Paola Reyes Pérez, 34, who is pursuing a master's degree in Urban Planning at Wuhan University
Authorities in China have imposed indefinite travel restrictions on tens of millions of people across 11 cities in an unprecedented effort to contain the spread of a deadly new coronavirus, as hospitals at the epicenter of the outbreak struggle to handle a surge in new patients.
Chinese city goes into lockdown as coronavirus death toll doubles
Wuhan, the sprawling capital of Central China’s Hubei province, is a quarantined city. It is also the city where four Costa Ricans live; However, only three are currently there, confirmed Miguel Díaz, director of institutional communication at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The confirmation of the four Ticos in Wuhan was provided by the Consul General of Costa Rica in Shanghai, China, Danilo González, who said, “Of these four Costa Ricans, three are women and one is a man. One Costa Rican is not currently in the city of Wuhan, while the three Costa Ricans are residing in that city.”
Wuhan under quarantine as coronavirus outbreak worsens
According to the Consul’s report, “the Ticas are in good health and have not presented any symptoms that make us presume that they could be infected. The Consulate remains in constant communication with them and for the moment there are problems”.
Díaz said that the Chinese government has not officially informed the consulate about how long Wuhan will be in quarantine.
“The consulate of Costa Rica in Shanghai issued a statement with recommendations for Costa Ricans in its jurisdiction and enabled an email and emergency telephone number for people who require it to communicate.”
La Nacion reports that one of the women is Paola Reyes Pérez, 34, who is pursuing a master’s degree in Urban Planning at Wuhan University. She plans to return to Costa Rica on February 1, although for now, she does not know if she can leave, due to restrictions in Wuhan.
Paola Reyes Pérez is studying at Wuhan University
For her part, Paola had told La Nación that she learned about the virus in November. “I am asthmatic and knowing the problem, I stayed locked in my room,” said Paola, who lives in the university residences. “I go out very little, I buy my food in safe places, like supermarkets with high standards; meats and vegetables, to avoid contagion,” she explained.
“My family is very worried because they are afraid of not letting me out (when there is a flight to our country), but the safety and health measures are quite high,” she said.
Travel restrictions affect some 30 million people in 11 cities The virus, which was first discovered in the city of Wuhan in December, has spread to every province in China, except the remote autonomous regions of Qinghai and Tibet, with the number of infections rising to more than 900 worldwide.
According to a report by CNN, as today, Friday, January 24, 2020, the virus had claimed the lives of at least 26 people in mainland China, including a 36-year-old man not listed as having any pre-existing conditions. Posts on social media show an atmosphere of fear and anxiety among those inside Wuhan, amid rising uncertainty over the ability of authorities to handle the potential epidemic.
Hubei, the province at the center of the virus outbreak, declared a Level 1 response earlier Friday
An Avianca flight that took off from Costa Rica and headed for Bogotá, Colombia, had to land emergency at the Tocumen airport, Panama, Thursday morning.
Avianca Airbus A-319
According to the airline, the captain of the aircraft identified an alert in one of the systems and decided to deviate.
From Flightaware
The flight crew and the 108 passengers traveling on the plane followed the established protocols, the aircraft landing in Panama intact, however, three flight crew and one passenger required being transferred to the hospital for a detailed medical evaluation.
Así quedo el avión de Avianca luego de vivir una emergencia en el vuelo AV693 San José – Bogotá. Cayó en picada por unos segundos. pic.twitter.com/aPgiGVjd2S
“The cabin crew, following established protocols, provided primary care and as soon as the aircraft landed, passengers were treated by the airport’s emergency medical team,” Avianca said in a press release.
The airline also reported that passengers on flight AV693 boarded another plane on Thursday morning for Bogota.
Ronald Hanna, a passenger of Colombian nationality, told the media that at some point he felt “a kind of turbulence” and shortly after the plane “plummeted for two or three seconds.”
“There were people, who had no belt, flew into the air and crashed into the ceiling. The food carts also hit the ceiling,” said the man, who was in the Tocumen air terminal when he spoke by telephone with journalists at Telediario.
Passengers wear protective masks to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus as they arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport, California, on January 22, 2020. - A new virus that has killed nine people, infected hundreds and has already reached the US could mutate and spread, China warned on January 22, as authorities urged people to steer clear of Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Ministerio de Salud (Ministry of Health) announced earlier this week that it activated the prevention protocols against the new coronavirus that emerged in China and is already present in various countries.
Passengers wear protective masks to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus as they arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport, California, on January 22, 2020. A new virus that has killed nine people, infected hundreds and has already reached the US could mutate and spread, China warned on January 22, as authorities urged people to steer clear of Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP)
“Activation” is implementing measures, mainly information, for health professionals, and the Ministry following up on international cases and investigations that come up on the subject. However, people who have symptoms of respiratory distress and who were in recent days in China, Japan, Thailand or South Korea are also asked to seek medical attention and report the case to local health authorities.
Important to note that despite several reports from not so reliable media sources (we won’t mention them here), there are no suspected cases of coronavirus in Costa Rica.
Salud confirms, through its social networks, “at this time we do NOT have any suspected cases of coronavirus 2019-nCov in our country.”
The clarification came after rumors that affirm the existence of an alleged case in an older adult who would be in isolation. Salud reiterates that this is false. Nor is it true that there are three “isolated” patients at the San Rafel Hospital in Alajuela.
Once again, the authorities insist that the cold flu is not synonymous with the coronavirus.
Costa Rica has no direct flights from China or any Asian country. The majority of arrivals to Costa Rica are from the United States, where passengers arriving from China are being screened.
Daniel Salas, the Minister of Health, said, “The Ministerio de Salud remains attentive to the advances in the investigation of the disease to guide decision-making in order to protect the public health of the country.”
“The health system in Costa Rica has protocols and procedures that allow facing these epidemiological alerts. In the same way that the influenza virus AH1N1 and SARS-CoV was processed, what is appropriate is the disclosure of the protocol of action for health care centers,” added Salas
Coronaviruses
The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency after a Wednesday meeting, despite the entire city of Wuhan going under quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“There is no evidence of human to human transmission outside China, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. “WHO is following this outbreak every minute of every day.”
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds that include diarrhea in cows and pigs, and upper respiratory disease in chickens. In humans, the virus causes respiratory infections, which are often mild, but in rare cases are potentially lethal. There are no vaccines or antiviral drugs that are approved for prevention or treatment.
According to the general recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), symptoms of the coronavirus strain include cough, shortness of breath and fever. In more serious cases, it can cause pneumonia, acute respiratory syndrome and kidney failure.
The WHO recommends taking the following measures to prevent respiratory illnesses from spreading:
Frequent hand washing.
Cook food properly.
Avoid close contact with people with symptoms of respiratory diseases.
Practice proper cough and sneeze protocol.
In case of symptoms of respiratory disease during or after a trip to China, seek medical attention and share your travel history with the health provider.
For those who will soon travel to China and especially Hubei province, avoid approaching people with respiratory symptoms, crowded spaces and farm animals. Additionally, while the coronavirus is being investigated, it is recommended to consume only well-cooked food.
Costa Rica will not escape the effects of climate change and, if the trend continues, by 2080 many parts of the Ticolandia will look dramatically different: in some cases, flooded by rising sea level and in others, almost desert-like due to high temperatures.
According to Kifah Sasa, UNDP Sustainable Development and Resilience Officer, to develop the arts, 2080 was taken as the basis, due to the not encouraging projections of the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) – Costa Rica’s national weather service.
What can be done to reverse the situation? “This is a weather emergency. Either we change in the next decade or we will perish,” Sasa emphasized.
Limon now and then
Sasa said that the situation is drastic and that is why Costa Ricans must have more climate ambition.
“There are those who think that because it is a small country, or because it only contributes a very small part of the total emissions of the planet, our contribution is tiny. On the contrary, countries like Costa Rica, with renewable energy matrices, have less complex challenges than the others. If we are not able to change our consumption of fossil fuels in the transport sector, or to reduce agricultural emissions by using less agrochemicals and avoiding deforestation, it is difficult to think that others will.”
Visit the La Nacion page to see the transformations in JuxtaposeJS.
The end of November is likely to be a good time to buy dollars, specifically if you take into account the value of the currency last October.
If you have a dollar loan or at any time tried to obtain one, your lender bank may have mentioned in the bank by the Libor (London InterBank Offered Rate), an interest-rate average calculated from estimates submitted by the leading banks in London.
Costa Rican banks and financial institutions use the Libor and Prime rates as a reference for dollar loans.
This index, which is used as a reference for dollar credits in the national financial system – although it is not the only one – will disappear at the end of 2021 after a series of controversies and questions that aroused distrust around its calculation.
In July 2017, the financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), announced the end of the rate, an indicator that for decades served to generate reliable information that helped set the price of a wide variety of products ranging from loans to mortgages and other more complex derivatives.
Libor, which is actually a set of indexes, is calculated based on a daily survey in which about 20 banks estimate how much it would cost them to borrow unsecured money among themselves. As the tendency for entities to finance each other without any guarantee was reversed, the index became a more theoretical and less real reference.
Brexit had weight in the decision to end Libor, but the fact that sentenced its future was the discovery made by the United States and United Kingdom authorities, in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, about manipulations of the indicator by the banks to benefit.
Given this scenario, regulators around the world began to look for options to replace the Libor rate and Costa Rica is no exception.
The Consejo Nacional de Supervisión del Sistema Financiero (Conassif) – National Council of Supervision of the Financial System and the Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras (Sugef) – General Superintendence of Financial Institutions – started a work commission that analyzes the issue.
