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Three Hilton-affiliated hotels in San José are warning customers about a fraud scheme in which scammers are posing as hotel employees to sell event services and request payments through unofficial channels. The situation has been reported at the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, Curio Collection by Hilton in downtown San José, the Hilton Garden Inn San José La Sabana, and the Hilton San José La Sabana, all properties administered by CLS Hospitality Group. The company said the scheme involves people pretending to work for the hotels and contacting potential clients interested in organizing weddings, quinceañeras, and corporate events. The scammers are allegedly presenting themselves as sales executives in order to arrange fraudulent reservations and collect money outside the hotels’ official payment systems. The company said it is following up on the case to prevent additional incidents and protect both clients and the tourism sector. The warning is especially pertinent for people pla...

A former U.S. military vessel built during World War II is now anchored in Costa Rica’s South Pacific, where it has taken on a very different mission: helping protect marine life from illegal fishing. The MODOC, a 1944 vessel originally built for the United States Navy at Levingston Shipyard in Orange, Texas, is now used as a floating operations center by Earthrace Conservation. The organization purchased the former Navy and U.S. Coast Guard ship in 2019 and converted it into a conservation vessel for patrols, surveillance and support work in protected areas. Today, the ship remains based in the waters of southern Costa Rica, supporting marine and land-based operations with the National System of Conservation Areas, known as SINAC, and Costa Rican authorities. Its crew assists with patrols in areas such as Isla del Caño, Corcovado, Santa Rosa and waters around the Osa Peninsula, where illegal fishing, poaching and illegal mining have put pressure on protected ecosystems. At the cent...

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A friend who lives in New York City was all over social media in the wake of the 4.8 earthquake that hit the east coast of the US on Thursday. The sensation of the earth moving, and the building he was in swaying was a first for him. All I could think was, ‘Welcome to the club’. According to the University of Costa Rica’s page on seismic history, there have been 31 quakes of 5.0 or better here since 1990. And countless smaller tremors. Ovsicori , the organization that keeps tabs on volcanic and seismic activity, records all the tremors throughout Costa Rica. Their website features a map that shows all recorded movements over the past 15 days. It is mind-boggling (or maybe earth-shattering would be the better adjective) to look at this map and see the underground activity. We easily average a dozen tremors daily, mostly concentrated in the Central Valley and Central Pacific regions, but with all provinces well represented. When it comes to the sensation of the earth moving beneath y...

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Costa Rican exporters are absorbing hits from three directions at once: rising port fees on the Caribbean coast, a colón that has strengthened to historic levels, and a 10% U.S. tariff that has complicated access to the country’s most important export market. Each pressure alone would be manageable. Together, they are testing the viability of export operations up and down the value chain. Earlier this month, the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) approved a sweeping update to the tariff schedule for JAPDEVA, the state authority that oversees the Atlantic-side ports of Moín and Limón. JAPDEVA had originally sought increases of between 13% and 167% across 19 port services. After a public comment period in March, during which business chambers registered strong opposition, the regulator approved a more moderate, though still significant, restructuring. ARESEP estimates that JAPDEVA’s overall revenues could rise by roughly 27% under the new schedule. The increases ...

Cameras are rolling across Costa Rica on Hope/Esperanza, an indie romantic drama from Oscar-winning producer Mark Johnson, with principal photography set to continue at locations throughout the country until the end of May. The production began shooting on April 13 and will run for five weeks, employing more than 200 Costa Rican cast and crew members. Filming is taking place across multiple regions, including the communities of Pacayas and Bagaces, where local businesses are seeing a boost in transportation, lodging, food service, and logistics work tied to the shoot. Johnson, whose credits include Rain Man, The Holdovers, and the Breaking Bad universe, is producing the film alongside Costa Rican producer Esteban Quesada Vizcaíno. Mexico City-based Alejandra Cardenas serves as executive producer, with Sarah Quintero and Jessica Mollo co-producing. The film marks a tonal departure for Johnson, best known for prestige television and awards-circuit dramas through his two-decade collabora...

