The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. A couple of months ago, a temporary permit was issued to foreigners who are illegally in the country to opt for permanent residency. These new conditions were discussed by Kattya Rodriguez, Director of Immigration to Iary Gomez and general...

A 22-minute video distributed by the public relations department of the Nicaraguan army detailed how a convicted Colombian spy was tasked with stealing Nicaragua’s military secrets. In the recording, Colombian national Luis Felipe Rios, revealed his primary mission was to ascertain the Central American country's defense capabilities and the strategic projection of its military. According...

GUATEMALA - Three bus company employees in Guatemala City were killed by alleged gang members running extortion rackets, highlighting the dangers gangs pose to transport workers throughout the region. The three men were killed in two separate incidents on July 25. Bus drivers Julio Rivera Lucero and Eder Ramirez were gunned down in the south of the capital by suspected gang members while Ju...

The head of Nicaragua’s military stated that authorities have been unable to capture suspected drug trafficker Donly Mendoza due to a lack of information on his whereabouts, an admission that overlooks the possibility of Mendoza's power playing a role in avoiding arrest. In a July 24 press conference, General Julio Cesar Aviles Castillo announced that the government is actively pursuing Don...

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- President Ricardo Martinelli dislikes the politician elected as his vice president. He's belittled his courage, exhorted him to resign and slapped a $30 million libel suit against him. Martinelli's feud with Vice President Juan Carlos Varela is just one chapter in the tale of a onetime supermarket tycoon with an energetic and sometimes erratic style who is upending tr...

The Ministry of Public Works is proposing installing a camera system funded by a percentage of the fines imposed. Gerson Martinez, head of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), "held talks with foreign investors on the subject and reported that these systems could be put in place without the State having to spend anything on them. The investor who installs the equipment could be assigned 'a...

One of the horses did not survive. Source: Fuerza Publica Tracking down crooks and protecting the people of Costa Rica is procedural work for the brave men and women of Fuerza Publica, but versatility has become a priority for one of our country's most visible public service organizations. Here's a recap of recent actions by Fuerza Publica officers actively involved not only in chasing down outl...

An owner of Absolute Poker, one of the three largest Internet poker companies, was sentenced to 14 months in prison on Monday after admitting to deceiving banks over the processing of gambling proceeds. Brent Beckley, 32, joined Costa Rica-based Absolute Poker in 2003 and became its head of payment processing. Last December, he pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to brea...

The government of Costa Rica does not seem to have much interest in the radio electric spectrum concession which belongs to them. Not only is the state losing money, but opportunities are being lost for society. Sometime in the not too near future the Costa Rican state will put out to tender a concession for a block of frequencies which was due in 2011. When? Nobody knows. In an articl...

LIMON – Officials from the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica patrolling the Pacuare Inlet sector in the Caribbean Zone caught three suspects who were preparing a crude field butchery of three leatherback sea turtles. The incident occurred during the early hours of Sunday while the Coast Guard was conducting a patrol mission specifically intended to look out for sea turtle poachers and but...

Vehicles crossing Paso Canoas in 2009 President Laura Chinchilla met with her Panamanian counterpart Ricardo Martinelli at the Sixaola southern border days ago to inaugurate a new bridge that will connect both Central American nations. The initial border crossing will be a provisional Bailey bridge, and it is expected to remain in place until both nations obtain $30 million in funding for the pe...

The President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, called for an international alliance to protect youth from risks of cyberspace. The governmental sectors, private and civil society participated in this effort, stated Chinchilla during her participation at “Connecting the Americas,” hosted by the International Union of Telecommunications (UIT) in Panama. “If we want to protect our children ...

Police swooped to arrest Frederick Colverson at a Brandon industrial estate last October after receiving a tip-off, Ipswich Crown Court heard. David Holborn, prosecuting, said officers found 175kg of cocaine inside Pineapple boxes imported from Costa Rica, valued at $53,000,000. He said police had watched a lorry arrive at the industrial unit in Highbury Road before hearing excited reactions...

The Costa Rican legislature has just passed Law 9048, which includes reforms to the country’s Criminal Code to create new cybercrime offences. Some of these bring the country in line with anti-hacking provisions present in international standards like the Convention on Cybercrime, such as rules against illegal access and interception of communications. However, the most controversial part of t...