“This group is also led by the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – Central Bank. It has the participation of lawyers and technical experts who will prepare a proposal to address the issue and provide recommendations. At the moment they are in meetings and their work is expected to end in April,” explained Bernardo Alfaro, head of the Sugef.
Costa Rican financial institutions also use the Prime Rate, which is an indicator of the minimum interest rate that US banks charge their most important commercial clients.
In 2019, only 3.35% of total credit operations in foreign currency were referenced to Libor, while 3.50% was indexed to the Prime Rate.
However, the loans that are linked to Libor represent 58.29% of the total balance of foreign currency credits of the national financial system, according to data by the Sugef.
Another international index that could take the place of Libor is the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SoFR) created by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC), a group of private-market participants convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the New York Fed to help ensure a successful transition from U.S. dollar (USD) LIBOR to a more robust reference rate.
Alberto Dent, president of Conassif, confirmed that these two options will be analyzed by the commission that will seek a replacement for Libor.
Although 87,442 dollar loans were indexed to Libor, at the end of 2019, the banks believe that the change will not generate more impact for the almost 66,500 debtors responsible for these loans, according to Gustavo Vargas, president of the Chamber of Banks and general manager of the Banco Nacional (BNCR).
“For months, the country’s banking and financial institutions have been working on the issue to promote their clients that have loans with Libor an orderly process of change at a new rate,” said Vargas, who added that “The banks will offer their clients the gradual and informed substitution of the rate linked to their credits”.
Amedeo Gaggion, director of Treasury at Scotiabank, the largest of the private banks in Costa Rica said that his bank uses only the Prime Rate as a reference for its longer-term operations, so the change will not generate effects on its customers.
The expansion of the Ruta 27 has been in the slow lane in the last 10 years
Almost 10 years after the opening of Ruta 27, the highway that links San José with the Caldera port, the Government took this week the first step towards its expansion.
On Wednesday morning, at Casa Presidencial (Presidential House), the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) formalized a letter of understanding with Globalvia, the highway concessionaire, to carry out the expansion project.
MOPT minister, Rodolfo Méndez Mata, and the Deputy General Director of Globalvia, Carlos González Álvarez, signed a letter of understanding for the process of negotiating the studies that will allow the extension of the highway from La Sabana to Caldera.
President Carlos Alvarado holds the letter of understanding signed on Wednesday at Casa Presidencial with Ruta 27 concessionaire Globalvia. Photo Casa Presidencial
The agreement extends the current concession contract that expires in 2033 for another 15 years; that would mean Globalvia would operate the national highway to 2048.
The letter of understanding signed on Wednesday sets the terms and conditions for the expansion, establishing the terms and conditions that allow the parties to agree and sign the agreements necessary for the expansion and construction of various additional works on the road.
President Carlos Alvarado said that “we continue to build trust through agreements that allow for concrete works that are essential for the development of Costa Rica.” He added that “we believe in the model of the concession and therefore we have strengthened this process that
it will allow us to provide a solution to the collapse (congestion) of Ruta 27”.
“We considered and proposed to the concessionaire that we had to make some changes, if there is something that motivates a concession is that the amount of the rate that you get to pay, correlates it with the congestion problem has been solved,” said the secretary Consejo Nacional de Concesiones (CNC) – National of Concessions, José Manuel Sáenz.
Proposed changes to the La Sabana, km 0.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Coordination with the Private Sector, Andre Garnier, stressed that after an exhaustive analysis, it was concluded that the solution to extend Ruta 27 is through an addendum to the concession contract with Globalvia.
The main works to be developed, if justified by the study of traffic and engineering, that is expected by the end of February of this year are:
Construction of an overpass at kilometer zero to unload traffic from the route
27, directly on Avenida 10 in San José.
Extension between interchange of 39 and the Escazú toll plaza, including the Tiribí river bridge.
Construction of new exchange in Santa Ana with Route 147.
Functional improvements in the Guachipelín and Ciudad Colón exchanges, as well as the expansion of lanes between the exit to Ciudad Colón to the Gúacima exchange, among others.
More lanes between Atenas and Orotina and Caldera, with physical separation (concrete barriers).
New bridges for the Rio Grande, Jesus Maria, Concepcion, and Salitral. These two-lane bridges were built prior to the highway concession.
Minister Garnier added that “What is clear is that definitely the process will lead to a review of the current tolls”.
Proposed changes to the Guachipelin exchange
For now, there is no indication of the estimate of what the increases would be or how much the Government would contribute to the project to not greatly impact the tolls.
Both Garnier and Sáenz guaranteed that the tolls that are going to be proposed (once all the costs are in) will be brought to the public’s attention for input, and before the extension contract or addendum is sent to the Comptroller’s office for approval, which is expected by June of this year.
Initially, the Government estimated that the expansion project would cost US$600 million dollars, however, it could be less.
History of the Ruta al Pacifico
The Ruta 27, whose official name is Carretera Nacional José María Castro Madriz, was inaugurated by then-President Oscar Arias on January 27, 2010.
The road, also known as Autopista San José-Caldera, that connects the Greater Metropolitan Area to Caldera Port and the Pacific coast of the country, officially opened to the public until June of that year.
The idea of a road to the Pacific began in the mid-1970s, when the José Figueres Ferrer administration decided to relocate the main Pacific port from Puntarenas to Caldera, making it evident that with a new highway connecting Ciudad Colón with Orotina, the new port would be only 80 km from San José, just an hour away.
A preliminary design was drafted along the left (south) margin of the Virilla River (crossing towns such as El Rodeo, Piedras Negras, and San Pablo de Turrubares) that seemed the most economical, passing through low-cost uncultivated lands. But over time the elected design was along the right (north) margin of the river (La Guácima, Turrúcares, Concepción), which had more expensive lands for expropriation.
The financial crisis in the early 1980s prevented further progress. However, in 1986, the first government of Óscar Arias (1986-1990) obtained a US$40 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to build the new road, although that administration finished without the loan being used.
The same happened during the administration of Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (1990-1994). The IDB withdrew the loan. The country uselessly paid US$3 million in interest.
At the end of the 1990s, without available financing, a private concession was considered, but it was necessary for the government to acquire more than half of the required lands, an opportunity that the landowners took in their advantage to inflate the prices.
In total, it took about twenty years to acquire the land for this work of public interest. Several major bridges were constructed in 1997 with US$25 million borrowed from Venezuela. They were completed and inaugurated in the administration of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), and the road, which did not yet exist, was also inaugurated and named.
The project was tendered for a concession by the administration of Abel Pacheco (2002-2006) in 2004, and only one bid was received, from the Argentine company José Cartellone, which soon went bankrupt. Cartellone tried to give the contract to Lavalin of Canada, but a year later withdrew claiming that the right of way was not yet available.
The second administration of Óscar Arias (2006-2010) directly negotiated a concession with the Spanish company Autopistas del Valle, a winner of the San José-San Ramón highway since 2005, but it did not obtain immediate financing.
Oscar Arias (pink shirt) officially opening the Ruta 27 on January 27, 2010. Photo Enrico Cacciatore / QCostarica
Finally, a sister consortium of Autopistas del Valle, called Autopistas del Sol, was hired to build Ciudad Colón-Orotina and also improve La Sabana-Ciudad Colón and Orotina-Caldera, which was already built, and raised the cost to US$120 million.
Autopistas del Sol claimed that the road would cost 3 times more (US$370 million) than budgeted. The road infrastructure was mostly completed until almost five years after initial works, without penalizing the delay.
The same road designs of 30 years before, already obsolete by then, were used because changing them involved a larger budget in works and expropriations.
In 2020, the highway was finally delivered and managed by Autopistas del Sol with a public works concession contract (Law 7762 of Costa Rica) for its maintenance, for a period of 25 years.
In March 2014 Autopistas del Sol sold most of its shares to the Spanish company Globalvía Infraestructuras S.A., assuming control of the concession.
As the 1970s design proved to be obsolete from opening day, there have been plans to widen the road.
Though President Carlos Alvarado publicly announced cuts in electricity rates, we will see increases this year, hitting the pocketbooks of typical Costa Rican families.
A French tourist in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, on Wednesday, was the victim of a brutal stabbing, the local Red Cross confirmed.
The foreigner, identified as Christophe Jean Lietaert, 48, was stabbed in the neck, arm, man and chin. The homicide occurred around 4:00 pm, some 150 meters from the police delegation of the coastal community, on Calle Cangreja. It did not transcend the now deceased was a tourist or resident of the area.
The victim, who apparently was an instructor chef at the Instituto Culinario de México (ICUM).
By 9:00 pm police had a suspect in custody.
According to Jaime Sibaja, spokesperson for the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (MSP), the arrest was made “thanks to the quick action of the officers” but did not provide more details in the case.
In Costa Rica, sugar producers are asking the government to raise tariffs or entry taxes on imports, and importers are opposing, as this would raise the final price to the consumer.
In July 2019, the iga Agrícola Industrial de la Caña de Azúcar (LAICA) – Sugar Cane Industrial Agricultural League – asked the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) – Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio – to launch an investigation with the aim of imposing additional tariffs on imported sugar, arguing that purchases from abroad would damage local production.
The importers are against it, since according to them there is no threat because they estimate that the sugar bought abroad represents less than 10% of local consumption.
As part of the investigation process, the public hearing between interested parties was held on January 20.
At the hearing, Lucrecia Brenes, legal advisor to the importers said “… What we have had is a presentation on whether it is convenient to apply a new tax to the import of sugar, hence it is important to remember that imports already maintain a high tax burden, since a 45% tariff is paid, plus a 1% tax and, additionally, an antidumping measure of 3.67% was set. We are the second country to have the highest taxes on sugar imports and today the sugar sector claims that there is damage with a few imports that do not exceed 10 thousand tons and they want a new tax.”
