QCOSTARICA – GE turboprop engines are rugged and can withstand extreme climates; they power aircraft around the world including those flying to the world’s most dangerous airport in Lukla, at the foot of Mt. Everest. And Costa Rica.
The GE Aviation website features the Costa Rica’s small airline, Nature Air, a so called “travel agency with wings”.
According to the website, under the wings of four L-410 aircraft, these engines carry up to 26,000 tourists and travelers exploring Costa Rican destinations.
To date, the GE powered L-410s serve all of Nature Air’s 15 destinations. These aircraft provide more comfort and come with a higher cruising speed than the previous model. Gustavo Chinchilla, CEO of Nature Air, said that with the retrofitted L-410 “tourists can arrive in 20 minutes to almost any beach destination that by land would take up to five hours”.
Art In the Air
But, what stands out mostly of these aircraft is their “Art In the Air”.
In the fall of 2015, Nature Air organized a competition called ¡Tu arte en el aire ! (Your Art in the Air). It invited designers to come up with a colorful look for the tails of the L-410 airplanes in Nature Air’s fleet.
Gustavo Chinchilla put it this way, “at Nature Air we have the tradition of making special designs for the tails of our aircraft. As we are a regional airline, we decided that from now on we will provide an opportunity to showcase the artistry of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. We are proud that these designs unite us as neighboring countries.”
Nature Air claims that more than 100,000 passengers and spectators per year could potentially see the freshly painted airplanes.
One of the winners, Stephen Duplantier (a 70-year-old documentary filmmaker and graphic artist) entered the competition because “the chance to design a new species of a giant mechanical tropical bird was irresistible”.
His and three other winning illustrations already adorn the company fleet, making these aircraft arguably the most beautiful L-410s in the world.
Let’s have a look at some of the winning designs.
Designed by artist Stephen Duplantier of Costa Rica.
Tolls on the Ruta 27 increase tomorrow and a gas hike is expected fro Saturday,
Tolls on the Ruta 27 increase tomorrow and a gas hike is expected fro Saturday,
QCOSTARICA – July comes a couple of important hikes in driving around Costa Rica.
One is the increase in tolls on the Ruta 27 (San Jose – Caldera) of between ¢10 and ¢50 colones. The increase will be felt at toll stations in Cuidad Colon, La Guacima, Atenas and Pozon.
The only station not to see an increase will be Escazu, the busiest, where the tolls will remain at ¢330 colones for light passenger vehicles and motorcycles.
That is it the word from Globalvia, the private company holding the concession for the 77 kilometre road between La Sabana park in San Jose and Caldera, Puntarenas.
The increase, according to Globalvia, is based on the regular (quarterly) adjustment in the concession contract, which allows the concessionaire to make changes to the tolls based on the dollar exchange rate. The colon as risen more than ¢10 colones against the U.S. dollar in the past week.
Two is a hike in gasoline prices that is expected to take effect on Saturday (July 2).
Last week the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Publicos (Aresep) approved an increase of ¢84 colones for a litre of super, ¢77 for regular (or plus) and ¢71 for diesel.
The increase takes effect the day following the publication in La Gaceta, which is to occur within five working days of the Aresep approval. Since the publication was not published in today’s edition (June 30) of La Gaceta, it will be tomorrow (the fifth day), with the hike taking effect at the 00:01 Saturday.
The new prices at the pumps will be ¢602 (¢518) for super; ¢575 (¢498) for regular; and diesel ¢451 (¢380) for a litre of diesel.
Best fill your tank by tomorrow (Friday) afternoon to avoid the lines and possible ‘out of gas’ at your corner station.
Q24N – The Pacific Alliance under the helm of Chile, beginning next July first will reach out for closer links with Mercosur, particularly since Argentina’s decision to join the block as an observer.
“The Argentine decision to join the Pacific Alliance as an observer fully harmonizes with Chile’s strategy of making both blocks converge”, according to Andres Rebolledo, head of Chile’s Directorate of International Economic Relations.
Chile will take the pro tempore presidency of the Alliance (Peru, Colombia Mexico and Chile), in the presidential summit which is taking place in Frutillar, south of the country.
Previous to the summit to which has been especially invited by Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, her Argentine peer Mauricio Macri, there will be a business forum to promote trade and investment.
“The Pacific alliance is a priority integration project of Chile’s trade policy. With only five years in construction, the Alliance has obtained many successes, and has a great potential”, said Rebolledo.
