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San José Central Park Faces Overhaul with Significant Updates

San José’s historic Central Park stands ready for significant updates. The Municipality of San José presented plans to add a café under the bandstand and make other changes to bring new life to the space. The project carries a price tag of 648 million colones. Officials have it out for bids now, with offers due by March 20. Construction should start in the coming months. The municipality hired Ingeniería Jorge Lizano to draw up the detailed plans and figure the costs. Those documents sit ready for final sign-off. Designers drew on input from a public survey that drew close to 1,300 replies. People asked for extra green areas, stronger safety measures, better lights, and spots with more shade. Work scheduled for this year covers several areas. Crews will put in fresh street furniture. They will grow the green sections. Plans call for an inclusive sensory garden. The café will open in the bandstand basement. Builders will add pergolas and canopies. They will update the lighting and set...
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China Presses Costa Rica for Evidence in ICE Cyberattack Dispute

China has asked Costa Rican authorities to hand over evidence supporting allegations that Chinese-linked actors were behind a cyberespionage attack on the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, opening a new point of tension in the already strained relationship between San José and Beijing. The request was made publicly Friday by Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaoyao, one day after Costa Rican officials linked the January breach at ICE to the group UNC2814, which Google has described as a suspected People’s Republic of China nexus cyberespionage actor. Wang said China wanted the evidence so the claims could be verified and, if warranted, prosecuted under the law. She also said Beijing has been trying since 2024 to engage Costa Rica on cybersecurity through technical consultations, professional exchanges, and other cooperation channels, but had received no reply from the Costa Rican side. The Chinese embassy also said it had proposed using mechanisms tied to the United Nations cybercrime framewo...
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Costa Rica Faces Mounting Pressure as Aging Population Grows Fast

Costa Rica is moving quickly toward a demographic shift that will test some of the country’s biggest public systems. What was once treated as a long-term issue is now becoming a near-term challenge for pensions, health care, employment, and caregiving as the share of older adults rises and the number of younger workers falls. Recent projections show that about 11.7% of Costa Rica’s population is now 65 or older, and that by 2050 roughly one in four residents will be in that age group. In absolute numbers, that means the population over 65 is expected to grow from about 600,000 people in 2025 to around 1.33 million by mid-century. The shift is being driven by two powerful trends at once: Costa Ricans are living longer and having fewer children. Recent official and institutional figures place life expectancy in Costa Rica at around 80 to 81 years, with projections showing it could rise above 84 by 2050. At the same time, fertility has dropped well below replacement level, with recent da...
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Costa Rica’s Felipe Pacheco Heads to 98th Academy Awards

The 32-year-old Costa Rican music editor is making history tonight as the first person from his country ever nominated for an Academy Award. There is a particular kind of quiet that exists in a film before the music swells, a silence shaped by someone who understands exactly when sound should speak and when it should step aside. Felipe Pacheco has spent his career mastering that art, and tonight, at the 98th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, he has a chance to walk away with an Oscar for it. Pacheco is the first Costa Rican ever nominated for an Academy Award, a landmark that would have seemed improbable to the teenager who left his hometown more than a decade ago with nothing but ambition and a guitar. Born and raised in Piedades de Santa Ana, Pacheco left Costa Rica at just 18, driven by a powerful dream of building a life in music. While his initial passion was the guitar, his path evolved as he discovered a profound interest in the technical and narrativ...
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Costa Rica Marks Century Since Virilla River Train Crash Took 385 Lives

A century after Costa Rica’s deadliest train accident, the country pauses to remember the 385 people who lost their lives and the 93 others who suffered injuries when an overloaded train derailed on a bridge over the Virilla River. The disaster struck on March 14, 1926. A special train left Heredia and stopped in Alajuela, bound for Cartago on a charity excursion organized by Father Claudio Volio. The trip aimed to raise money for a nursing home in Cartago, and demand far outstripped what organizers expected. The Northern Railway Company provided the train. Passengers filled every car well beyond safe limits. Researcher Adriana Sánchez at the University of Costa Rica reviewed records for a 2020 study and found that trains normally carried 70 to 75 people per car, including some who stood. On that day, each car held around 100 passengers, with some reports suggesting as many as 200. Sánchez determined the overload reached between 40 and 120 extra riders per car. Even then, conductors ...
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US Flag Flies Again at Caracas Embassy After Seven Years

The United States raised its flag over the embassy in Caracas on Saturday for the first time in seven years.U.S. Charge d’Affaires Laura Dogu led her team in the ceremony outside the embassy compound. “A new era for U.S.-Venezuela relations has begun. Onward with Venezuela,” Dogu wrote. Dogu noted the flag rose exactly seven years after it was lowered on March 14, 2019. Venezuela had broken off ties two months earlier after the United States refused to recognize Nicolás Maduro’s 2018 re-election. The flag raising follows the restoration of full diplomatic and consular relations earlier this month. Ties warmed quickly after a U.S. military operation removed Maduro from power. On Jan. 3, U.S. special forces captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores during a raid in Caracas. They were flown to New York to face federal charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. Venezuelan officials reported around 100 people killed in the operation. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president...
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New Prepaid Card Lets Costa Ricans Pay Bus and Train Fares Without a Bank Account

The Banco Central de Costa Rica presented the Monedero SINPE-TP this month. This prepaid contactless card lets people pay for rides on buses and trains without needing a bank account. The card forms part of the Sistema Nacional de Pago Electrónico en el Transporte Público, or SINPE-TP. It targets users who rely on cash for daily commutes. Around 400,000 people who take buses and trains every day in the Gran Área Metropolitana do not have bank accounts. The new card gives them a way to handle payments electronically. Sales start in April through a pilot program. People can buy the card at Puntos Tucán operated by Banco de Costa Rica and at BN Servicios from Banco Nacional. These points operate in the metropolitan area of San José. The network will expand later to reach about 6,000 locations across the country. To purchase one, individuals over the age of 12 need to show valid identification. The card costs 5,000 colones. That price includes 4,000 colones in ready-to-use balance for tr...
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