“What bloody business has the USA to do with the Costa Rican immigration policies on border crossings?” - Posted reaction to a recent article published in TCRS (The Costa Rica Star) The answer: Plenty. The Bigger Picture: The issue is not just about border runners seeking to stay under the radar as Perpetual Tourists, or those needing to keep their foreign driver's licenses valid. Those con...

Three or four years ago, I wrote a column for Gloucester Daily Times here in Massachusetts in which I described the sordid, bipartisan, history of the United States’ involvement in Latin America generally, and Central America specifically. (Central American Triangle) That letter predated Donald Trump’s election and included some pretty harsh criticisms of administrations of both parties. From  ...

By John McPhaul President Donald Trump has declared that the United States has an emergency on its southern border. In response to the emergency, one of the president's tactics has been to cut off humanitarian and development assistance to the so-called northern triangle -- Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador -- alleging that the counties have done nothing to with the assistance to stem the ...

There is a strong effort underway in the British parliament to remove Prime Minister Theresa May from office and then conduct a second referendum vote on the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The British people already voted last year to exit the EU, but the pro-EU forces cannot accept the vote and they are fighting tooth and nail to remain in the EU despite th...

A small group of Hondurans living in Costa Rica gathered in front of the US Embassy the evening of Wednesday, November 21 to demonstrate their support to their countrymen who are part of the migrant caravan that intend to enter the United States. The group is formed by close to 30 people gathered in a peaceful manner. Police officers and security of the US embassy are also present to ensure ...

A second caravan of Central Americans – mostly Hondurans – is headed for the Mexico/USA border in an apparent staged confrontation to occur just before the 2018 midterm election Nov. 6. Mexico should stop them all at their southern border with Guatemala and keep them from entering Mexico and prevent this purely political display from happening. This new caravan is the second border showdown thi...

How could anyone in their right mind give support for MS-13 gangsters? These “animals” and “vicious killers” as President Donald Trump refers to them are being arrested, jailed and deported in record numbers. Their unabated criminal activity is the only way these ‘people’ can support themselves because nobody in their right mind would hire them to do anything positive or constructive so they sell ...

The foundation Insight Crime, which is dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean published its yearly “InSight Crime’s 2017 Homicide Round-Up”, with the purpose of giving a snapshot of murder rates in the Latin America region. Murder rates are calculated by InSight Crime, based on the number of reported homicides and the country’s 2017 estimated population tot...

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean coast of Honduras this January 9th at 8:51 p.m; the movement was felt in other Central American countries, among them Guatemala, Panama, Belize and El Salvador. The earthquake’s epicenter was 218.10 km Northeast of Barra Patuca, Honduras, and had a depth of 10 km. Because it occurred in the middle of the ocean it is expected that the movement wasn’t...

According to information provided by the Ministries’ of Labor the Central American countries, Costa Rica pays the highest minimum wages in the region, while Nicaragua the lowest. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their workers; equivalently it is the price floor below which workers may not sell their labor. This amount should allow workers to cov...

Hopping from one Central American country to another has never been easier, with cheap flights on Volaris, Costa Rica's airline. And the company just announced that your first checked bag flies free on regional flights purchased between now and November 20. The promotion applies to travel undertaken between now and February 28, 2018, as long as tickets are purchased within the time-frame of ...

Representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Belize will analyze the regional anti-gang strategy jointly with specialists from the United States Federal Office of Investigation (FBI), Department of Police Los Angeles, Chicago and Fairfax; and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. This is happening at the Central American Anti-Gang Conference, an important region...

Having left 11 confirmed deaths in Costa Rica, many still disappeared and cut off from aid, thousands in shelters, and dozens of roads and schools destroyed, Nate, now a Category 1 Hurricane, touched down last night on the Mississippi-Louisiana border in the southern U.S. At least 32 are reported dead throughout Central America in what is now the 9th hurricane of the relentless 2017 Atlantic hu...