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The possibility of allowing the keeping of certain wild birds, such as macaws, has returned to public debate with the new draft of the Wildlife Regulations. This issue has resurfaced as one of the most controversial points in the proposal put forward by the National System of Conservation Areas ( SINAC ). The new wording retains the option to keep birds acquired before 2017 in captivity, even without clear verification mechanisms. For those working in wildlife rescue and management, this poses a risk to conservation. “SINAC has no way of verifying that I’ve had the macaw since before 2017; I could forge an invoice and claim I bought it earlier, and abroad, since sales are prohibited here,” said Laura Porras, director of Icomvis-UNA. The problem, then, is not only legal but also operational. If the animals’ origin cannot be verified, the regulation could end up facilitating illegal ownership. Porras also commented on the case of hybrid iguanas. “Some people brought blue iguanas from ...

Renowned Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora considered a “prisoner of conscience” by international organizations, said Friday that Latin America’s political and economic elites view journalism as a “subversive exercise” and impose severe punishments on those who practice it. Speaking virtually from Guatemala City, where he is under house arrest after spending nearly three years in prison, Zamora addressed the midyear meeting of the Inter American Press Association in Miami to denounce what he described as the region’s lack of commitment to freedom and justice. “Our elites have never embraced them in any Latin American country,” he said. “They are people who have no tolerance or respect for opposing opinions. What they seek is a single discourse, a monologue, and if not, they easily sentence you to imprisonment, burial, or exile,” he added. According to Zamora, ruling classes “throughout Latin America do not want journalists,” but rather “propagandists” and “simple servants.” “T...

Cuban authorities have ordered the release of three Panamanian women detained since late February on accusations of spreading subversive propaganda against the Cuban government, Panama’s Foreign Ministry said Friday. The women — Evelyn Castro, Cinthia del Carmen Camarena and Abigail Sthefany Gudiño — will be allowed to leave Cuban territory, the ministry said in a statement. Cuban officials described the move as a gesture of humanity and friendship toward Panama, citing the women’s cooperation in the legal process as effective collaborators. The decision comes nearly two months after Cuban authorities arrested 10 Panamanian citizens in Havana on February 28. The group faced charges of producing signs with content contrary to Cuba’s constitutional order, an offense punishable by three to eight years in prison under Cuban law. Cuba’s Interior Ministry said at the time that the Panamanians admitted to entering the country with instructions to create the signs. They acknowledged they wo...

A new Museum of Memory has opened in San José, Costa Rica, giving Nicaraguan exiles and victims’ families a public space to document the repression that followed the 2018 protests against Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The museum, titled Lo que no debemos olvidar — What Should Not Be Forgotten — was created by the Nicaragua Never Again Collective, a human rights group founded in Costa Rica in 2019 by Nicaraguan defenders forced into exile. The group has spent years documenting abuses, supporting victims, and preserving testimony from people affected by state violence in Nicaragua. The space opened on April 20 in San José, the same date Ortega reappeared publicly in Managua on the anniversary of the 2018 uprising. The timing gave the opening a clear political and historical weight: while Nicaragua’s government continues to reject accusations of repression, the museum presents another account, centered on victims, survivors, and the exiled community. The exhibit brings together ...

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A rise in violence and theft in downtown Cartago is changing the way merchants do business, with some closing earlier, reinforcing storefronts and watching customer traffic fade in the afternoon and evening. The concerns are centered in Cartago’s historic commercial district, near the Mercado Central, the Ruins, the old barracks area and the streets surrounding the city’s traditional shopping corridors. Merchants say robberies, armed incidents and the visible presence of unhoused people have altered routines in a city long viewed as quieter than San José. The tension grew sharply after an armed attack on January 11 left two people dead near the Convento de los Padres Capuchinos, close to the city center. Police reports said the incident involved occupants of two vehicles and ended in gunfire and a fatal crash. The victims were identified by their surnames as Aguilar, 22, and Camacho, 21. For many shopkeepers, the violence has become part of daily decision-making. Yessenia Ramírez, 5...

When you hear the word jungle spoken in reference to Costa Rica, your first thought likely strays to monkeys swinging through trees, scarlet macaws, toucans, blue morpho butterflies, and our unofficial national symbol, the sloth. But live here long enough and you may find yourself traipsing through a less appealing jungle, that of the Costa Rican bureaucracy. I have had my own misadventures over the years, having been turned away at the airport on one occasion due to a child support payment mix-up. I have also spent my share of time in lines to get papers stamped and documents authenticated. All of that is benign compared to the problems of another U.S. expat, an acquaintance who is caught in the unpredictable wheels of the apparatus while he tries in vain to get his residency. I heard the story secondhand while enjoying a couple of cold ones at a beachside cantina. My drinking buddy asked if I’d heard about our acquaintance Theo’s problem. I said I hadn’t, so my friend laid it out f...