Brenes added that “… One of the arguments of the sugar industry is that when the sugar is not sold in the local market, it has to be sold abroad and they have given us a sales price that is 45% lower abroad than the price that the sugar producers give to the Costa Rican consumer, this means that we Costa Ricans are the ones who are subsidizing the sugar that is sold in the international market, that is to say, that from our pockets we have to pay so that the foreigners have a cheaper sugar than what we receive in the country.”
Regarding the accusation that consumption is falling because of imports, Brenes explained that “… Sugar consumption in the country is falling for other reasons because consumers no longer consume so much sugar, and LAICA argues that per capita sugar consumption has fallen by almost 6 kilos in the last two years.”
Joe Biden’s family’s domestic and international and business dealings are linked to the former vice president’s political influence, explained Peter Schweizer, author of Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite, president of the Government Accountability Institute, and senior contributor at Breitbart News.
“Everything we do can be replicated,” said Schweizer of the research and findings in his book. “We follow the money. We follow the paper trail. So there’s no anonymous sources, and what we simply show you is who’s getting money, when, how, and in what context are they getting that money,” reports Breitbart News.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on during a joint news conference with Costa Rica's President Carlos Alvarado (not pictured) at the Presidential house in San Jose, Costa Rica January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate
China said on Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke “irresponsibly” in remarks he made criticizing Chinese economic cooperation during a visit to Costa Rica.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on during a joint news conference with Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado (not pictured) at Casa Presidencial in San Jose, Costa Rica January 21, 2020. Photo Juan Carlos Ulate
The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica said Pompeo’s comments that Chinese cooperation produces debt dependency and erosion of sovereignty were “arbitrary and without grounds.”
In Costa Rica, Pompeo said that the aid given by China erodes the sovereignty of countries.
In a statement, the Chinese Embassy says that the Pompeo comment is wrong, unfounded, unpopular and it generates discontent.
The Chinese advise Pompeo to concentrate on his own affairs and stop spreading false rumors about China.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Tuesday, criticized the kind of cooperation that China offers to the countries of the region. In that sense, he described Costa Rica as an ally of the United States and promised to promote direct investments by U.S. firms.
Mike Pompeo and Carlos Alvarado pose for the official photo at Casa Presidencial, Tuesday, January 21, 2020.Photo: Jorge Castillo
“We work as allies with Costa Rica. This is an important contrast to the promises made by the Chinese government, which only offers debt, dependence and erodes sovereignty,” said Pompeo.
The American diplomat highlighted the presence of North American companies in the country. He cited U.S. giants IBM, Microsoft, and Pfizer. Also, he stressed that in Costa Rica there are U.S. companies that develop medical devices.
“Costa Rica has done a good job and has been rewarded with good jobs for Costa Ricans. We will continue to support American companies to make direct investments in Costa Rica and generate prosperity for the people of Costa Rica,” said the diplomat.
Official photo from Casa Presidencial
Pompeo gave the statements at a press conference at Casa Presidencial (Government House) along withPresident Carlos Alvarado, with whom he met for about 40 minutes.
During the meeting, both discussed issues of security and cooperation, as well as economic, among other regional issues such as the crises in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In the same statements, Pompeo promised to review the level of alert issued by the U.S. to the Americans who visit Costa Rica, which passed from level 1, which urges people to take normal precautions, at level 2, in which they ask Tourists travel more carefully around the country.
Mike Pompeo at Base 2 at the Juan Santamaría international airport
China’s influence in Costa Rica
In recent years, China has increased its global influence through loans and megaprojects. According to an investigation by The New York Times, China has at least 600 projects in 112 countries, which are financed through loans, grants, and investments.
According to the NYT, the Asian giant has diversified its way of doing business by offering millionaire credits with low interest rates and building powerful infrastructure on five continents.
In Costa Rica, in 2007, the Oscar Arias government did the same. The Asian giant built the National Stadium and bought Costa Rican debt for US$300 million. Currently, the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) has a contract for the extension of Ruta 32.
The takeaway from the Pompeo visit to Costa Rica
The U.S. Secretary of State expressed his willingness to intercede on the tourist qualification to the country.
Pompeo reaffirmed ties of friendship and cooperation to continue working together on issues such as drug trafficking, attention to migratory flows and promotion of foreign investment, among others.
The U.S. agreed in the search for democratic solutions to solve the political situation in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Pompeo was accompanied by Michael Kozak, Undersecretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the US Department of State;Sharon Day, United States ambassador to Costa Rica;Morgan Otargus, spokeswoman for the State Department;Ricky L. Waddell, Lieutenant General of the Army Reserve;and Alyssa Servello (Note taker).
The day visit, Pompeo visited Casa Presidencial and the Joint Operations Center, which operates in Base 2 of the Juan Santamaría International Airport, where joint cooperation ties between the two countries were reaffirmed.
The Associated Press – Health authorities are closely watching an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a new virus that originated in China. Governments are stepping up surveillance of airline passengers from central China and taking other steps to try to control the outbreak.
A box of masks imported from Japan sits inside a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan, China, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. Pharmacies in Wuhan are restricting customers to buying one mask at a time amid high demand and worries over an outbreak of a new coronavirus. The number of cases of the new virus has risen to over 400 in China and the death toll to 9, Chinese health authorities said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)
Here’s what you should know about the illness:
WHAT IS THE NEW VIRUS?
Scientists have identified it as a new coronavirus. The name comes from the Latin word for crowns or halos, which coronaviruses resemble under a microscope. The coronavirus family has many types that affect people. Some cause the common cold while others originating in bats, camels and other animals have evolved into more severe illnesses such as SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — or MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome.
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
The first cases appeared last month in Wuhan, a city in central China’s Hubei province. Many of the first people infected had visited or worked at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, which has since been closed for an investigation. Chinese health officials say they believe the illness first spread from animals to people. They now say it can spread between people.
HOW WIDESPREAD IS IT?
China has identified 440 cases and nine deaths, most of the illnesses and all of the deaths in Hubei province. Cases have also been confirmed in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Taiwan. The outbreak coincides with China’s busiest travel season as people visit their families or go abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday. That travel rush is expected to spread the disease more widely.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
Common symptoms include a runny nose, headache, cough and fever. Shortness of breath, chills and body aches are associated with more dangerous kinds of coronavirus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In serious cases, the virus can cause pneumonia.
HOW IS IT TREATED?
There is a test to identify the virus, but no vaccine to prevent an infection. Patients with the virus have been isolated in hospitals or homes to prevent spreading it. The symptoms are treated with pain and fever medication, and people are advised to drink plenty of liquids and rest while they recover.
HOW IS IT SPREADING?
Many coronaviruses can spread through coughing or sneezing, or by touching an infected person. Scientists believe the new virus can spread from person to person in close contact through the respiratory tract.
COULD IT BE AS BAD AS SARS?
So far, the virus appears less dangerous and infectious than SARS, which also started in China in 2002-03 and killed about 800 people. However, viruses can mutate into more dangerous and contagious forms, and it’s too early to say what will happen with this one.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast has some of the country’s best beaches. Photo Jameskaiser.com
Is Costa Rica a Caribbean country? In a way, yes. It’s mostly a matter of semantics…what does it mean to be a “Caribbean Country” anyway?
Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast has some of the country’s best beaches. Photo Jameskaiser.com
Does Costa Rica border the Caribbean Sea? Yes.
Natives and residents often refer to Costa Rica in terms of regions — Guanacaste, Pacific Side, Central Valley, and the Caribbean side, Limón, that identifies with Caribbean culture, a lot of people living there with a strong ethnic Caribbean background, speaking Jamaican Creole – Patois.
But no, Costa Rica is not referred to as a Caribbean country, but there’s certainly a good argument for it. Most people just refer to it as a Central American country with a distinctive Caribbean side.
Costa Rica is not an island and it doesn’t participate politically as part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC), an organization of fifteen Caribbean nations and dependencies
Geopolitically and culturally, Costa Rica is Central American, an isthmian region in North America.
Thomas Merritt, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Laurentian University
(Updated) You’re reading this with a cup of coffee in your hand, aren’t you? Coffee is one of the world’s most popular drinks. Americans drink more coffee than soda, juice and tea — combined.
From drip coffee to pourovers to stovetop espresso, the variations in coffee-based drinks are plenty.
How popular is coffee? When news first broke that Prince Harry and Meghan were considering Canada as their new home, Canadian coffee giant Tim Hortons offered free coffee for life as an extra enticement.
No pressure, Meghan and Harry, but if you do choose to move to Canada, free coffee for life. Think about it.
Given coffee’s popularity, it’s surprising how much confusion surrounds how this hot, dark, nectar of the gods affects our biology.
Coffee’s ingredients
The main biologically active ingredients in coffee are caffeine (a stimulant) and a suite of antioxidants. What do we know about how caffeine and antioxidants affect our bodies? The fundamentals are pretty simple, but the devil is in the details and the speculation around how coffee could either help or harm us runs a bit wild.
The stimulant properties of caffeine mean that you can count on a cup of coffee to wake you up. In fact, coffee, or at least the caffeine it contains, is the most commonly used psychoactive drug in the world. It seems to work as a stimulant, at least in part, by blocking adenosine, which promotes sleep, from binding to its receptor.
Caffeine and adenosine have similar ring structures. Caffeine acts as a molecular mimic, filling and blocking the adenosine receptor, preventing the body’s natural ability to be able a rest when it’s tired.
This blocking is also the reason why too much coffee can leave you feeling jittery or sleepless. You can only postpone fatigue for so long before the body’s regulatory systems begin to fail, leading to simple things like the jitters, but also more serious effects like anxiety or insomnia. Complications may be common; a possible link between coffee drinking and insomnia was identified more than 100 years ago.