He added that President Bachelet will concentrate in advancing in the areas of goods, services, people and capital movements, and will try to make the most of the Trade Protocol which became effective last May first, which means basically lower tariffs.
Likewise Bachelet will continue to push for the Pacific alliance to keep expanding in the Asia/Pacific basin markets, as well as with the 49 observer countries and the rest of Latin America, thus the significance of approaching Mercosur.
Paraguay and Uruguay, Mercosur members are already observers of the Pacific Alliance, and now Argentina has joined.
Macri will be attending the summit in Frutillar together with the president of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís, a country which most probably, very soon with become the fifth member of the alliance.
In a press conference held at the Atlantic train station (in San Jose), President Solis joked about not coming back to Costa Rica fron his trip to Chile.
In a press conference held at the Atlantic train station (in San Jose), President Solis on Tuesday joked with reporters about not coming back to Costa Rica fron his trip to Chile. This is Solis’ 22nd away trip since taking office in May 2014. Photo Diarioextra.com
QCOSTARICA – President Luis Guillermo Solis, on his way to Chile Tuesday afternoon (his 22nd away trip since taking office on May 2014) told reporters in jest he did not know if and when he was coming back to Costa Rica.
The President is in Chile to take part in the Alianza del Pacífico (Pacific Alliance) summit, being held in Puerto Varas from June 28 to July 1, where he is expected to be there for only one day.
But, the president, in a funny mood said, “I will arrive tomorrow in Santiago, from there will be taken to Puerto Varas, where I will be for only one day and back to Costa Rica. I will then have some meetings on Friday or Saturday, I don’t know when I will be back until I get there”.
Solis assures the trip is one to promote the country and to be part of “an important participation in the business of the Pacific Alliance forum, as well as meetings with the heads of the states of the Alliance…to expose the national point of view.”
The Pacific Alliance is a Latin American trade bloc, which currently has four member states — Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which all border the Pacific Ocean.
At the VII Pacific Alliance Summit in Cali, Colombia, on May 22, 2013, Costa Rica signed a trade agreement with Colombia, and later in the summit received approval for full membership from all the founding members.
Costa Rica began the process of joining the Alliance on February 10, 2014, at the eighth summit of the Alliance in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, when President Laura Chinchilla signed a protocol at a plenary session finalizing the decision to join the alliance, so it can be readily incorporated as the Alliance’s fifth member.
The country, under the Solis Administration, has since postponed its incorporation into the Alliance indefinitely, pending consultations by its presidential economic council.
In addition to reducing trade barriers, the Pacific Alliance has begun several other projects for regional integration, including visa-free travel, a common stock exchange, and joint embassies in several countries.
Forty nine countries are listed as ‘observer nations’ to the Alliance, that include: Argentina, Canada, China, Costa Rica (in the process of becoming a full member,stalled), France, Guatemala, India, Italy, Panama (in the process of becoming a full member), Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
The Social Christian William Alvarado, liberationist Paulina Ramirez and Rosibel Ramos, also of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), voted in favor of the new text of the draft tax fraud. (Courtesy of PUSC.)
Legislative members of the Financial Affairs Committe, Christian William Alvarado, Paulina Ramirez and Rosibel Ramos, voting in favour of the new text of the draft tax fraud bill. (Courtesy of PUSC.)
QCOSTARICA – Legislators of the Financial Affairs Committee (Comisión de Asuntos Hacendarios) on Tuesday approved a the text for the draft tax fraud bill that creates a registry of shareholders to which the tax authority would have unrestricted access.
The main objective of the draft is to improve the fight against tax fraud, enabling the Directorate of Taxation (Dirección General de Tributación) to seize the assets and bank accounts of taxpayers classified as delinquent. The action would require the order of a judge, to protect the rights of corporations.
Embargoes could be extended for a period of up to two years.
The draft text was supported by nine of the ten legislators present at the time of voting; the sole objection from legislator, Otto Guevara, of the Movimiento Libertario party.
According to the report by La Nacion, “…with the changes, the taxation department would have unrestricted access to the registry database under the condition that they notify shareholders that the Government is consulting their information. The same thing would not happen in cases concerning an investigation by the Costa Rica Drug Institute (ICD)”.
As for the concept of a judge’s order, shareholders could use it to protect their privacy on the data. If they (the corporation) considers the information was leaked or consulted without notice, the judge would have the power to dismiss officials responsible for a leak.
Thus, it is intended that the corporations under investigation would not have their rights violated in the case of seizure and access of information by the tax department.
The Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) would be the administrator of the register of shareholders and beneficiaries.
While the draft text was being approved, the parties: Acción Ciudadana (PAC), Liberación Nacional (PLN), Frente Amplio and Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) have been negotiating agreement to apply ‘fast track’ to the bill, limiting the number of motions that can present legislators and set a deadline for the final vote.
Prices have increased by 14,000%-19,000% in four years in Venezuela
TODAY VENEZUELA – The economic reality in Venezuela lacks food pricing controls since about three years ago, stated economic analyst Luis Enrique Gavazut, who based his remarks on a research conducted jointly by the Presidential Economy Watch and the National Superintendence for the Defense of Socio-economic Rights.
“This was a recent study on a number of products in 2012-2016 to observe price variations in the Metropolitan Area of Caracas. In twelve protected products and other eight that have never been regulated, the most surprising data reveal that regulated items had a 14,000% price variation while the unregulated ones, which are also monitored, recorded raises around 19,000% in those four years. For this reason, the country’s major businesspersons, large industries, claim that what is happening is due to a lack of production as there are cost structures recording a delay with respect to prices. However, they are not basing their opinions on true criteria,” Gavazut said.
According to what the expert regarded as “objective evidence,” he recalled that this result shows that in practice control measures have been misused.
Gavazut further stated that the inflationary process in the food sector has nothing to do with the forex policy. In his view, this situation is due to other factors, among them, food distribution issues.
Q24N – A new report from the US Congressional Research Service details the importance of trade-based money laundering for criminal networks in Latin America and outlines some of the ways the region’s governments are attempting to combat illicit financial flows.
The CRS report (pdf) describes trade-based money laundering, or TBML, as “among the most challenging and pernicious forms of money laundering to investigate,” and cites U.S. government estimates that suggest billions or even tens of billions of dollars in illicit wealth is laundered through TBML schemes each year.
One of the most common TBML schemes involves over- or under-invoicing of goods and services.
As the CRS report explains, using this method, an exporter can transfer money to an importer in another country by invoicing exported products at lower than market value. In this way, the importer obtains goods that are worth more than what he or she paid for them, effectively resulting in a transfer of funds from the exporter to the importer.
Similarly, an exporter can over-charge for products he or she exports, effectively transferring funds to him or her self from the importer.
Other common TBML techniques include multiple invoicing, which allows money launderers to receive multiple payments for the same product; over- and under-shipment of goods and services, which works much like over- and under-invoicing; and falsely describing goods and services, also known as mislabeling.
One of the most famous TBML schemes is known as the Black Market Peso Exchange. The method was originally developed in the 1980s by Colombian drug trafficking groups seeking to disguise their multi-billion dollar illicit earnings, but it has also been adopted by crime groups from Mexico and other countries more recently. (See the CRS infographic below.)
The complicated system involves using illicit earnings to buy legal goods, which are exported to the crime groups’ home countries and resold in the legitimate market. InSight Crime reported on a notable recent example of this scheme in the 2012 article, “The Perfume Man and Chapo’s Stinking Dollars.”
InSight Crime Analysis
According to the U.S. State Department’s 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, concern about TBML schemes has arisen in several Latin American countries, including Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. And as InSight Crime has previously reported, many of these countries face significant challenges when it comes to confronting money laundering.
Criminal organizations still rely heavily on bulk cash smuggling rather than trade-based money laundering as a means of moving their illicit earnings (pdf). However, many experts consider TBML to be one of the most difficult forms of money laundering to combat because it allows illicit transactions to be hidden within the massive and complex system of legitimate global trade flows.
For this reason, many countries in Latin America have begun to take steps to address TBML and other forms of money laundering. Most countries in the region belong to the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT), an intergovernmental organization formed to facilitate cooperation on anti-money laundering efforts. Also, according to the CRS report, a number of Latin American countries have formed “Trade Transparency Units” that are specifically tasked with monitoring possible instances of TBML and other trade-related crimes.
TODAY COLOMBIA – The Colombian government and rebels of the FARC laid out their plans for a definitive ceasefire and concentration of guerrilla fighters in an historic event in Havana, Cuba.
President Santos (left) and FARC leader ‘Timochenko’ (right) with the signed agreement. Cuban President Raul Castro (middle) is witness.
But nothing goes into effect until the final peace agreement is signed, and there is still no plan to address the criminal earnings that sustain the rebel movement.