Costa Rica’s push to place Rebeca Grynspan at the head of the United Nations moved into a more public phase this week, as the former vice president used her interactive dialogue before member states to argue that the next secretary-general must put peace back at the center of the organization and take a more active role in preventing conflicts. Her candidacy gives Costa Rica an unusual opening to project its long-standing diplomatic identity onto one of the most important jobs in multilateral politics. Grynspan is one of four declared candidates currently in the race to succeed António Guterres when his second term ends on December 31, 2026, with the next secretary-general set to begin on January 1, 2027. The other contenders are Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Rafael Grossi of Argentina, and Macky Sall of Senegal. Costa Rica formally registered Grynspan’s candidac y on March 3, presenting her as a figure with government experience, deep U.N. knowledge, and a track record in crisis nego...

As the world observes Earth Day today, Costa Rica finds itself in familiar territory: held up once again as a global example of what environmental ambition can look like in practice, while dealing with the real-world pressures that test that reputation year after year. The 2026 theme chosen by earthday.org — “Our Power, Our Planet” — emphasizes that environmental progress is sustained by the daily actions of communities, educators, workers, and families rather than by any single policy cycle. It is a message that lands naturally here. Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948 and redirected public spending toward health, education, and the environment, a decision that has underpinned decades of conservation work and made the country roughly the size of West Virginia a reference point for sustainable development far larger than its footprint. That reputation rests on hard numbers. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad reported earlier this year that Costa Rica closed 2025 genera...

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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump is suffering from a mental breakdown after launching, alongside Israel, the war in the Middle East. In his most recent public appearances, Ortega had kept a more measured tone about Trump following the war unleashed on February 28 by Israeli and U.S. attacks against Iran, which has left thousands dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. “The war imposed in the way the current president of the United States is imposing it is typical of someone who has lost his mind and believes he can do anything, any kind of barbarity,” Ortega said. “It is a problem, we might say, of mental derangement, as we say here. He is not in his right mind,” he added during an event in Managua broadcast by pro-government media. Ortega and co-president Rosario Murillo , his wife, held a rally in the capital “for Peace and Reconciliation” to mark the 2018 opposition protests, which they say were an attempted coup backed by Washington. The 8...

Costa Rican police detained 19 Nicaraguan nationals in irregular migratory status during operations in Crucitas de Cutris over the past week, in the latest sign that authorities are keeping up pressure on illegal gold mining along the northern border. Thirteen of those detained were found allegedly extracting gold in tunnels and other sites, while six more were intercepted as they headed toward extraction areas. The 13 men caught at extraction points were turned over to the San Carlos Flagrancy Prosecutor’s Office and could face proceedings under Costa Rica’s Mining Code. The other six were sent to Migration Police to be sent back to Nicaragua. Police also seized and destroyed mining tools and equipment on judicial orders. During the same operations, officers confiscated 30 sacks of mineral sediment that were allegedly about to be moved out of the area, leading to the arrest of a Costa Rican driver. A separate Nicaraguan suspect was detained on suspicion of distributing drugs after ...

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Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber has ordered the suspension of tree-felling permits, construction authorizations, and density modifications tied to a hotel development in the Papagayo Gulf Tourist Complex, pending the resolution of a constitutional challenge that accuses regulators of fast-tracking the project without adequate environmental review. The decision was handed down by investigating magistrate Fernando Cruz in the context of a constitutional challenge filed by attorney Juan Pablo Xatruch Ovares against the regulation that governs real estate development in the tourist hub — the same regulation that allowed logging permits to be granted for the hotel project. “As the investigating judge, I adopted the requested precautionary measure, which aligns with the conditions and characteristics of the case, suspending any activity related to this hotel development or the felling of trees in that area,” Cruz explained. “Until a decision is reached, to prevent irreparable harm in t...