The National Film Board of Canada produced a documentary on the cultural history of coffee called ‘Black Coffee: Part One, The Irresistible Bean’
Unique responses
Different people respond to caffeine differently. At least some of this variation is from having different forms of that adenosine receptor, the molecule that caffeine binds to and blocks. There are likely other sites of genetic variation as well.
There are individuals who don’t process caffeine and to whom drinks like coffee could pose medical danger. Even away from those extremes, however, there is variation in how we respond to that cup of coffee. And, like much of biology, that variation is a function of environment, our past coffee consumption, genetics and, honestly, just random chance.
We may be interested in coffee because of the oh-so-joyous caffeine buzz, but that doesn’t mean that caffeine is the most biologically interesting aspect of a good cup of coffee.
In one study using rats, caffeine triggered smooth muscle contraction, so it is possible that caffeine directly promotes bowel activity. Other studies, though, have shown that decaffeinated coffee can have as strong an effect on bowel activity as regular coffee, suggesting a more complex mechanism involving some of the other molecules in coffee.
Antioxidant benefits
What about the antioxidants in coffee and the buzz that surrounds them? Things actually start out pretty straightforward. Metabolic processes produce the energy necessary for life, but they also create waste, often in the form of oxidized molecules that can be harmful in themselves or in damaging other molecules.
Antioxidants are a broad group of molecules that can scrub up dangerous waste; all organisms produce antioxidants as part of their metabolic balance. It is unclear if supplementing our diet with additional antioxidants can augment these natural defences, but that hasn’t stopped speculation.
Antioxidants have been linked to almost everything, including premature ejaculation.
Are any of the claims of positive effects substantiated? Surprisingly, the answer is again a resounding maybe.
Coffee and cancer
Coffee won’t cure cancer, but it may help to prevent it and possibly other diseases as well. Part of answering the question of coffee’s connection to cancer lies in asking another: what is cancer? At its simplest, cancer is uncontrolled cell growth, which is fundamentally about regulating when genes are, or are not, actively expressed.
My research group studies gene regulation and I can tell you that even a good cup of coffee, or boost of caffeine, won’t cause genes that are turned off or on at the wrong time to suddenly start playing by the rules.
The antioxidants in coffee may actually have a cancer-fighting effect. Remember that antioxidants fight cellular damage. One type of damage that they may help reduce is mutations to DNA, and cancer is caused by mutations that lead to the misregulation of genes.
Studies have shown that consuming coffee fights cancer in rats. Other studies in humans have shown that coffee consumption is associated with lower rates of some cancers.
Several studies have shown that coffee consumption reduces the rates of some diseases in rats and mice. (Shutterstock)
Interestingly, coffee consumption has also been linked to reduced rates of other diseases as well. Higher coffee consumption is linked to lower rates of Parkinson’s disease and some other forms of dementia. Strikingly, at least one experimental study in mice and cell culture shows that protection is a function of a combination of caffeine and antioxidants in coffee.
Higher coffee consumption has also been linked to lower rates of Type 2 diabetes. Complexity, combined effects and variation between individuals seems to be the theme across all the diseases.
At the end of the day, where does all this leave us on the biology of coffee? Well, as I tell my students, it’s complicated. But as most reading this already know, coffee will definitely wake you up in the morning.
This article by Thomas Merritt, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Laurentian University, is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This is an updated version of a story originally published on Jan. 19, 2020. The original story called coffee the world’s most popular beverage.
Car dealers project sales of up to 50% more in electric cars this year. Costa Rica is the third country with the most zero emission vehicles in the region
The Ministerio de Hacienda (Ministry of Finance) decided to extend the deadline for the import of hybrid-electric vehicles by 24 additional months, to be carried out at reduced rates and in some cases without paying taxes.
Car dealers project sales of up to 50% more in electric cars this year. Costa Rica is the third country with the most zero emission vehicles in the region
With the publication of decree 42080-H-MINAE-MOPT in La Gaceta on Thursday, January 16, 2020, the benefits will be maintained until December 2021.
The decree published today refers to another decree, 33096 of March 14, 2006, which raised the exemptions for hybrid vehicles.
This extension in the validity of the tax benefits applied to imports of this type of units was granted, due to the fact that the amount of electric vehicles in the country is still low.
German Morales, managing partner of the accounting services firm Grant Thornton, explained that “… technologies do not change so quickly in one place and it is not so easy for Costa Rica to quickly have only 100% alternative energy vehicles. That’s why the window for the industry is needed.”
Morales added that “… the two years will not be enough and should rather be maintained over time. It should reach a point where only electric vehicles are exempted, but it should be a 5-7-year period.”
The current Government maintains the goal of the economy being decarbonized by 2050.
A positive year for electric vehicles
2019 was a positive year for electric mobility in the country: in total 552 electric cars were imported, according to data from the Asociación de Movilidad Eléctrica (Asomove) – Association of Electric Mobility. Of these, 63% were new cars and 37% used.
According to data from Asomove and the TICA system (Sistema TICA (Tecnología de Información para el Control Aduanero))currently, more than 1,000 electric vehicles are already circulating.
For this year (2020) new car dealers project a considerable increase in electric car sales.
Costa Rica is among the nations with more zero-emission models in the continent; third in Latin America, behind Mexico and Colombia with more electric vehicles, according to the Bloomberg Financial Unit.
Hyundai, Nissan, BYD, Audi, JAC, Zotye, Yudo, Fumero Motors, Kia, BMW and Toyota, among others, are the brands for new electric vehicles; while in used vehicles the list is broader.
EV Imports, a company dedicated exclusively to the sale of pre-owned 100% electric cars, told La Republica it projects that by the end of the year they will sell around 100 models.
Bogota, Colombia (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó joined leaders from the United States and Latin America in condemning President Nicolás Maduro as a promoter of terrorism as he tried Monday to buoy international support for his flagging movement.
Colombia’s President Ivan Duque, Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez, Foreign Minister Claudia Blum and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognized as the country’s rightful interim ruler, take part in a ceremony in honor to the cadets killed in the 2019 car bomb attack, at Santander General School, in Bogota, Colombia January 20, 2020. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
The man recognized by the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations as Venezuela’s rightful leader got a red-carpet welcome to Colombia and stood prominently beside world heavyweights, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who gathered for an international conference to discuss regional cooperation against terrorism.
“We are honored by your presence,” President Iván Duque told Guaidó during opening remarks. “You will always have a friend in Colombia.”
The stately reception stood in stark relief to Guaidó’s recent tussles with national guardsmen blocking his entrance to the National Assembly in Venezuela as the country’s ongoing power struggle have grown more tense.
This week will mark one year since Guaidó stood before densely packed crowds of cheering Venezuelans and proclaimed himself the nation’s legitimate president, launching a bid to unseat Maduro that has thus far proven unsuccessful.
“There’s a big contrast over the international recognition and support Guaidó has in the diplomatic arena and how that translates into concrete actions back in Venezuela,” said Diego Moya Ocampos, a political risk analyst.
Guaidó was expected to use the Colombia meeting to highlight links between Maduro’s government and armed actors like Lebanese militia group Hezbollah and Colombian rebels as part of the opposition’s quest to increase international sanctions on the socialist government.
Venezuela’s pro-Maduro Supreme Court has barred Guaidó from leaving the nation and in the last year, he has only left one other time, sneaking across the border into Colombia to oversee a failed bid at bringing in humanitarian aid in February 2019. He returned on a commercial flight and was allowed back into Venezuela. It’s unknown whether authorities will let him back again this time.
“That risks always exists in Venezuela,” Guaidó said to a bevy of journalists as he headed into a meeting with Pompeo.
Pompeo kicked off the counter-terrorism conference at the General Santander Police Academy in Bogota – where 22 cadets were killed in a bombing last year – by decrying Maduro as an ally to terrorist groups including the National Liberation Army, the Colombian rebel group authorities say plotted the attack.
“These groups must lay down their arms and the Maduro regime must be held to account for its support of them,” Pompeo said.
He praised Latin American nations for going after Hezbollah operatives; several nations including Paraguay, Honduras, Guatemala and now Colombia plan to or have already declared Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization.
Following a separate meeting with Guaidó, he refrained from saying whether the U.S. is considering putting Venezuela on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, stating only that officials are “constantly evaluating” whom to include.
Moya Ocampos said he anticipates that the gathering will raise awareness of the links between Venezuela and Hezbollah in generating illicit revenues and money laundering. But short of additional sanctions, it was unclear what other actions the coalition of nations might take.
Thus far, Maduro’s government has managed to stealthily evade punishing U.S. sanctions by accessing black markets and boosting cash revenue from alternative sources like gold.
“I think they’ve managed to successfully adapt to the existing sanctions,” Moya Ocampos said. “They’ve proven to be very resilient.”
Duque – whose nation has taken in at least 1.6 million Venezuelan migrants – has been an outspoken critic of Maduro and presented a 128-page report at the United Nations last year that he said provided detailed proof of links to terror groups.
But Duque came under fire when it was revealed that at least one of the images purporting to show rebel activity in Venezuela had actually been taken in Colombia.
Maduro has repeatedly denied harboring Colombian rebels, though citizens in the restive Venezuelan border region often report their presence.
Duque shot back at critics who have questioned Guaido’s strength Monday, characterizing his efforts as “brave” in facing off against Maduro.
“Maybe many speculate, ‘Why hasn’t Guaido put an end to the dictatorship?’” Duque said. “This can’t be a discussion about individual capabilities. We know your bravery and that confronting a dictatorship with no limits is a task that goes beyond heroism.”
