This article is a press release from the US Embassy in Costa Rica, if you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your announcements, please contact us. The Embassy of the United States in Costa Rica welcomes last night’s strong statement of support from the Government of Costa Rica regarding the Framework Agreement for the Elimination of Syria’s Chemical Weapons. Costa Rica, recognized ...

The Costa Rica Star recently reported on how Costa Rica views the conflict in Syria. Not surprisingly, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has a somewhat different view of U.S. President Barack Obama's acceptance of a Russian proposal to act as negotiator in the poison gas elimination in Syria. Arias gave the Spanish press an earful Friday. Arias claims it was not just Russia and China ...

Nicaragua cannot catch a break. After bringing a conflict with Colombia to the United Nations and having a tiff with Costa Rica over a border town, Panama announced on Thursday it had a bone to pick with its northern neighbor: President Ricardo Martinelli said Panama would be joining Colombia in its dispute with Nicaragua over territorial waters. Martinelli accused his Nicaraguan counterpart, D...

My identity is somewhere in that stack.The Costa Rica Star has recently published information about receiving your permanent residency in Costa Rica to avoid border runs, wasting time, and money. Over the weekend, I took a trip up to Nicaragua to get a new stamp in my passport. Costa Rica issues ninety-day tourist visas so if you are an expat trying to carve out a life here and you don't have...

Free Syrian Army forces fighting in urban terrain. Source: Flickr CC. Recent communications by Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterate the country's allegiance to, and respect of, International Law and Human Rights with regard to the conflict in Syria. The diplomatic mission of  Costa Rica to the United Nations expressed the Central American nation's repudiation of the use of che...

Managua September 4- President Daniel Ortega warned Costa Rica that Nicaragua may ask the International Court of Justice to restore to Managua a province he said it lost to “occupation” in 1824. Ortega was referring to Guanacaste province, which is about 20 percent of neighboring Costa Rica’s territory and a popular tourism hub. “Costa Rica did not win that territory in an international ...

U.S. President Barack Obama and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have much in common. Both are winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and, as such have been critical of war as foreign policy and as a solution for problems. So why is Arias taking Obama to task without mincing words? Arias reacted on Facebook Thursday to President Obama’s speech promising armed retaliation against the Syrian re...

Members of the brutal street gangs widely known as Maras continue to wreak havoc in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras -- but why haven’t they taken root in Costa Rica as well? MS-13 and M-18, the two strongest and most widespread Mara gangs, were spawned in the 1980s in poor Los Angeles neighborhoods by disaffected Central American youth. Most were transplanted to the US by their families, de...

While they protest, we have to keep the Consulate closed: Foreign Minister Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo, said late Sunday that the planned move for the Costa Rican Consulate in Managua was prevented due to “xenophobia fueled by President Daniel Ortega against Costa Rica”. Due to the protests outside the Consulate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was forced to shut down sin...

Nature in Lidice, site of the murder. Spanish citizen Gonzalo Alonso Hernandez and Jairo Mora of Costa Rica had a lot in common: Both were deeply courageous biologists committed to environmental conservation whose dedication may have caused them to die at the hands of despicable criminals. Costa Rican online news media site El Pais, which is known for its strong defense of environmental aff...

The City of Suzhou - Source: Flickr CC In the wake of the visit of the political leader of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, journalist Gustavo Arias of business weekly El Financiero, owned by Grupo Nacion, published a series of facts about the Asian economic powerhouse and her environmental record as it relates to Costa Rica. Mr. Arias did not mince any words when mentioning the ...

Good fences make good neighbors. It is easier to be friendly with your neighbor if neither of you trespasses upon the others property or privacy. For decades that hasn’t been the case between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, who at one time or another have been in a squabble over territory. The latest is a claim by Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo, who on Monday accused Nicaragua of off...

Although at first sight Brazil and Costa Rica seem to be sharply different nations, these two Latin American countries shared some unfortunate similarities during June 2013. In a recent opinion piece in El Pais, an online publication that often gives a voice to the current government's opposition, journalist and academic Juan Manuel Fernandez C. made four important observations about the ongoing p...