While closing in on a peace deal is of seismic importance for Colombia after half a century of civil conflict, the mission of InSight Crime is to determine the deal’s effects on the dynamics of organized crime, particularly the billion-dollar criminal economies that reside in FARC areas of influence.
Here, amid the 35 pages of the newly signed agreement, there are some mentions of this criminal booty, made up largely of income from the drug trade, extortion and illegal mining. The FARC dominate Colombia’s coca-growing regions and have secured control over gold producing areas in more than nine departments of the country.
On the territorial front, the FARC and the government have agreed to 23 concentration zones for rebel fighters: “Zonas Veredales Transitorias de Normalización,” which roughly translates as “Transitory Hamlet Zones for Normalization.” There will be eight FARC camps, where weapons will be stored, rebels housed and which are closed to the public. The size and location of these zones has not yet been made public, but the word “hamlet” in the title indicates they are not going to be huge, like the 42,000-square km safe haven granted to the FARC during the 1999-2002 negotiations.
The location of these zones could play a big part in future criminal dynamics, given the significant risk of recycling of the criminal economies of the FARC. InSight Crime has spent the last year visiting key FARC municipalities which generate much of the rebels’ earnings. We have identified more than 90 of the country’s 1,100-odd municipalities as having a high risk of recycled criminal economies, and therefore violence.
These are municipalities under FARC domination, which generate significant earnings from illegal activities and are therefore of interest to other illegal actors. If these municipalities have a concentration zone nearby, it may help reduce the risk of other groups recycling the criminal economies present. The state, working with the FARC, might be able to undermine these criminal economies and bring these often neglected parts of the country into the national mainstream. If the state does nothing, these economies may be passed to the FARC’s rebel cousins of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Nacional Liberación – ELN), FARC elements may go into business for themselves or other criminal groups may “invade” the territory.
The inability or unwillingness of the state to occupy territory in 2006, after the demobilization of the right wing paramilitary army of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC) led to the birth of a new generation of criminal groups called the BACRIM (from the Spanish “bandas criminales”). The fear is that if the state again fails to fill the vacuum, other criminal structures will simply move in to the space left by the FARC.
One of the principal criminal beneficiaries of the FARC withdrawing from the conflict and strategic territory across the country may be the neo-paramilitary BACRIM. These groups are already positioning themselves to take over chunks of FARC territory. We have tracked new BACRIM activity, expansion and clashes in Antioquia, Chocó, Guaviare, Meta, Norte de Santander Putumayo and Santander.
The agreement addresses this risk in its item 3.4:
“Agreement on security guarantees and the fight against criminal organizations responsible for killings and massacres or that threaten defenders of human rights, social or political movements, including the criminal organizations that have been designated as successors of paramilitarism and their support networks, and prosecution of criminal behavior that threaten the implementation of agreements and peace building.”
The state is setting up a National Commission of Guarantees for Security (Comisión Nacional de Garantías de Seguridad) which will formulate policies to dismantle any organizations that threaten the peace deal. That effort will include an elite police body with a “multidimensional focus.” Its members “will be selected under a special model that certifies high standards of suitability, transparency and effectiveness.”
The truth is that a body like this already exists and is called the Search Bloc. It is currently deployed against the BACRIM, although it has yet to find any of the top leadership of the most powerful criminal syndicate in Colombia, the Urabeños. It is not clear whether another unit will be set up or whether the existing Search Bloc will be renamed or incorporated into a new effort.
Additionally, the Attorney General’s Office is to set up a Special Unit for Investigation formed by dedicated judicial police tasked with dismantling these groups. Again, the Attorney General’s Office already had units dedicated to fighting the BACRIM. The agreement may just rebrand existing efforts.
Also important is the issue of FARC weapons, of which there may be as many as 45,000. If they enter the black market it could provide organized crime with an arms bonanza. The guerrillas have promised to deliver all the weapons they possess, those in the hands of their militiamen as well as the uniformed fighters, to the United Nations. Three separate deliveries are planned, and all weapons should be handed over 180 days after the signature of a final peace agreement. They are to be turned into three monuments, with one residing in Colombia, another in Cuba — which hosted peace talks — and the final one at the United Nations.
The fact that the militiamen were mentioned apart suggests that they will not be going into the concentration zones. In criminal terms, these networks are important as in many cases they help manage the finances of the rebels, the collection of extortion payments, money laundering, as well as the collection of “taxes” on the drug trade. If they remain in place, the risk of criminalization of these elements, who continue to collect money but now keep it for themselves, is high in many parts of the country.