(CNN) If you’re born in the United States, having wealthy parents matters a great deal to your chances of success, according to a new report.
Individuals born into poorer families have a better chance of owning a home, getting a good education and experiencing a better life than their parents if they are born in Canada than if they are born in the United States. In other words, Canadians have a better shot at the American Dream than Americans do.
That’s according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Social Mobility Index, which ranks 82 countries on their citizens’ ability to fulfill their potential regardless of their socio-economic background.
The index ranks economies across five dimensions: health, education, technology access, work (in terms of opportunities, conditions and fair wages), and protection and institutions.
Germany is the most socially mobile country among the G7, ranking 11th overall, followed by France (12th), Canada (14th), Japan (15th), the United Kingdom (21st), the United States (27th) and Italy (34th).
Nordic countries, including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, have the best social mobility scores.
Among the world’s large emerging economies, Russia ranks 39th, followed by China (45th), Brazil (60th), India (76th) and South Africa (77th).
“The headline finding of the report is that most economies are failing to provide the conditions in which their citizens can thrive, often by a large margin,” the World Economic Forum said in a statement Monday.
“As a result, an individual’s opportunities in life remain tethered to their socio-economic status at birth, entrenching historical inequalities,” the statement added.
Wealthy parents
As it stands right now, in the United States, it takes five generations for a low-income family to reach median income, but that number could change. This statistic is better than it is in Germany and France, but worse than it is in Canada, Australia and Denmark, which has the best social mobility score overall.
In Denmark, a child born into poverty has a similar likelihood of earning a high income in adulthood as a child born into a rich family, according to the report. This is thanks to a combination of widespread access to high quality education, good work opportunities and conditions, and a robust social safety net.
Germany and France rank much better than the United States on social protection and have fairer wages, which lifts those countries’ overall social mobility ranking.
The report finds that wage disparities have grown “exponentially” since the 1970s. The top 1% of income earners in the United States earned 158% more in 2018 than they did in 1979, while the bottom 90% of earners in the US grew their wages just 24% over that time period.
Coming from a wealthy family has other benefits, too. Citing data gathered by IPSOS on behalf of LinkedIn, the report notes that Americans who grew up in a high income household are three times more likely to report having strong social and professional networks than those who grew up in a low income household.
“This means those individuals experience a double advantage in both social and financial capital,” the report said.
Fixing inequality
Governments should implement policies to address wealth concentration, such as making personal income tax more progressive and rebalancing the sources of taxation, according to the report.
It also recommends improving the quality of education and promoting skills development throughout an individual’s working life. Helping workers to transition into different types jobs in the context of technological change is a further proposal.
Businesses should hire based on merit while paying fair wages and investing in upskilling their employees, the report said.
Inequality weakens a country’s social fabric and erodes trust in institutions, according to Klaus Scwhab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.
“The response by business and government must include a concerted effort to create new pathways to socioeconomic mobility, ensuring everyone has fair opportunities for success,” Schwab said in a statement.
Under the name “Prevention is not fashion, it is a way of life” (La prevención no es moda, es una forma de vivir), together with the State insurer, the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), the Costa Rican Social Security Fund – the Caja – and the Ministries of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT), and Health join together to raise awareness among motorcyclists who are involved in some 12% of the 37,500 traffic accidents a year.
In 2019, the INS invested ¢53 billion colones in the care of traffic accident victims.
Statistics reveal 440 people died on site in traffic accidents in 2019, of which almost half (49%) were motorcyclists.
“It is our duty to raise our voice and generate strong actions that allow us to formalize this frontal fight against traffic accidents. We have seen in the INS a significant increase in the care of this type of patient and today we are especially concerned and concerned about motorcyclists because they suffer the worst part of an accident,” said INS Executive President Elian Villegas.
Around the globe, every year some 1,200,000 motorcyclists die, In Costa Rica, according to COSEVI data, 218 died during 2019 and according to INS records another 18,587 received medical attention in hospitals and clinics. The most frequent injuries of motorcyclists occur in the knees (13%), shoulders (8%), ankles (6%) and hands, wrists and legs (4% each).
Davila: The fact Guatemalans voted for me 'means things are changing in this country'
Guatemala’s Aldo Davila has been interested in politics since he was a teenager. He has always empathized with those struggling in Guatemala’s unequal and at times violent society.
Davila, who was born in 1977, has dedicated years to helping HIV-positive people and members of the LGBTQI community. Now Davila, who himself is openly gay, has become the country’s first ever LGBTQI lawmaker.
Ahead of last year’s parliamentary elections, no less than four parties asked him to join. He ultimately chose Winaq, a left-wing party founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.
In Davila’s view, Winaq has the best track record on fighting for the rights of sexual minorities. He also values it for being the country’s “only indigenous party” that lets him connect with his own roots. Davila’s great-grandparents were indigenous people who moved to Guatemala City, where they stopped speaking their native language to avoid being discriminated against.
On Tuesday, January 14, 2020, Davila began his tenure as a Guatemalan lawmaker.
DW: You are Guatemala’s first ever openly gay lawmaker. What does this mean for the country, and for you personally?
Aldo Davila: It means that the people of Guatemala made a conscious choice in this election. I have always been openly gay and that fact that they voted for me means things are changing in this country. To them, I am not only a gay man but also someone fighting for the rights of the LGBTQI community, HIV-positive people and those of sexually abused girls.
For me personally, being elected means carrying a responsibility towards my voters but also groups which historically have been excluded from society, like teenagers, women and indigenous peoples. They have always been afforded a subordinate position in society. So now I want to give these people a voice in national parliament.
Some will surely say that a person’s sexual orientation should be a private affair and not a matter of parliamentary debate. Of course some said to me: ‘I do not care what you do in bed, as long as you do your job as a lawmaker.’ But in this country, being gay is a political issue. I don’t mean homosexuality, but being gay. This means saying to society: ‘I am this or that, and I will fight for my rights and those of others.’ Many people still think homosexuality is purely about sexual relations.
But gayness is about the political desire to change things. There were homosexual members of parliament before me but they never made this public or a political issue. Some even actively fought against equality. I don’t want special rights, I don’t want to pay less taxes or have an extra holiday because of my sexual orientation. All I want is equal rights for everyone.
Guatemala’s LGBTQI community finds itself in a precarious situation. Homophobia and transphobia has led to the murder of many people. Being open about one’s sexuality can pose a serious danger. Are you ever scared for your life?
I am constantly scared for my life. I was sent death threats on social media and over the telephone. People in cars and on motorbikes have followed me. They threaten me because I stand up for my rights. They want to silence me. I believe I am on the right path. I must continue to speak on behalf of those who go unheard.
There more and more acts of violence borne out of hatred. Just minutes before this interview, I learned that a trans person was murdered. However, it is important to note that a hate crime is the result of a hateful discourse — and during the last electoral period, such hateful speech was on the rise. Many parties were urged by religious movements to sign documents pledging not to recognize sexual diversity.
The issue of sexual diversity has polarized the country in recent years. You also want to strengthen human rights across the board in Guatemala. How do you want to achieve this?
Human rights must be defended always and everywhere. Some ultra-religious groups have significant influence and political power — but there are people from the LGBTQI community who want to stand up to them. They are fighting for their right not to be killed or fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation. But I want to make clear that I will not not pursue a specific gay agenda in parliament. Instead, I will pursue a human rights agenda in support of all historically ostracized societal groups. This agenda includes the issues of sexual and gender diversity.
Brazil’s Culture Secretary Roberto Alvim was removed from his post on Friday, a day after he posted a video that appeared to show him copy Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
The video, posted to his department’s Twitter account, went viral for its, at times, word-for-word similarity to speeches made by Goebbels.
In the video, Alvim announced national prizes to revitalize the arts as music by Wagner, Hitler’s favorite composer, played in the background.
“Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and it will be national … and imperative because it will be rooted in the urgent aspirations of our people, or it will be nothing,” theater director Alvim said in the video.
Goebbels told theater directors during the Nazi regime that: “German art of the next decade will be heroic, will be wildly romantic, will be objective and free of sentimentality, will be national with great pathos and equally imperative and binding, or else it will be nothing.”
The tweet has since been deleted.
‘Rhetorical coincidence’
Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in a statement on Friday said Alvim was sacked due to his “unfortunate remarks.”
– Comunico o desligamento de Roberto Alvim da Secretaria de Cultura do Governo. Um pronunciamento infeliz, ainda que tenha se desculpado, tornou insustentável a sua permanência.
“I reiterate our rejection of totalitarian and genocidal ideologies,” Bolsonaro added, repeating his government’s support for the Jewish community.
Alvim had previously defended accusations that he had emulated the Nazi ideologue as a “rhetorical coincidence” and called the similarity an “unintentional error.”
Looking for some travel inspiration? Costa Rica should be top of your list. The small Central American country is home to stunning beaches, volcanoes, and diverse wildlife. Jungle makes up roughly one-quarter of the country.
Costa Rica is a vegan-friendly travel destination
Worried about the environmental impact of traveling abroad? Costa Rica could help ease your guilt, the country is extremely environmentally-friendly.
Since 2014, all of Costa Rica’s energy has come from 99 percent renewable sources. In 2017, it set the goal of becoming completely plastic-free by 2021—if it achieves this, it will be the first country in the world to do so. In summer 2018, it laid out its goal of becoming completely carbon-neutral by 2021.
Still concerned? Offset your carbon footprint and eat vegan food on your journey.
Where to Eat Vegan Food in Costa Rica
1. Casa Planta, Manuel Antonio
Vegan celebrity chef Matthew Kenney is opening a plant-based restaurant in the new eco-friendly IGLOO Beach Lodge Hotel in Manuel Antonio. According to a press release, the hotel features “uniquely constructed monolithic dome structures entirely covered with vegetation.” The domes are durable, cost-efficient, and “earth-friendly.”