Costa Rica's National Meteorological Institute (IMN, in Spanish) said rains were abating in much of the country in their 7 p.m. report on Thursday, Oct. 5, with Tropical Storm Nate drifting northwards. The storm is located 75km west of Puerto Lempira in Honduras and continues to move at a speed of 17km/h north-northwest towards the Gulf of Honduras. The storm is expected to traverse the Gulf of...

On average, companies in the Central American region pay 45.8 percent of their profits in taxes, while companies in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries on average pay 41 percent. A study on the evolution of the fiscal situation in Central America by the Federation of Central American Chambers of Commerce (FECAMCO, in Spanish) revealed the fact that in Costa Ri...

The Central American Electricity Interconnection System (SIEPAC) contracted the Costa Rican Electric Institute (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, better known as ICE) to conduct a feasibility study for the connection of a second circuit in 13 substations located in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, thus improving the region's interconnectivity. SIEPAC co...

Last week, Costa Rica hosted a meeting of the Central American Council of Tourism at which ideas were discussed to promote tourism investment in the region, said the Costa Rican tourism Institute (ICT). Central America's Tourism Ministers, businessmen and representatives of the region's tourism chambers participated in this first "Forum of Exchange of Experiences for the Promotion of Tourism In...

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Judith Garber is in San Jose, Costa Rica this week. Her 3-day visit will focus on environmental issues and sustainable trade, said the U.S. Department of State's office of the spokesperson in a statement Tuesday. On June 20, Garber met with Costa Rican Minister of Environment ...

Researchers from Costa Rica's Tropical Agronomic Research and Teaching Center and the non-profit Conservation International published findings on the impact of climate change in Latin America. Climatic Change magazine's special edition in March, Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems, Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers in Central America, detailed the negative impacts of climate change in Centra...

The reputational risks associated with last year's financial scandals such as the Panama Papers, and the arrests and imprisonment of several high ranking Guatemalan politicians on banking-related corruption charges, are the greatest current threats to Costa Rica's and Central America's banking sector, said analysts at Central America's business strategy magazine, Estrategias y Negocios. The 180...

The Central American Security Commission approved this week a plan against organized crime and for the prevention of violence against women. Representatives of the Central American Integration System (SICA, its initials in Spanish) member countries met to discuss security and foreign affairs this week in San José. The SICA's Central American Security Commission (CSC) approved a technical...

Countries in the Central American region are the favored recipients of direct foreign investment by Costa Rican firms. According to figures from the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), over the last 10 years the flow of investments abroad reached US$1.96 billion, and 56 percent of these investments were in Central America. Panama is the top destination, with US$541.1 million over the last dec...

Biologists wanted to find out whether drug trafficking, in addition to drug cultivation, might also affect deforestation. Noting that Central America as a region has had a net loss of forest cover over the past decade, while other parts of Latin America have slowed their forest loss, researchers wondered if the growing presence of illicit drugs had any role to play. Central American countrie...

A report presented last week by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said their teams in Mexico treating migrants show a “pattern of violent displacement, persecution, sexual violence, and forced repatriation akin to the conditions found in the deadliest armed conflicts in the world today,” in people fleeing El Salvador, Hondura...

Drug-related violence is as much a fact of life in Central America’s Northern Triangle as it is in some parts of the urban U.S. But its impact in these small Central American countries is huge, with up to 10 percent of the population of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador having fled violence and its associated poverty and insecurity according to the Washington-based Atlantic Council. This viol...

Glyphosphate is an herbicide used on coffee plantations in Costa Rica and other Central American countries. The chemical is included in the international Pesticide Action Network’s "List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides" and is targeted for global phaseout. Endosulfan is also used in Central American coffee production. It is “an off-patent organochlorine insecticide and acaricide that is being...

“Sí vos no pisas majé, sos marica! Así pensamos nosotros,” said a friend of Ben Anson's during his stay on Honduras' northern Caribbean coast. Which translates to, “If you don’t f*** man, you’re a faggot. That’s how we think.” This, and many other incidents experienced by the young and girlfriend-less Brit, drove Anson to write up his thoughts on masculinity, and publish them this week in Hondu...