The Colombian Navy captured four Costa Ricans allegedly attempting to smuggle a ton of cocaine near San Andres island in the Caribbean, pointing to Costa Rican groups' growing role in the drug trade. On July 14, the navy detained four Costa Rican citizens who were transporting 81 packets of cocaine, estimated to come to 1 ton, in a motorboat. The boat was spotted by a Colombian naval helico...

Intro: This article can be found on the Blog of the British Embassy, we are republishing it because it has relevance to the readership of The Costa Rica Star. The authors name is Bruce Callow. In the past The Costa Rica Star published an article about the Tourism Police of Costa Rica going above and beyond. Since 2007 the British Embassy in San José has been supporting the Costa Rican Touri...

A 60-year-old Quebec man was found dead three days ago in Costa Rica and his family told QMI Agency Thursday that they aren't buying the official story. Serge Gravel was found dead in a room he was renting on the West Coast of Costa Rica. He reportedly had three bullet wounds in his chest. The family said that Costa Rican authorities think Gravel committed suicide. Denise Gravel, the vict...

It would be hard to overstate just how amazingly LGBT-friendly the US State Department has been under the leadership of Hillary Clinton even as she prepares to depart later this year. I first took note of the changes at hand in January of 2011 when the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras took the highly unusual step to publicly put pressure on the Honduran government to investigate an increasing nu...

Costa Rican and U.S. authorities in a joint operation seized 2,265 kilograms (1.13 tons) of marijuana in the Caribbean Sea that apparently was brought from Jamaica in a speedboat, the Security Ministry said. The operation was carried out last Tuesday some 180 kilometers (112 miles) off Costa Rica's Caribbean coast when the speedboat's crew - three Costa Ricans and three Nicaraguan who have not ...

In order to improve safety in Costa Rica’s prisons, the United States government is contributing $800,000 to train the prison officials and provide new equipment. Costa Rica’s National Penitentiary System has forty-one centers and offices throughout the country to assist adolescents, adults; male and female, in closed rehabilitation facilities as well as semi-open centers. Under the Ministry of Ju...

Costa Rica, among Latin America’s oldest and best-established democracies, is facing an unusual crisis of confidence on the part of the population in the country’s politicians and institutions. This goes beyond unhappiness with the administration of President Laura Chinchilla (among the least popular leaders in the Americas, according to polls); it is also targeted at the gridlocked legislative a...

I have an excuse for not attending the current meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Germany is not allowing me to leave their wonderful nation because Costa Rica wants me extradited for the horrendous “crime” of saving sharks a decade ago. I don’t think I will be missing much other than the satisfaction of terrifying the Japanese delegates who tend to grow frightfully pale when they...

San Jose - Costa Rican authorities arrested a 37-year-old Mexican on Thursday, accusing him of running drug trafficking operations in Central America for Mexico's Gulf Cartel. Judicial police arrested Juan Manuel Garcia in a hotel in downtown San Jose hotel along with Francisco Gonzalez Rangel, 57, also Mexican and suspected of belonging to the same criminal group, officials said. “This is a...

UPDATE: The Costa Rica Star spoke with the owner of the Out of Bounds Hotel in San Rafael Escazu and she stated that they are closed for repairs at the moment and no clients are staying with them. She is in the process of renovating the Hotel and looking for a buyer, but also they will be taking clients starting Monday morning. The information from this article was taken from The Detroit News, h...

SAN JOSE - A bitter row has broken out in Costa Rica's Congress after opposition parties said they would not support President Laura Chinchilla's plans to tackle its yawning budget deficit until she dismisses two members of her cabinet. Chinchilla on Tuesday refused to submit to demands from the opposition after the two ministers were found to have violated an ethics code by a congressional wat...

Costa Rica Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Carlos Roverssi is on a visit to Vietnam from July 1-7 on the occasion of attending the Vietnam-Latin America Forum on Investment and Trade. On July 4, Roverssi and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Phuong Nga held the first political consultation between the two foreign ministries. At the event, Nga affirmed that Vietnam wanted to b...