Kenney’s new restaurant Casa Planta—set to open in early 2020—will use plant-based, farm-to-table ingredients. The celebrity chef—who owns a string of vegan restaurants and businesses around the world—will oversee all aspects of food preparation in the restaurant. Kenney said in a statement, “Costa Rica is abundant with fresh aromatic fruits and vegetables year-round, and aligns perfectly with my roots and values.“
2. Farmers Markets
Costa Rica has fresh fruit in abundance. It’s known for its vibrant and tasty tropical offerings, like maracuyá (passion fruit) or carambola (star fruit). There’s also Costa Rican guava, pineapples, and plantain. Farmers markets and stands across the country sell a variety of these fruits—which are often freshly picked—for extremely affordable prices. If you’re heading out on a trip, stop by a farmers market first with a reusable shopping bag and stock up on juicy snacks for the journey.
3. Que Rico Lo Bueno, San Pedro
Que Rico Lo Bueno in San Pedro is all about serving natural vegan food. According to veggie travel site Happy Cow, its bacon is made with chickpeas, it also offers tomato chorizo and almond-based cheese. Every Saturday, the vegan restaurant opens a stall at Feria Verde. The event aims to promote the “long-term health, sustainability, and care of our food systems and communities in Costa Rica,” says the food fair’s website.
4. LuvBurger
LuvBurger has several locations across Costa Rica, in Nosara, Playa Samara, and San José. The fast-casual chain specializes in vegan burgers, and aims to “create a bridge” between “fast unhealthy food” and “fast healthy food.” Its menu includes the Coco Bacon burger, which is topped with coconut bacon and cashew cream cheese, and the Tropical burger, which is topped with grilled pineapple.
5. Huaca Mole Sodita
Huaca Mole Sodita has two locations, one in San Pedro and one in San José. According to Happy Cow, it uses fresh ingredients, like plantain and avocado, in a number of its dishes. It serves a variety of options, including vegan sandwiches, tacos, pizzas, burgers, and pasta dishes. On Facebook, reviewers say the chain offers “exquisite food” and “stopping to eat here is an excellent decision.”
4 Vegan-Friendly Destinations in Costa Rica
Want to observe and support local wildlife? Here are four destinations to consider.
1. Manuel Antonio National Park
If you end up staying at the IGLOO Beach Lodge Hotel, you’ll be in the perfect spot to explore Manuel Antonio National Park. The area is renowned for its beauty and biodiversity; it’s home a wide range of tropical plants and endangered wildlife, including white-faced capuchin monkeys. There are a wide variety of tours on offer in the park, including the Manuel Antonio Park Guided Tour. For $51, a guide will take you on a hike through the park’s rainforest trails for around three hours. Along the way, you will have a chance to spot animals like titi monkeys and poison dart frogs in their natural habitat.
2. Territorio De Zaguates
Territorio De Zaguates is home to more than 1,000 rescued stray dogs.
Territorio De Zaguates is a dog sanctuary in the mountains of Santa Barbara de Heredia, home to around 1300 stray dogs. Founded eight years ago by Lya Battle and Alvaro Saumet, the sanctuary offers the country’s stray dogs a safe haven. The animals receive veterinary care, healthy food, and a whole lot of love. To find out more about the sanctuary’s work, tourists can see it on the Netflix documentary “Dogs.”
The sanctuary relies on visitors, sponsorships, and donations in order to continue its valuable work. It has been closed to the public for around a year due to infrastructure renovations. However, it hopes to open again soon in 2020, so stay tuned.
3. Puerta De Jade Vegetarian and Vegan B&B
Puerta de Jade B&B is situated near the Poas Volcano, an active volcano—which has erupted 40 times since 1828, most recently in 2017—in Poas National Park. The park is home to hiking trails with panoramic views. It’s one of the easiest spots to view the cloud forest that surrounds Costa Rica’s capital city of San José.
Puerta de Jade—a small, quiet B&B with only four bedrooms—serves purely vegetarian and vegan food for breakfast, dinner, and lunch. It’s ideal for nature lovers, says Vegan Travel, thanks to its large garden. The website says, “you wake up with bird songs and feel the fresh air at 1700 meters altitude, with the Poas volcano view.”
The guesthouse also offers guided meditation classes and vegan and vegetarian cooking lessons.
4. Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary
Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary is dedicated to conserving and protecting Costa Rica’s wildlife. The non-profit organization—located in Provincia de Puntarenas—helps to rescue, rehabilitate, and release sick, injured, and orphaned animals. For the animals that it can’t release back into the wild, Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary provides a longterm home. It offers them a safe and comfortable environment to live out the rest of their lives in.
The sanctuary relies on donations and volunteers to survive and is also funded by its daily tours of the sanctuary.
Article was first published at Livekindly.co. Read the original here.
Seven people, including a pregnant woman and her five children, were killed in a suspected ritual carried out by a religious sect in a remote indigenous community in Panama, authorities said Thursday.
Officials found the bodies in a mass grave in the indigenous region of Ngabe-Bugle, said Rafael Baloyes, senior prosecutor of the Bocas del Toro province of western Panama, according to reports by La Estrella.
“We’re talking about seven victims, six minors between the ages of 1 and 17,” Baloyes said. “Six from one family, the mother and her five children, and the mother was pregnant.”
The grave containing the hacked remains of the victims was unearthed after three locals notified authorities following their escape from a “church” where exorcisms were believed to have taken place. The woman was thought to be between four and six months pregnant.
“They were performing a ritual inside the structure. In that ritual, there were people being held against their will, being mistreated,” Baloyes said.
“All of these rites were aimed at killing them if they did not repent their sins,” he said, adding that investigators found machetes, knives and a ritually sacrificed goat.
On Wednesday, authorities released 15 people being held by the little-known religious sect known as “La nueva Luz de Dios” (The New Light of God). The cult reportedly has only been operating in the jungle-clad region near Panama’s Caribbean coast for around three months.
Ten members of the sect were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the murders.
(Reuters) – Protests against the social and economic policies of Colombian President Ivan Duque will restart with more intensity this year, a top union leader said.
Marchers in Colombia held mass demonstrations in November and December last year to demand a varied laundry list of concessions from Duque’s right-wing government.
Pots and pans ‘cacerolazo’ protests echo across Colombia
New protests will open on Tuesday with “cacerolazos” (pots and pans protests ), Central Union of Workers (CUT) chief Diogenes Orjuela told Reuters late on Thursday, referring to a traditional Latin American form of dissent.
“I think (the protests) will be stronger. When we say stronger, they are demonstrations and strikes far from any violent intent,” Orjuela said. “The first strong action – like the one on Nov. 21, it will be similar – will take place in March.”
Protests last year were largely peaceful, but were marked by looting and attacks against public transport during their first few days, leading Cali and Bogota to institute curfews.
Five people died in connection with the demonstrations, which followed upheaval in other Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.
The death of teenage protester Dilan Cruz, injured by a projectile fired by riot police, became a rallying cry for many marchers, who have demanded the force be dissolved. The squad is now banned from using the weapon that killed Cruz.
The National Strike Committee, comprising unions like the CUT and student groups, initially presented the government with 13 demands in talks – including stepped-up efforts to stop the murder of human rights activists and implement a peace deal with leftist rebels.
Protesters had asked the government scrap a tax reform proposal, especially a provision to cut taxes for corporations, but the bill was passed by Congress just before Christmas.
Demonstrators also opposed rumored increases to the pension age and cuts to the minimum wage for young people – policies Duque denies supporting.
The committee later increased its demands to 104 points, including opposition to fracking.
Most demands are things already agreed with students, indigenous communities and other groups, but not implemented, Orjuela said.
The committee has demanded one-on-one talks with the government, but Duque has insisted on wider participation by civil society, including business groups.
“What the strikes and marches have expressed is there is another opinion in Colombia,” Orjuela said. “It is very important for us that the government understand it must listen to that opinion.”
The committee and the government may meet in the coming days, he added.
(AP) – Nicaragua’s two main opposition groups announced the formation of a coalition Friday aimed at winning the 2021 elections and ending President Daniel Ortega’s rule.
Representatives of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy and Blue and White National Unity said they hope to “reinvigorate the fight” and “rebuild the country.”
The groups are not among Nicaragua’s political parties. Both formed after civil unrest exploded in April 2018.
Economist Juan Sebastián Chamorro, a member of the Civic Alliance, said they would invite all of the country’s political parties that oppose the government and want democracy and freedom to join the coalition.
The coalition also plans to reach out to groups of government employees – there are some 120,000 – such as doctors and police.
Lesther Alemán, a university student who because famous for standing up to Ortega during the first dialogue session in May 2018, said the coalition would present an alternative of hope. It would maintain the rallying cry “Ortega has to go” that started nearly two years earlier, Aleman said.
The union would not be an “electioneering coalition,” but rather a “transitional political alliance that will work to return freedom, justice and total inclusion to the country,” Alemán said.
The announcement came at a time when the government’s repression has become seemingly more selective. Human rights groups have reported extrajudicial killings of government opposition members in rural areas and police harassment of some youth leaders who had been released from prison.
The Ortega administration did not immediately respond to the announcement.
Ortega returned to power in 2007 and won re-election in 2011 and 2016. His Sandinista party controls the courts and the legislature.
Political analyst Eliseo Núñez commended the announcement, but said electoral reform was necessary before the elections. The electoral court, which is loyal to Ortega, needs to be replaced and some 2,000 Sandinista paramilitaries need to be disarmed.
