cuban President Raul Castro made his debut in the United Nations Saturday demanding an end to the U.S. embargo on the island, which he considers "the chief obstacle to the economic development" of his country. In his first speech at the U.N., Castro said the renewal of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States plus the changes decreed b...

Recent public opinion surveys conducted by the Investigative Center of Political Science of the University of Costa Rica suggest that the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis is not the most popular at the moment, particularly in matters related to the national economy. According to reports filed by Ernesto Rivera of the weekly Semanario Universidad, 70 percent of voters in Costa Ri...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Sep 24 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will meet next week on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting to discuss the situations in Ukraine and Syria, the White House and the Kremlin confirmed Thursday. In a statement sent to EFE and other media outlets, a top U.S. official explained that the req...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica San Francisco, Sep 22 (EFE).- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday began his first state visit to the United States in Seattle, the first stop on his U.S. tour that will include New York and Washington, where he will meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. Xi will spend three days in Seattle, where he will hold meetings with business and technology lead...

Human Rights Council Media Release - 21 September 2015 - The Human Rights Council during its midday meeting held a panel discussion on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, with a focus on the issues of international abductions, enforced disappearances and detentions for political reasons. The High Commissioner for Human Rights provided an oral update on the r...

A simple man: Pope Francis. Source: Wikimedia Commons Havana, Sep 20 (EFE).- Cuban President Raul Castro met in Havana with his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez, who traveled to the island to attend the Mass that Pope Francis will celebrate in the Cuban capital on Sunday, state television reported. Castro and Fernandez met on Saturday and discussed the state of bilateral relations ...

Wang Guanzhong BEIJING, Sept. 16 (ChinaMil) -- At the invitation of the Mexican and Cuban armed forces and the security department of Costa Rica, Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), led a delegation and left Beijing for Mexico on September 15 to attend the 205th anniversary of Mexico's independence and pay official visits to Cuba and Cos...

Source: Presidencia Costa Rica On the eve of Costa Rica's most patriotic holiday, the United States government took time to send two messages; one from Secretary of State John Kerry on behalf of President Barack Obama, and another one from the President himself. The message from Secretary Kerry is a standard diplomatic greeting that jovially included our country's colloquial motto of “pura ...

President Shri Pranab Mukherjee The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has extended his greetings and felicitations to the Government and the people of the Republic of Costa Rica on the eve of their Independence Day (September 15, 2015). In his message to His Excellency Mr. Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera, the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, the President has said, "On behalf of t...

Source: Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Sep 7 (EFE).- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Monday published a ruling in which it ordered the Venezuelan government to reinstate the broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, which has been confined to cable and satellite since being forced off the air in 2007. The Costa Rica-based court, a body of the Organization of Americ...

Evelyn Gonzalez. Source: Facebook Former glamour model Evelyn Gonzalez is known in Costa Rica for her lingerie runway shows and seductive spreads on publications such as Diario Extra. These days, however, Miss Gonzales is a consultant for the Libertarian Movement, a political party under the leadership of former presidential candidate Otto Guevara, a staunch supporter of Uber. She is also the ...

On Thursday afternoon, President Luis Guillermo Solis of Costa Rica signed an Executive Decree that aims to authorize and regulate in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive practice that was prohibited for a couple of years after a landmark ruling in Constitutional Court. The government of Costa Rica has been under pressure to reauthorize IVF since 2012, when Inter American Court of Human Ri...

Havana, Sep 8 (EFE).- About 140 Cuban dissidents were arrested Tuesday as they were going to attend a Mass at the Lady of Caridad del Cobre Church to celebrate the feast day of the island's patron saint, sources within the dissident movement told EFE. "Most of the arrests occurred in the early morning hours (on Tuesday) some kilometers from the El Cobre Church, at a spot known as La Tanqueta" i...

Garcia Marquez. Source: Flickr Commons Miami, Sep 6 (EFE).- The FBI spied on Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez for 24 years, including during the years in which he became an internationally known writer, according to documents declassified by the agency and published on the weekend by The Washington Post. The paper reported that at its request the federal agency declassified 137 pages...

The first Conference of States Parties (1CSP) of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was held from August 24-27 in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The conference was attended by foreign ministers, senior officials from around the world, international organizations, regional organizations, civil society organizations, industry and academia, and by the former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winn...

President Perez Molina of Guatemala. Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Sep 3 (EFE).- A Guatemalan judge on Thursday ordered temporary pretrial detention "to guarantee the physical safety" of former Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina, who is accused of heading the so-called "La Linea" customs department corruption network. "This is only pretrial detention and not preventive detention," c...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Sep 2 (EFE).- The Obama administration is convinced that the nuclear pact reached with Iran by the United States and five other powers will ensure Tehran does not develop an atomic bomb, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday. Kerry delivered a speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia shortly after Sen. Barbara Mikulski announced her sup...

President Perez Molina of Guatemala. Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Sep 1 (EFE).- Guatamala's congress unanimously decided on Tuesday to withdraw the immunity from prosecution heretofore enjoyed by President Otto Perez Molina, who stands accused of heading a customs corruption network known as "La Linea." From this point forward, Perez Molina may be investigated and even arrested for his...

Cairo, Aug 30 (EFE).- The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on the weekend issued a communique in which it rejected criticism by foreign entities of the three-year prison sentences imposed on three Al Jazeera journalists by the Cairo Criminal Court. The government called the criticism "unacceptable interference" and accused the critics of trying to "deliberately confuse" the freedom of the press set fo...

Source: Facebook In the last 48 hours, the Mayors of two significant municipalities in Costa Rica have been suspended from their leadership positions. The political leaders in question are Mayor Nestor Mattis Williams of Limon and Mayor Roberto Thompson of Alajuela. As reported by The Costa Rica Star earlier this week, Roberto Thompson, Mayor of the second most populous city of Costa Rica, ...