By Daniel Wallis CARACAS | Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:53pm EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Gathered in the yard of a small home in the Venezuelan countryside, a young man with dreadlocks asks a bearded musician clutching a guitar: "Who can Chavez rely on?" "All of us! Let me tell you who we are," the older man replies, breaking into song over gritty images of wo...

By Mike Collett SAO PAULO | Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:48pm EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil has problems like most countries but one that appears to be rapidly disappearing is the notion that it will not be ready to host the World Cup in just over 18 months' time. While anxieties remain about the Amazoni...

By Deisy Buitrago CARACAS | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:53pm EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has recovered "full intellectual capacity" after a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba this week, an official said on Saturday, but offered few details on the socialist firebrand's physical condition. Chavez's health weakened sharply after h...

By Alastair Himmer TOKYO | Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:13am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - The abandonment of last Wednesday's Copa Sudamericana final following shocking accusations police had pulled guns on players should serve as a warning for Brazil's World Cup organizers, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Saturday. Argentina's Tigre refused to emerge for the...

BRASILIA | Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:21am EST BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff remains highly popular despite a stalled economy and political scandals that have tarnished the reputation of her ruling Workers' Party, an opinion poll published on Friday showed. Rousseff's personal approval rating rose slightly to 78 percent from 77 percent...

By Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS | Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:34am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans waited anxiously on Wednesday for more details of President Hugo Chavez's condition in Cuba after cancer surgery deemed successful by the government but still shrouded in secrecy. Supporters held prayer vigils around the South American nation, while opponent...

By Andrew Cawthorne and Marianna Parraga CARACAS | Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:02am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on Tuesday for a recurrence of cancer that has thrown his future into jeopardy and upended politics in the South American OPEC nation. "My dear friend and colleague, Comandante Hugo Chavez,...

RIO DE JANEIRO | Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:29am EST RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva knew about and used funds from a far-reaching vote-buying scheme to pay for personal expenses, according to testimony by a convicted former consultant to the ruling Workers' Party. The testimony, reported on Tuesday by the Estado d...

By Lomi Kriel GUATEMALA CITY | Sat Dec 8, 2012 4:42pm EST GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Software guru John McAfee, fighting deportation from Guatemala to Belize to face questions about the slaying of a neighbor, said on Saturday he wants to return to the United States. "My goal is to get back to America as soon as possible," McAfee, 67, said in a ph...

Foreign drug cartels lost tons of narcotics in a week to police here and in Panamanian waters. Local police captured three truck shipments and Panamanian authorities along with U.S. patrols cooperated in another blow. After a chase that began in Costa Rican waters, a U.S. Coast Guard frigate and Panamanian patrol boat trapped a semi-submersible craft after an unarmed U.S. Orion P-3 patrol aircr...

By Diego Ore and Efrain Otero CARACAS | Fri Dec 7, 2012 9:04am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez made a theatrical return home on Friday after medical treatment in Cuba, walking and joking in a first public appearance for three weeks that quashed rumors he may have been at ...

BRASILIA | Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:58am EST BRASILIA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez looks set to miss a regional trade summit in Brazil on Friday after going to Cuba for cancer-related medical treatment, officials said. Chavez had been enthusiastic about attending the Mercosur bloc's meeting in Brasilia to celebrate Venezuela's entry, so his abse...

SAO PAULO | Thu Dec 6, 2012 8:08am EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc both opened their digital bookstores in Brazil on Thursday, hot on the heels of e-book offerings by local booksellers in a fast-growing online retail market. The simultaneous introduction of the two services highlighted the wide-open nature of Brazil's $12 billion ...

By Alan Baldwin SAO PAULO | Sat Nov 24, 2012 3:56pm EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton grabbed pole position in Brazil on Saturday for his last race with McLaren while Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took a big step towards becoming Formula One's youngest triple champion. Championship leader Vettel will start Sunday's season-ending race in four...