While FARC uniformed guerrillas number up to 8000, according to government figures, the rebel movement includes as many as 10,000 militiamen and 30,000 collaborators. In the last ten years the importance of the FARC militia has increased as the number of their uniformed fighters, or “guerrilleros rasos,” has fallen. The militiamen have become one of the principal offensive weapons in the FARC arsenal, placing bombs, sowing land mines and assassinating members of the security forces. They have also become to the key to dominating territory and the criminal economies within it. If they remain outside the agreement and in control of the criminal economies, the chances of them staying in business and perhaps forming “FARCRIM” is high in certain parts of the country.
When a final peace agreement is signed in Havana, hopefully on July 20 as the president has promised, the FARC will make the transition from a rebel army funded by illegality to a political force. However, the signatures will not do away with up a billion dollars in illegal earnings that currently sustain the FARC. They will also be unwillingly to let go of that money until they are sure that the peace deal will be honored and they will be allowed to participate in the political system.
The future of these criminal economies will determine the next chapter in Colombia’s criminal history.
Used as a symbol of peace, an escopetarra is a guitar made from a modified gun. The name is a portmanteau of the Spanish words escopeta (shotgun) and guitarra (guitar), though all escopetarras to date have been fashioned out of rifles rather than shotguns.
César López plays an Escopetarra at Bolívar Square in Bogotá
Colombian peace activist César López in 2003, at a gathering after the El Nogal Club bombing in Bogotá, got the idea for the Escopetarra when he noticed a soldier holding a gun like a guitar. The first escopetarra in 2003 was made from a Winchester rifle and a Stratocaster electric guitar.
López initially had five escopetarras built by Colombian luthier Alberto Paredes, four of which were given to Colombian musician Juanes, Argentine musician Fito Páez, the United Nations Development Program, and the city government of Bogotá, while one was kept for himself. Juanes later sold his escopetarra for US$17,000 at a Beverly Hills fundraiser held to benefit victims of anti-personnel mines, while the escopetarra given to the UN was exhibited at the June 2006 of the UN Conference on Disarmament.
In 2006, López acquired an additional 12 decommissioned AK-47 assault rifles from Colombia’s peace commissioner’s office, with plans to convert them into guitars and give them to high-profile musicians such as Shakira, Carlos Santana, and Paul McCartney, as well as political figures such as the Dalai Lama. However, a member of the Dalai Lama’s staff rejected López’s offer, citing the inappropriateness of giving a weapon as a gift; López has said he will try to explain his purpose more clearly.
Festival de las Buenas Historias: la Escopetarra
One was also given to Kenyan singer Eric Wainaina on the occasion of the UNODC’s 2008 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, to honour his appointment as a UNODC Messenger of Non-Violence.
Cesar López creator of the Escopetarra
An escopetarra was presented by César López on 23 September 2012 to the President of Guatemala General Otto Peréz Molina at the Estadio Mateo Flores in an event called “Jóvenes por la Paz.” The event gathered 20,000 people advocating for peace in Guatemala. After the presentation of the escopetarra, the President of Guatemala gave the order to destroy thousands of weapons that had been confiscated. The message of the event was “Dale a la Música y No a la Violencia” (make music and not violence).
QTRAVEL from the Lonely Planet – Jutting into the sea at the southern end of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, the Osa Peninsula remains one of the country’s most remote destinations.
That said, this wild region is worth the trip: explore the vast rainforest that shelters Costa Rica’s largest remaining population of jaguars and tapirs, surf the cerulean waves along the peninsula’s southern point, or take a boat ride through its enormous expanse of mangroves.
The peninsula is also a great place to get a glimpse into Costa Rica’s past: former gold mining villages introduce visitors to rural Tico life and enormous pre-Columbian stone spheres continue to baffle archaeologists. Despite the vastly improved access road to the peninsula’s main town, other parts of Osa remain off-the-grid, but don’t let that intimidate you – the rewards for tackling the rough roads, hiking trails and river crossings are many.
Parque Nacional Corcovado
Parque Nacional Corcovado, one of Costa Rica’s star attractions, takes up almost half of the Osa Peninsula and is home to an astoundingly diverse range of wildlife, including the highly endangered giant anteater, tapir, harpy eagle and all of Costa Rica’s big cats. Whether you access the heart of the park via a grueling day hike along one of its two main jungle trails, the coastal La Leona to Sirena and the mountainous Sirena to Los Patos, or arrive by boat to explore the shorter trails around the Sirena and San Pedrillo ranger stations, wildlife sightings are virtually guaranteed.