Former Brazilian President Lula with football star Ronaldinho. Wikimedia Commons Rio de Janeiro, Aug 28 (EFE).- Former two-term President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva acknowledged Friday that he is weighing the possibility of seeking to return to Brazil's highest office in the 2018 elections. "I can't say that I am or that I'm not (a candidate)," Lula said during an interview with Radio Itatia...

Source: Facebook Roberto Thompson, Mayor of the second largest and most populous city of Costa Rica, was arrested yesterday afternoon after being summoned to a regional precinct by prosecutors. He is expected to be booked on charges related to unlawful awards of liquor licenses, although an ongoing investigation suggests that other charges may be filed as well. According to a news report fi...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Aug 26 (EFE).- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, or NAHJ, criticized Republican presidential hopeful and real estate developer Donald Trump for ordering the removal of Univision's Jorge Ramos from a press conference in Iowa. The NAHJ ripped Trump in a statement for allowing the expulsion of Ramos "solely because he was asking questions." "Mr....

A long period of inactivity, as well as a conspicuous lack of rhetoric from the administration of longtime President Daniel Ortega, is prompting speculation about whether the quixotic Grand Canal of Nicaragua is an actual civil engineering project or just a smokescreen for some sort of iniquity. As has been reported by The Costa Rica Star over the last couple of years, the Grand Canal of Nicara...

Wikimedia Commons Washington, Aug 21 (EFE).- Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Friday described as "terrible" the news of the beating dealt a homeless Hispanic man in Boston by a pair of brothers, who said they were backing the billionaire's anti-immigration policies. "Boston incident is terrible. We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect. I would n...

On Wednesday morning, two Sikorski UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, allegedly configured as HH-60 combat rescue aircraft for service in the United States Air Force, were seen flying over the community of La Palma, not far from Ciudad Neilly in the southern region of Costa Rica. According to a news report filed by Manuel Estrada of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the two helicopters landed on a forest cle...

Chicago, Aug 20 (EFE).- Experts say Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump's promise to seize Mexican immigrants' remittances if Mexico does not pay for the construction of a border wall is just more bravado on the billionaire's part to remain on top of the polls. Trump, who disclosed his plan for dealing with illegal immigration last Sunday, got back in the spotlight when he said that as...

CR Star Archives SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA, August 19, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- There is little doubt Costa Rica's limited, legal sale of turtle eggs from one Pacific beach offers a loophole for the sale of eggs collected illegally elsewhere. Not only does egg poaching, often carried out by armed gangs, pose a clear danger to the endangered marine turtle species affected, it's putting an increasi...

On August 20th, the Chicago Area Peace Action (CAPA) will screen the 2014 film “A Bold Peace: Costa Rica's Path of Demilitarization,” produced and directed by Matthew Eddy and Michael Dreiling. The screening will include a discussion with director Matthew Eddy. A Bold Peace is described as follows:   Over 60 years ago, Costa Rica became one of the only nations in the world to disband t...

Washington, Aug 16 (EFE).- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC that as president he would deport all the undocumented immigrants in the United States.   The 69-year-old billionaire real estate developer said he would rescind President Barack Obama's executive orders on immigration.   Obama issued executive orders aimed at protecting so...

Hispaniola Island, share by Haiti and the Dominican Republic OAS Media Relase. Port Au Prince -- The Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) that observed the first round of legislative elections in Haiti on Sunday, August 9, highlighted that despite some incidents of violence, most polling stations were able to conclude their operations as planned, and characterized the holding o...

File photo of retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro. EFE/File Havana, Aug 13 (EFE).- The United States owes Cuba millions of dollars for the harm caused by its economic embargo on the island, Fidel Castro wrote in an article published Thursday, the day before Secretary of State John Kerry is due in Havana to raise the Stars and Stripes over the restored U.S. Embassy. "Cuba is owed compensation ...

Source: Cluster Munition Coalition Cluster Munition Coalition Press Release – While the international community gets ready for the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) to be held from 7 to 11 September in Dubrovnik Croatia, Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) members around the world celebrate the fifth anniversary of entry into force of the CCM. The Convention was...

Source: New Mexico National Guard By Joseph Vigil, Chief of Public Affairs, New Mexico National Guard and 2nd Lt. Maria Del Rio, State Partnership Program Coordinator SANTA FE, N.M - A delegation of top officials from the Republic of Costa Rica visited the New Mexico National Guard here last week to share ideas as part of National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program (SPP). The partners...

"Ara ambigua" by Alois Staudacher - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons A chapter in the history of how open pit mining failed to take hold in Costa Rica recently closed with the bankruptcy of Canadian firm Infinito Gold, which lodged a lawsuit against the sovereignty of our country for what they feel was a breach of contract in the infamous Crucitas case. Although t...

Mexico City, Aug 8 (EFE).- The Sinaloa drug cartel became more powerful during kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman's most recent 17-month prison stay, Mexico City daily El Universal reported, citing information obtained from the Mexican Attorney General's Office. Guzman was captured on Feb. 22, 2014, in Mazatlan, a Pacific coast city in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, and imprisoned a...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Aug 7 (EFE).- President Nicolas Maduro accused CNN of conducting a "terrorist campaign" against Venezuela by airing false reports about looting in order to "destabilize" the country. "That's what CNN is doing...from the United States once again...but we are dismantling the plan and they know that we're dismantling it," Maduro said during a Cabinet meeting ...

United States Government / State Department Press Release / August 4, 2015 – Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) William R. Brownfield will meet tomorrow, August 5, at the State Department with Attorneys General from Central America to discuss justice and law enforcement issues, as well as ongoing reform efforts, in the region. The Attorneys G...