BRUSSELS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:14am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey is expected to request on Monday that NATO missiles be placed on its border with Syria to defend against mortar rounds fired from its neighbor, Germany's defense minister said. Only the United States, the Netherlands and Germany have the appropriate Patriot missile system available. Germa...

By Andrew Downie SAO PAULO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:07am EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilians like to say theirs is the country of soccer and it has certainly given the world strong candidates for the greatest player, the greatest team and even the greatest stadium. In the nation that will host the next World Cup, however, fewer people go to see prof...

Panamanian drug agents captured ex-OIJ detective Mauricio Garcia, 40, aboard his yacht Oct. 20. The yacht was anchored just off the province of Bocas del Toro in Panama waters with 633 kilos (more than 1000 lbs.) of cocaine aboard. Garcia was arrested by OIJ 18 years ago and, along with two others, was condemned to 12 years in prison for the murder of Costa Rican farmer Ciro Monge. He completed...

MANAGUA | Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:41pm EST MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua has begun talks with the International Monetary Fund over a financial aid package that aims to bolster efforts to reform taxes and pensions, the country's central bank president said on Monday. Alberto Guevara, president of the central bank of...

CARACAS | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:59am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, one of the U.S. government's leading critics, said there was little hope for change in American foreign policy regardless of the winner of Tuesday's vote for the White House. The recently re-elected Chavez wants Barack Obama to beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney...

SAO PAULO | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:23pm EDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - GM (GM.N) has no immediate plans to build cars with French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) in Brazil, the company's South America chief Jaime Ardila said on Sunday. "So far the entire focus of the alliance has been Europe and I expect that t...

I won’t say I was stunned, but I admit to being surprised when I read the following story in Reuters: Panama leader tells Germany he wants to adopt euro. Anybody who follows the news at all has undoubtedly read about the problems in Greece regarding their participation in the European Economic Union, and you probably have heard dire predictions about the future of the euro due to problems i...

Few political leaders have benefited more from Hugo Chavez’s largesse than Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Consequently, few foreign leaders will be watching the Venezuelan polls on Sunday closer than the Sandinista strongman. Ortega and his party’s politburo, recipients of more than $2.2 billion in Venezuelan petrodollars since 2007, insist they are confident their Venezuelan benefacto...

Panama, the home of the greatest closer of all time. Yankee’s Mariano Rivera, and the first country in the region to play baseball, is the subject of a ground breaking sports documentary by a New York filmmaker. US filmmaker Eric Soussan lamented that Panama, which pioneered baseball now lags behind other Latin- American countries in its exports of players to the major leagues. When he obta...

In a blog post by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein, two announcements were made that were direct results of passenger feedback. First up was the request by Royal Caribbean fans for more Panama Canal cruises. Goldstein announced that Vision of the Seas was slated to originally offer Caribbean cruises will instead sail a set of Panama Canal cruises in the fall and spring. The new Panama ca...

Russia’s Interior Ministry has signed an agreement with Nicaragua on supplying the "Tiger" armored vehicles to that country. “These vehicles will be used in operations on fighting the organized crime in our country”, Nicaragua's Minister of Interior Ana Isabel Morales Mazún said at a meeting in Moscow on Thursday. She said the "Tigers" would be used by the units of the Nicaraguan special...

The death of nearly 300 people from medicine provided by Panama’s Social Security Fund (CSS) reverberated around the world, but no one has taken the blame. Now the Committee of Relatives for the Right to Health and Life (Cofadesavi) is calling for the head of the current CSS director. "The president and the board of the Social Security Fund should take action on the matter and call for t...

The proposed project seeks to enhance the climate resilience of investments in Nicaragua's rural water supply sector. The project is closely aligned with relevant national policies, strategies, plans and legislation. In particular, the project would support the implementation of the National Environment and Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan for 2010-15. The SCCF grant ($6 million, ex...