The University of Costa Rica (UCR) will launch a project that seeks to revolutionize the transportation sector in Central America through a new computer application and a web page, announced the institution yesterday. The official launch will take place Friday, April 28, 2017 at the Wyndham Hotel at 8 a.m. At the event, the Caravana application will be officially presented to the Secretariat of...

By late yesterday afternoon, Costa Rica’s Drug Control Police (known as the PCD, in Spanish) had finished counting the cash hidden in a truck attempting to enter into Costa Rica over the northern Peñas Blancas border with Nicaragua. A whopping US$310,380 was found stacked in 12 neatly wrapped packages, and meticulously placed under the front passenger’s seat in part of the air conditioning syst...

The recent trial of a Lebanese man by the last name of Anis led to him receiving a 12-year prison sentence for smuggling migrants, reported the judiciary press office today. His trial was held earlier this month in the Criminal Court of Corredores, Puntarenas province,in the southern border region with Panama. He was sentenced to “aggravated illicit trafficking of persons” for his activities...

Tegucigalpa, Feb. 25 — Honduras, Central America's leading coffee producer, is transforming the scenic farms where that crop is grown into a domestic and international tourist attraction. The Coffee Tourist Route, an initiative centered on several farms in the western provinces of La Paz, Intibuca, Lempira, Santa Barbara, Ocotepeque and Copan, is offering prospective tourists coffee tasting, ad...

By Wendy Anders South Korea will hold meetings this week with six Central American countries for a legal review of their pending free trade agreement, said South Korean media sources. A team from Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will meet its counterparts from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras for three days of negotiations starting Monday, Feb....

The users of TripAdvisor voted to pick the best Central America beaches of 2016, and Costa Rica managed to get 5 of its beautiful beaches listed among the Top 10, and actually four of them made it among the Top 5, however, none of them earned first place. The first place went to West Bay Beach in Honduras, located in Roatan, this white sand beach with light blue clear waters is known as a great...

By Wendy Anders The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene at the Holiday Inn–Convention Center in Managua, Nicaragua this weekend, said the United Nations General Assembly. The theme of the event is, "Building Bridges with the Palestinian Diaspora in Central America" and comes near the fiftieth anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Pale...

By Wendy Anders A global alliance of civil society organizations and trade unions is calling on Fyffes to establish and implement a global, company-wide policy to ensure the respect of workers’ rights throughout its supply chains, including the freedom of workers to join independent trade unions, and for Fyffes to recognise and engage in collective bargaining with unions. "Fyffes is the numb...

By Wendy Anders A recent report by the World Bank shows some startling truths about economic inequality. Three of the world’s least equitable countries are Costa Rica’s neighbors, on the narrow Central American isthmus connecting Mexico with South America. Honduras, is ranked as the 6th most unequal by the World Bank, followed by Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, and Panama in 10th place. The ...

As Juan walked to school one morning a year ago in El Salvador, two men on a motorbike sped by and fatally shot a boy on the street in front of him. The shooter took a good look at Juan's face. As a witness to a gang murder, Juan was now in the firing line. "They said I had to be part of their gang," said Juan, 15, who declined to give his real name for security reasons. Juan's mother, Te...

Guatemala, Jan. 9 — The discovery of three bodies on the slopes of Guatemala's Acatenango Volcano on Monday raised to six the number of hikers who died there, possibly of hypothermia caused by the cold front that has seized the country. The head of the Conred emergency management office, Sergio Cabañas, confirmed that the three lifeless bodies were found Monday on the volcano, located between t...

Taipei, Jan. 7 — The president of Taiwan on Saturday embarked on a trip to Central America, with controversial stopovers in the United States, in a bid to strengthen the island nation's ties with Latin America after the re-emergence of its diplomatic war with China. Tsai Ing-wen, accompanied by businessmen and officials, will travel to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador - four of Ta...

By Wendy Anders Paris, France-based JCDecaux, the world’s number one outdoor advertizing company, and Top Media, leader in the outdoor advertizing sector in Central America, signed an agreement last week to merge their activities, said the companies in a press statement In the new venture, JCDecaux-Top Media, 71 percent of the capital is owned by JCDecaux and 29 percent controled by Top Medi...