“If not, they will be the most violent elections in the history of Nicaragua and probably of Latin America,” he said.
The government’s violent crackdown on marches in opposition to social security reforms in April 2018 set off months of clashes that left at least 328 dead and more than 2,000 wounded, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The commission estimates that some 88,000 Nicaraguans are living in exile outside the country due to the unrest.
I woke up, drank some coffee and was getting ready to write my thesis. Boa Vista’s heat makes you want to die. I remembered those times when I truly felt like dying.
I was 20 years old in Managua, and my friends were committing suicide one by one. No one in our group was brave enough to talk about it. And no, I no longer wish to die.
While having lunch, I received news through social media about a girl, an activist, who had died. She committed suicide. And she left a letter. I felt a pain in my throat with each word that I read, because in her words, I heard myself at 20 years old.
It brought back to life some of my fears. And all I could do was repeat in a whisper, “Thank you for your bravery. I honor your life. Today you have a place in our history.”
It pained me to read Valentina Gutiérrez’s letter, but the pain was bitter when I saw that many people were blaming the (Ortega-Murillo) regime for her decision. To be clear, I am a firm opponent of the regime, but I also have a genuine desire for our current reality to not be repeated in the future.
And here I need to pause for a moment, because while reading Valentina’s letter, I felt a true invitation to look within ourselves. Valentina is our mirror, and she shows us in the clearest and cleanest way possible the pain we carry with us as a post-war generation – pain that has been accentuated since April 2018, but that accompanies us from before.
It’s not by coincidence that we are the generation with the highest rates of suicide, of drug use and abuse, of alcoholism and depression. It’s as though we are trying to live a disconnected life, avoiding putting a name to what we feel. We are a generation that became disconnected from its own life plan; the same life plan that dreams of a different Nicaragua. I ask myself what the new Nicaragua will be like. How can we construct a national plan if we don’t even have a life plan?
The romanticism, the morbidity and simplicity with which suicide in my country is approached pains me. Valentina’s case is known to the public, but many others have shared the same fate. It also pains me that it is easier to blame the State, instead of tackling, in a systemic way, the collective pain within us. At this point, I reiterate the need for psycho-social exercises/counseling for whoever has a desire to become involved in politics.
I remember that when I was working on my depression and my traumas, I realized I wasn’t the only person of my generation who had death ideation (although death isn’t inherently bad – everyone will go through it someday). Every day since then, I have come to know more youths who don’t find any meaning to life, and thus, have no life plan of their own, and/or life force for building their pathway through life.
I began to ask myself: “Why is this happening? That’s when I began to be curious about social trauma and trans-generational transmission of trauma; and especially, about the loss of any meaning to life that can end up occurring within an entire generation.
I quickly understood that one can’t separate a traumatic event from its context. Therefore, when a person decides to end her or his life, it’s best to incorporate and analyze all the variables of the context in which the event occurred (individual, family, social, economic and political histories), and not just the victim’s motives.
The following are a few elements I consider important in discussing suicide in a systemic manner:
Everyone has an emotional biography, with cyclical grief; traumatic events that have occurred since pregnancy and early infancy, which, when not addressed in an adequate manner (which happens most of the time), are periodically and unconsciously repeated for the purpose of reliving the pain of the original trauma. This ends up becoming an emotional homeostasis mechanism of cell memory. It’s akin to an alarm within our bodies to remind us that something remains to be healed.
We are the sum of the history of our ancestors: we incorporate their tastes, their dreams, their illnesses, their way of life, but above all, we incorporate their secrets.
As though we were funeral crypts, as though history were a ghost, we repeat their behavior patterns. This is called the principle of pertinence. Our subconscious does everything it can to pertain to a family system, remaining loyal to that history. The more we avoid untold secrets within families, the more likely we are to repeat them in subsequent generations. The list (of secrets) is long, some examples being: abortions; murders, alcoholism; suicides; drug abuse; migrations, infidelities, illnesses, familial rejection, poverty, sexual abuse, rape, disappearances and war.
Survivor’s Syndrome appears as a consequence of post-traumatic stress disorder when it involves the death of loved ones; when someone has witnessed the death of others; or when one has been involved in a situation in which others have died, although not necessarily being a witness to those deaths. It’s as though the soul has unconsciously gone off with those who have died. And in order to survive, it’s difficult to find meaning to life.
The above doesn’t imply interpreting Valentina’s motives in any way we choose, nor questioning her decision. That would be disrespectful and arrogant on our part.
Personally, I believe in Nicaragua’s youth and I hope that we assume with responsibility the lesson contained within this experience, especially those of us who desire to construct a different country, because the path before us is a long one.
I hope, Valentina, that because of our respect for you and your dreams, we one day take this country seriously and that we stop repeating the grave errors of the past.
**
*Valentina Gutiérrez supported the civic struggle in Nicaragua and prior to making that fatal decision, she left a written entry in her social network. In her final publication in stereo-romance.com she wrote: “Dying is nothing new, but neither is continuing to live.”
Gutiérrez joins a woeful list of suicides, which includes others from within the communities of released (political) prisoners, those in exile and youths living in hiding – all of them suffering from persecution by the Ortega regime
David Kindrat's wife and daughter enjoy ice cream while in Costa Rica. (Provided by Kindrat)
Rico’s TICO BULL – $4,000 for ice cream in Costa Rica? I don’t think so. At least not for Canadian tourist David Kindrat as his bank, Scotiabank, has since reviewed the case and reversed the charges.
David Kindrat’s wife and daughter enjoy ice cream while in Costa Rica. Photo by David Kindrat to CTV News.
But it wasn’t easy, it took over 30 days for this to happen.
How could this happen, a mistake by the customer, the merchant or the bank?
Kindrat, a dentist from Winnipeg, Canada, on vacation in Costa Rica, told CTV News that the charges were made when he bought his wife and daughter ice cream in Tamarindo. He thought he was paying in the local currency.
“When I saw the receipt it was for $4,050 and I thought that’s about right. That’s about $9 Canadian, but when I got my credit card statement that wasn’t the case,” said Kindrat.
When he contacted Scotiabank, he was originally told that because he used his PIN and authorized the charge, there wasn’t anything the bank could do.
“They said you put in your PIN. It’s a legitimate transaction and we can’t do anything about it,” Kindrat said. “I can’t understand why a ( $4,050) charge, wouldn’t be flagged at an ice cream store,” he added.
Kindrat told CTV News Toronto he was pleased to have the matter put behind him.
The Kindrat famirly in vacation in Costa Rica’s North Pacific beach community of Tamarindo. Photo by David Kindrat to CTV News
“Scotiabank has refunded my money and apologized for the whole situation,” he said. “I appreciate that we were able to get my story out there and hope that it may caution other viewers to closely watch electronic transactions when travelling.”
In Costa Rica, many merchants have dual currency – Colones and US Dollars – card processing accounts.
Typically, at a merchant like an ice cream store, restaurant, supermarkets, clothing stores, etc prices are in local currency and the corresponding card charges follow the currency.
If an item or service is being quoted in US dollars, it stands to reason that the charge will most likely, but not necessarily, be in dollars.
Unfortunately, the Kindrat case is not the first case of someone being overcharged in the wrong currency while on holidays. Worse, won’t be the last.
When traveling, always check receipts or transaction details immediately after the sale. Receipts should be kept and monthly statements should be reviewed.
“We got a great picture from it (the ice cream),” said Kindrat. “But it certainly does leave a bad taste in your mouth. No pun intended.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be in Costa Rica on Tuesday, January 21, 2020, as part of his regional trip that also includes a visit to Colombia and Jamaica.
Pompeo will arrive in Bogotá, Colombia, on Monday, January 20, where he will participate in the Third Hemispheric Ministerial Conference against Terrorism and meet with President Ivan Duque and other regional leaders. The Secretary will also refer to the strong anti-narcotics cooperation with Colombia.
On Tuesday, the Secretary will arrive in San José, Costa Rica, where he will meet with President Carlos Alvarado and visit the Joint Operations Center (located in Base 2), which facilitates regional security cooperation.
Later in the day (Tuesday), Secretary Pompeo will arrive in Kingston, Jamaica, to meet with Prime Minister Holness, lead a multilateral round table with leaders of the Caribbean and will refer to relations between the United States and the Caribbean.
Pompeo will also travel to Berlin (January 19) to participate in the Conference on Libya convened by Germany to move toward peace in the African country, which has been devastated by conflict since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi eight years ago.
The Secretary of State’s tour will end on Thursday, January 23, travelling to Miami to meet with Governor DeSantis, then travel to Bushnell, Florida, to give a speech on President Trump’s foreign policy, before returning to Washington D.C.
According to the U.S. Embassy in San Jose circular, Costa Rica is an important ally of the United States, which supports democracy and the rule of law throughout the hemisphere, including Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The Casa Presidencial agenda for Pompeo’s visit to Costa Rica
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, could become a tourist destination specialized in the attention of medium-sized cruises.
The real estate and hotel development is a plus for the canton of Carrillo to expand its desire to offer cruise tourism.
That is the objective of a project that drives the municipality of Carrillo and whose spearhead is the construction of a tourist dock.
The purpose is to expand the tourist offer in order to attract more visitors to the area and thus generate wealth and work opportunities.
Despite the tourism development in the area, Guanacaste has unemployment above 25%.
The dock would be 180 meters (590 feet) long and 4.5 meters (15 feet) wide with the capacity to serve medium-sized tourist boats.
The local government already has the basic studies, with third-dimensional designs done, now will look for partners to start the project that is expected to cost US$7 million dollars, with the municipality of Carillo pickup up the tab for US$2 million and the balance expected from the Instituto de Desarrollo Rural (Inder) and the Central government.