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The sexual harassment case that has dominated the final weeks of Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly reached its final stage on Friday, though with an uncertain outcome. The special commission that investigated the complaint against Deputy Fabricio Alvarado presented three final reports: two recommending sanctions against the Nueva República lawmaker, and a third that clears him of responsibility. The reports recommending sanctions were signed by Social Christian deputy Alejandro Pacheco — who chaired the commission — and independent deputy Johana Obando, while the third was presented by Alvarado’s own bench colleague, Olga Morera. The argument for not recommending a sanction is that the case is already moving through the criminal courts. A case with high stakes The investigation stems from a complaint filed by former deputy Marulín Azofeifa, who has alleged a series of inappropriate acts that occurred during the previous four-year term, when she held a Nueva República seat. According...

Costa Rica’s fraud problem is moving fast online, and travel is one of the clearest targets. What used to look like isolated scams now forms part of a wider pattern built around fake booking platforms, cloned websites, false promotions, and digital payment traps aimed at residents and tourists alike. The scale of the broader problem keeps rising as Costa Rica recorded 10,027 online fraud cases in 2025, up 41% from the previous year, while losses tied to cyber fraud reached about ₡6 billion. Investigators have also warned that cloned websites remain one of the most common tools used to steal personal and banking data, often by copying the look of legitimate institutions and changing only a few letters in a web address. In one recent case, judicial authorities dismantled a fake travel agency that changed names and locations every two months while selling nonexistent vacation packages. The group allegedly stole ¢165 million from 112 victims and used card details collected during the bo...

Costa Rica’s biggest auto fair of the year is in full swing, and this edition is one for the record books. Expomóvil 2026 started Thursday, and runs through Sunday at the Centro de Eventos Pedregal in Belén, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Association of Vehicle and Machinery Importers (AIVEMA), the trade group that organizes the event each year. This year’s edition brings together 79 brands and roughly 350 different models in one space, ranging from basic urban vehicles to extreme-luxury offerings. The fair spans more than 33,000 square meters of exhibition space. A market in transition Costa Rica now has 115 registered vehicle brands — a 35% jump from pre-pandemic levels, driven primarily by the aggressive entry of Chinese manufacturers and an accelerated transition toward electric and hybrid models. The shift is visible throughout the fair, where traditional brands share the floor with newer arrivals. Brands on display include Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Mercedes Benz, BY...

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Long before Costa Rica became synonymous with cloud forests and wildlife reserves, its coastlines were contested territory in one of history’s most dramatic power struggles. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the country’s remote bays, dense jungles, and exposed river mouths made it both a target and a thoroughfare for pirates, corsairs, and privateers operating under the flags of, or in defiance of, Europe’s rival empires. The roots of piracy along Costa Rica’s shores run directly back to the geopolitics of the Old World. When Protestant England squared off against Catholic Spain over colonial dominance, the English crown recruited experienced sailors as corsairs, essentially licensed agents of terror against Spanish ships and settlements throughout the Americas. Costa Rica, known as the Rich Coast, sat squarely in the path of Spanish trade routes linking South America and Panama to the broader empire. That made it an inevitable destination for those looking...

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Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health said that the country has confirmed its fourth positive case of chikungunya so far this year, based on results issued by INCIENSA. The latest case involves a 52-year-old Costa Rican woman from Heredia who recently traveled to Nicaragua. Health officials said she entered Costa Rica during the virus’s incubation period, so the case is being classified as imported. The ministry said she is not currently experiencing complications. With this new case, Costa Rica has now confirmed four chikungunya infections in 2026. The ministry said the three earlier cases were two in Esparza, Puntarenas, and one in Carrillo, Guanacaste. Officials also said Costa Rica had not registered circulation of the virus since 2017 before these cases appeared this year. Chikungunya is a viral disease spread by mosquito bites. The Ministry of Health says common symptoms include high fever, joint pain and swelling, headache, nausea, and general discomfort. Authorities said epidemio...

There is a big difference between an escrow contract and a trust contract. In the escrow contract one party places certain funds in the hands of the escrow company for a variety of purposes, such as: a means to show good faith and real intent to purchase a property or some other important item. Those funds can be an initial earnest money deposit, which is a small portion of the total price, with the purpose of locking in the price of the transaction and having a privileged position to purchase. The initial deposit can be anywhere from 3% (the usual custom in the USA) to 10% (the usual custom here in Costa Rica, but still just a custom that can be negotiated). This type of contract can have an important practical use in places where there is a large demand for property and the buyer must lock the price in before it increases or he loses the property to another buyer. Escrow contracts can be used for many different purposes, not only property purchases. A contract of trust is also the ...