OTTAWA — The federal government has announced a $1.5-million contribution toward a global effort to combat transnational organized crime related to illicit drug trafficking in the Americas. The new Regional Intelligence Gathering and Criminal Analysis project, implemented by INTERPOL, is aimed at enhancing the capacity of local and regional law enforcement officers in Central America, Mexico an...

The family of a 22-year-old aspiring journalist from Colorado Springs was in Mexico City on Monday, seeking answers about his death. Armando Montano was found dead early Saturday in a Mexico City elevator shaft. Mexican authorities are investigating how Montano's life ended in an apartment building near where he was living in the Condesa neighbourhood. He was there working as a summer news ...

Panama has fully joined the Central American Integration System, in a move the country hopes will improve its trade with the region. SICA is Central America’s regional economic, cultural and political organization. While Panama had been a member of SICA, it had not previously participated in SICA’s integration subsystem. “We are financially part of Central America, and this will make the exc...

RECENTLY Latin American leaders have begun to rebel against rigid drug prohibition and the decades-long “war” on drugs. So when Uruguay’s government this month released a document suggesting it would legalise and take control of the sale of cannabis in the country, this seemingly bold step attracted much media attention. Not so fast: the proposal amounts to one line in a 20-page report on the gove...

Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo this week told lawmakers of the Legislative Assembly's Public Expense Committee that to "demonize" the border road dubbed with the number 1856 is to play into Nicaraguan hands. He characterized the troublesome road as a defense measure against the aggressive aims of the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega whose troops briefly occupied Calero Island...

(Geneva) – For the first time, 28 countries, including Mexico, Norway, Costa Rica, France, and Germany, condemned ongoing violations in Bahrain through a joint collective declaration pronounced by Switzerland during a UN Human Rights Council debate. But the United States, the United Kingdom (UK), and seven other European Union (EU) states remained silent. The cross-regional statement called for...

Dr Ellen Meredith Stubenhaus, previously of Lake Worth, Florida, and later an expatriate living in Costa Rica, was sentenced to 60 months in prison today by United States District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in Tallahassee, Fla ., the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Stubenhaus, who was extradited from Costa Rica to the United States in September 2011, had previously ple...

The European Union and six Central American countries -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama --on Friday signed a comprehensive Association Agreement which also includes an ambitious trade component. The signing ceremony took place on the occasion of the Meeting of Presidents of SICA (Central American Integration System) in Honduras. The EU was represented by ...

AUSTELL — An Austell man has won a lengthy and emotional battle to gain custody of his two daughters, who were taken to Costa Rica by his estranged wife. Christopher Camacho doesn’t know how soon he will get to see 10-year-old Isabella and 6-year-old Elena, but he can now rest a little easier knowing that a trial judge in San José, Costa Rica, ruled in his favor this week. “I’m happy,” Camac...

Source: MOPT The sizable sinkhole that formed on the General Canas highway has dominated news headlines and caused much consternation for many people in Costa Rica. The affected highway is the most heavily transited in Costa Rica as it connects the populous cities of San Jose and Alajuela, not to mention the busy Juan Santamaria International Airport, travelers heading to the beaches in the Cent...

One of Latin America’s most notorious drug cartels, Los Charros, have been using Costa Rica as a bridge for drug transportation. In San José, Costa Rica’s capitol city, members of Los Charros collect cocaine that is brought into the country through as of yet unidentified methods and transfer the drugs north. The drug cartel normally runs cocaine from Costa Rica up to Nicaragua. Then, in convoys...

A fishing vessel carrying 120 shark fins was boarded earlier today by the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica in the Pacific. The incident occurred in the province of Puntarenas, between Golfito and Punta Burica and not far from Punta Banco. This is the second such arrest made by the Coast Guard this month in the same area. The boarding took place during an observation voyage by patrol boa...

If you have to travel through San José today, it might be better to take a detoured route. Public sector unions have scheduled a protest march in the “center” of downtown San José. The group will move down avenida 2 and head towards the legislative assembly building. The protesters will be voicing their disapproval of “Plan B”, the legislative change that has increased taxes on food items an...

In vetro fertilization (IVF) is an assisted reproduction technology normally used as a treatment for infertility. In the process, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and then fertilized with sperm in the controlled environment of a laboratory. When the egg has taken fertilization and become a zygote, it is entered back into the patient’s body (the uterus) with the hope of establishing a suc...