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Costa Rica Investigated Possible Drug Money Inside Soccer Club

Costa Rican investigators examined whether money from an alleged international cocaine-trafficking organization was invested in Puerto Golfito F.C., a former second-division soccer club based in the country’s Southern Zone. The allegations form part of the Distrito organized-crime case, which is scheduled to go to trial on August 3. The proceedings are expected to continue through late 2027, as prosecutors present telephone recordings, surveillance reports, photographs and extensive financial records. One of the main defendants is businessman Rehan Fraile Pérez, known as “Rey.” Investigators allege that Fraile received money connected to the criminal organization and moved it into businesses and sports projects, including Puerto Golfito F.C. and a soccer training operation called Premier Academy CR. Fraile is accused alongside Hilary Walker Fowlker, known as “Hilario,” whom investigators identified as the suspected leader of the organization. A confidential Judicial Investigat...
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Costa Rican Sprinter Sherman Güity Ties Record That Stood Since 2015

Costa Rican sprinter Sherman Güity matched the men’s 100-meter T64 world record with a time of 10.61 seconds at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Güity won the race on July 23, equaling the record set by American Richard Browne at the 2015 World Para Athletics Championships in Doha. Browne’s mark had stood alone for nearly 11 years. The performance lowered Güity’s previous personal best of 10.65 seconds, which he recorded while winning the Paralympic gold medal at Paris 2024. It also completed a sprint double for the 29-year-old Costa Rican, who had already won the 200 meters T64 earlier in the competition. Güity crossed the line in the 200 meters in 20.81 seconds, faster than Browne’s world record of 21.27. However, the wind reading was measured at +5.3 meters per second, well above the +2.0 limit for record recognition. The favorable wind meant the time could not be approved as a world record, although it was the fastest 200-meter performance of Güity’...
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Costa Rica Officials Clash Over Detention of Alias “Diablo’s” Daughter

Costa Rican security officials have given conflicting accounts of whether the daughter of alleged crime boss Alejandro Arias Monge, alias “Diablo,” was formally detained after police intercepted her outside La Reforma prison . The woman, identified by authorities by the surnames Arias Fonseca, was stopped Saturday near the prison’s main entrance in San Rafael de Alajuela. She was carrying a firearm and traveling in a fully armored Toyota Prado, according to officials. An initial account described the intervention as a detention carried out by the Directorate of Intelligence and National Security, known as the DIS, in coordination with the Fuerza Pública and the Penitentiary Police. A later account from the Public Security Ministry said Arias Fonseca was identified and removed from the area but was not detained because she held a valid permit to carry a firearm. The ministry said she was subsequently allowed to leave. The ministry has not clarified whether officers briefly held her...
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Nicaragua to Brief Diplomats on Controversial Electoral Reform

Nicaragua’s government will brief foreign diplomats on a proposed reform aimed at excluding opposition parties from election s, co-president Rosario Murillo said Friday, following criticism from several countries and international organizations. The National Assembly and electoral authorities, both controlled by the government, are preparing legislation requested by President Daniel Ortega to prevent “traitors” and “coup plotters” serving the interests of the United States from taking part in elections, terms he commonly uses to describe his opponents. Congress announced Friday that the proposed constitutional reforms will be submitted to the presidential couple “for review and authorization,” with a “broad consultation process” set to begin next week. A vote on the proposal is expected in early August. “Consultations will be held with business leaders, investors and ambassadors. We are going to provide information but also consult with all sectors of our blessed homeland...
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The Forensic Tool Costa Rica Lacks in Its Fight Over Illegal Gold Mining

A forensic technique Brazilian federal police are using to trace illegally mined Amazon gold points to a capability Costa Rica has conspicuously lacked in its own long-running fight over Crucitas, where prosecutors have struggled for years to prove in court where seized gold actually came from. Inside Brazil’s National Institute of Criminalistics in Brasília, federal police have built what they call a gold lab, where forensic experts analyze samples collected in raids across the country. Gold flakes are stored in small coin-shaped vessels, and their value to investigators lies not in the metal but in the data it carries. As gold forms inside rock or a riverbed, it absorbs trace particles from the surrounding geology, including silver and copper, leaving each speck with a distinct chemical signature. That signature can be compared against stored geological data from protected areas, allowing investigators to determine whether a seized sample came from the mine its owner cl...
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Watching the 2026 World Cup Final in a Costa Rica Dive Bar

Since moving to Costa Rica in 1990, I have not missed a World Cup final. I’ve watched them from a bar, from a friend’s house, and from the comfort of my own home. For 2026, I planned on something different. I took the trip over the mountain to San José, ready to attend the huge public party at La Sabana Park. It seemed the perfect way to watch the match, surrounded by thousands of enthusiastic fans in an atmosphere of pure fiesta de fútbol. When I got to San José and informed my friend Roberto of my plans, he immediately set out to change my mind. The park would be packed with rowdy drunks and screaming kids, he said, and an older dude like myself would feel alone and out of place amid the throngs. So I didn’t go to the big party. Instead, I joined my friend at one of his favorite San José dive bars. It was a casual, unpretentious, open-air place on a narrow street in a downtown barrio, with a 12-seat bar and several tables and chairs in an area next to the ba...
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Costa Rica Celebrates 202 Years Since Nicoya Chose to Join the Nation

Every July 25, Costa Rica marks one of the defining moments in our history. Two hundred and two years ago, a decision taken in a small colonial town on the Pacific coast redrew our country’s map, expanded its economy and permanently enriched its cultural identity. The date is commonly called the “ Annexation of Guanacaste ,” but historians at the University of Costa Rica and elsewhere note that the historically accurate term is the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the colonial administrative district that voluntarily chose to join Costa Rica in 1824. On July 25 of that year, the municipal council of Nicoya convened a cabildo abierto, an open town meeting, at which the communities of Nicoya and Santa Cruz voted to become part of the newly independent State of Costa Rica. Unlike most territorial changes in nineteenth-century Latin America, the decision was not the product of war, military conquest or an imposed treaty. It reflected the expressed will of the loca...
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