“We want to boost sport fishing, help the artisanal fisherman and, in times of cruises, facilitate the access of tourists and, taking advantage of the fact that we have the (international) airport in Liberia, would be a complement to boost the economy,” said the mayor of Carillo, Carlos Cantillo.
Cantillo commented that the Coco beaches and surrounding areas are attractive to tourists, as well as a fairly robust real estate and commercial development.
The El Coco dock project has already been presented to First Lady Claudia Dobles and Juan Ramón Rivera, executive president of the Costarricense de Puertos del Pacífico (Costa Rican Institute of Pacific Ports(, who not only see the project as a viable but also pledged to contribute in its construction.
Not wanting to put a damper on such a much-needed project, readers should keep in mind that we are in the final weeks of a municipal election cycle, as Costa Ricans head to the voting booths on Sunday, February 2, to elect all municipal offices in the country; mayors, aldermen, syndics (district council presidents), district councilors and the intendants of eight special autonomous districts, together with their respective alternates in all cases (see Local government in Costa Rica).
The 2920 municipal elections will be the fifth direct municipal elections since the amendment to the 1998 Municipal Code and the second to be held mid-term since the 2009 reform.
“Once the proof of concept is finished, we will focus on the selection of complete technology in all its extremes to implement it; it is a route that can take us between 2019 and 2021 perfectly to make the transition and evolution to 5G ”, explained Suzeth Rodríguez, director of operations of Racsa. Archive / The Republic
Costa Rica will begin flirting with 5G mobile communication technology this year, the technology that will allow digital procedures, video surveillance with artificial intelligence, intelligent lights, intelligent public transport, among other benefits
“Once the proof of concept is finished, we will focus on the selection of complete technology in all its extremes to implement it; it will take us to 2021 to make the transition and evolution to 5G ”, explained Suzeth Rodríguez, director of operations of Racsa. La Republica
Kölbi and Claro will begin testing for the transition of their 4.5 or Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile networks.
Grupo ICE, which operates under the trademark Kölbi, will begin testing at the Moin Container Terminal of APM Terminals, in Limón, with equipment developed by Huawei, Nokia, and Telrad.
Through this plan, the main Costa Rican port will be equipped with the latest technology to optimize its operation and strengthen security.
Claro (América Móvil) began testing 5G technology in several Latin American countries since last year and hopes to take the first steps of technical tests in Costa Rica this year.
“The implementation of 5G is among the plans for the evolution of América Móvil in the region and the tests are already being carried out in Puerto Rico,” Luis Iván Ortiz, engineering manager at Claro Costa Rica.
What is the difference between 4G and 5G?
It promises mobile data speeds that far outstrip the fastest home broadband network currently available to consumers. With speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second, 5G is set to be as much as 100 times faster than 4G. Low latency is a key differentiator between 4G and 5G. … 5G will be able to fix bandwidth issues.
Although the 5th generation of cellular technology, 5G, may improve our day to day lives, some consumers have voiced concern about potential health hazards. Many of these concerns are over 5G’s use of the higher energy millimeter-wave radiation. “… It’s ionizing radiation that is dangerous because it can break chemical bonds,” reports livescience.com.
Cleaner and less chaotic, Costa Rica is Latin America-lite. Unlike most of the rest of the continent, you can drink the tap water there, order an eco-Uber and embrace a hassle-free lifestyle.
It’s like a friendlier, more fun Switzerland with enviable weather and gorgeous beaches. No wonder one of the world’s happiest countries ranks number six on the Lonely Planet’s guide of best countries to travel to this year, the Financial Times reports.
The US downgrade of travel recommendations was a slap in the face for the green paradise
So imagine the government’s horror last week when the US (the largest single market for the tourism that powers Costa Rica’s US$60 billion economy) downgraded its travel recommendations for the country, citing an increase in crime, including armed robbery and homicide.
The downgrade from the coveted level one category to level two, in which visitors are advised to exercise “increased caution”, is not as bad as Washington’s warnings about some neighbours: it urges Americans to reconsider travelling to Honduras and to avoid some areas of that country entirely because of crime.
But it was a slap in the face for Costa Rica, whose government called it an “unjust and disproportionate” step by its “partner, friend and ally”. The country receives some 1.4 million US holidaymakers a year and is home to some 120,000 Americans, including thousands of retirees. The excellent English spoken by many Costa Ricans and the acceptance of dollars instead of the national colón currency almost anywhere makes its welcome warmer.
Indeed, the tiny nation — so harmonious it has not had an army since 1948 — has built a reputation as a green paradise summed up in its unofficial slogan pura vida — a catch-all phrase that loosely translates as “no worries”. Any comparison, no matter how implicit, with nearby countries such as gang-ridden El Salvador or Mexico, where murders are at an all-time high, is seen as an insult.
While crime has been on the rise in recent years, the government insists tourists are safe: it says only 0.02 per cent of annual visitors suffer petty theft. Costa Rica considers itself a trusted partner in Washington’s fight against drug trafficking and migration, taking in tens of thousands of migrants from Nicaragua, Venezuela and El Salvador who could otherwise head north to the US.
What is more, some indicators have actually been improving. Last year, the number of homicides fell for the second straight year although, with 20 murders reported in the first 10 days of January, this year has got off to a bloody start. But at 11.6 per 100,000 of the population, the murder rate puts Costa Rica in the “epidemic” category of more than 10. And the nation’s location makes it an obvious route for drugs flowing north from the Caribbean and Colombia, a trend the authorities blame for rising violence.
In the first week of January alone, authorities seized a tonne of cocaine in several busts, and captured a “drug sub” (makeshift submersible smuggling vessels ferrying in cocaine). Marijuana from Jamaica, meanwhile, is shipped to Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, helping fuel a rise in crime in the province of Limón. Ports there have been used to funnel cocaine to Europe, nestled among bananas, one of the country’s top exports.
Unsurprisingly, trafficking groups have flourished. Costa Rica last year arrested the country’s most wanted drug trafficker, José Efraín López Mendoza, alias “M-1”, the boss of the Moreco trafficking ring formed in 2015 that had openly styled itself on Mexico’s brutal Zetas cartel and allegedly had links to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel.
Many Costa Ricans’ concern over drug trafficking and crime is dwarfed by their fears about the economy and unemployment, which at more than 11 per cent is among the highest in the region. One study last year found that the biggest worry of one-third of the population was making ends meet in a country where gross domestic product income has nearly doubled in the past decade to US$12,000 a head, a third higher than the regional average.
Some Costa Ricans say denying the increasing violence is dangerously complacent. “The problem is not the US lowering Costa Rica’s security qualification.
The problem is that it’s true and they’re right,” Randall Rivera, director of leading radio news show Noticias Monumental, wrote on Twitter. “If we don’t like it, then let’s make a safer country. The truth isn’t a sin, but it is uncomfortable.”
While it may hurt our feelings to say this, Costa Rica is not one of the top food tourism destinations in the world. And how could it be, when it has so many established, world-famous cuisines to compete with, extensively covered by the media? But like all other areas of the world, Costa Rica has its distinctive tastes, dishes that make it stand out.
These are quite often overshadowed by international dishes served in popular tourist destinations. Those of you who only visit these may miss out on some truly exquisite dishes, though. So, if you plan on traveling to Costa Rica anytime soon, make sure you seek out and taste these traditional dishes before you leave.
Breakfast: Gallo pinto
Gallo pinto means “spotted chicken” – and what a perfect name it is for this speckled, colorful dish. Rice and beans are at its base to perfectly express its long history and duality – beans were traditionally cultivated by the Precolumbian people living here, while the rice was introduced by the Spanish conquerors in the first years of the 16th century.
Gallo pinto has three major variants that you can taste: in the Valle Central, it’s less greasy, moister, and traditionally seasoned with chili, onions, and cilantro, in the Guanacaste province, it is usually more greasy, made with red beans, while on the country’s Caribbean coast, the rice and the beans are cooked with coconut milk and they are seasoned with Panamanian chile (habaneros).
Lunch: Casado
A rich, hearty meal that any husband would love to have while working the land – this is Casado, one of the most traditional dishes in Costa Rica. Wives usually packed this in a banana leaf – today, though, you will almost always find it served on a plate.
The base for Casado is also beans and rice but it comes with other, more consistent ingredients, too – a type of meat (usually beef, pork, chicken, perhaps fish), surrounded with salad, tortillas, and fried platano maduro – also known as sweet plantain or cooking bananas.
Dinner: Pastelón
Those into Italian foods – especially lasagne – will probably spot a few similarities between their favorite dish and Pastelón. Sometimes referred to as “Puerto Rican plantain lasagne”, Pastelón is a layered casserole not entirely dissimilar from its Italian counterpart. Except its ingredients are completely different.
Pastelón is usually made using ingredients like yucca, batata, breadfruit or sweet plantains. These are cut thin, they are fried, then layered in a dish with meat, cheese, a sauce, and garlic, peppers, and onions. There is a lot you can discover about a country by tasting its traditional dishes. Make sure to dive into the Costa Rican life through the flavors of these.
According to a report by CNN, as today, Friday, January 24, 2020, the virus had claimed the lives of at least 26 people in mainland China, including a 36-year-old man not listed as having any pre-existing conditions. Posts on social media show an atmosphere of fear and anxiety among those inside Wuhan, amid rising uncertainty over the ability of authorities to handle the potential epidemic.
On Wednesday morning, at Casa Presidencial (Presidential House), the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) formalized a letter of understanding with Globalvia, the highway concessionaire, to carry out the expansion project.
The Ruta 27, whose official name is Carretera Nacional José María Castro Madriz, was inaugurated by then-President Oscar Arias on January 27, 2010.