There’s also a new, short trail loop from Dos Brazos (dosbrazosderiotigre.com) that gives visitors a quick taste of the park. You can also combine a Sirena-Los Patos hike with a stay at La Tarde (ecoturisticolatarde.com), an inviting property just outside the park that offers nightly snake-and-frog tours. Visits to Corcovado are permitted only with licensed guides; organize your jungle adventure in Puerto Jiménez with Osa Wild, Surcos Tours or Osa Aventura, or in Bahía Drake with Corcovado Expeditions or Pacheco Tours.
Bahía Drake
Reachable via an exhilarating speedboat ride through the mangroves from Sierpe, by plane or via a 4WD-only road that requires driving through rivers, Bahía Drake consists of a sprawling village and a gorgeous 17 km coastal trail that leads to the San Pedrillo entrance of Parque Nacional Corcovado. Bahía Drake appeals both to upmarket travelers who come to stay in the high-end jungle lodges such as Copa de Arbol and the Drake Bay Getaway Resort, and backpackers, as an increasing number of budget guesthouses and tour operators make it easy to visit Corcovado on a day trip, go diving, kayak in the mangroves or go wildlife-spotting in the rainforest.
The closest that the Osa Peninsula gets to a bustling capital, Puerto Jiménez’s compact grid of dusty streets is the preferred budget traveler jump-off point for visiting Corcovado, thanks to its proliferation of affordable digs such as Lunas Hostel and Cabinas Back Packer, a well-stocked supermarket, and numerous tour agencies. After your jungle adventure you can unwind on the Playa Platanares, kayak on the Golfo Dulce, go abseiling down waterfalls with Psycho Tours, or tuck into some of the Osa Peninsula’s best culinary offerings at La Perla de Osa, Jardín Dulce or Restaurante Agua Dulce.
Cabo Matapalo and Carate
South of Puerto Jiménez, the rough road crosses several shallow rivers as it makes its bumpy way to the beach settlement of Cabo Matapalo, the ‘toe’ of the Osa Peninsula ‘boot’, where surfers in the know hit the virtually empty waves from surf-and-yoga retreats such as Ojo del Mar (ojodelmar.com) and Encanta La Vida (encantalavida.com). Continuing on to Carate, the starting point for hikes in Corcovado, this rough road is lined with some of Costa Rica’s best all-inclusive wilderness lodges, such as Lapa Ríos, El Remanso Lodge and Luna Lodge. These properties offer gourmet cuisine, all manner of creature comforts as well as nature adventures – expert guides lead walks into the enveloping jungle, a terrific place to spot monkeys, sloths, birds, and other creatures.
Part of the new Caminos de Osa initiative that aims to develop more hiking trails across the Osa Peninsula and boost rural tourism in local communities, the two former gold mining villages of Rancho Quemado and Dos Brazos welcome visitors with a range of attractions. See how cane sugar is made at Trapiche Don Carmen in Rancho Quemado, or go gold-panning, wildlife watching or horseback riding in Dos Brazos with guides organised through the Dos Brazos Oficina de Turismo. In Dos Brazos you can also sleep at the Los Mineros Guesthouse in the former goldminers’ brothel and jail, or go completely off the grid at the Bolita Rainforest Hostel, a rustic farmhouse with no electricity or running water. And if you don’t know where your hot chocolate comes from, an illuminating tour of the organic cacao farm at Finca Köbö, off the main road from Puerto Jiménez, might be just the ticket.
Humedal Nacional Terrába-Sierpe
The back end of the Osa ‘boot’ dissolves into a network of channels and waterways that weave around the Humedal Nacional Térraba-Sierpe, the country’s largest mangrove swamp. Its 330 sq km of wetland, home to red, black and tea mangrove species, protects a plethora of bird life – especially water birds such as herons, egrets and cormorants – as well as larger denizens of the murky waters such as caimans and boas. An exploration of this watery world by boat with Bahía Aventuras in Uvita (US$85 per person) or Corcovado Expeditions (US$110) in Bahía Drake gives you a unique insight into this very special and fragile ecosystem.
Isla del Caño
A forty-minute boat ride from Bahía Drake brings you to the uninhabited island of Isla del Caño, the centerpiece of one of Costa Rica’s most important marine reserves and a top diving and snorkeling destination. Brain corals, sea plumes, fans and other coral species shelter the threatened Panulirus lobster and the giant conch, while the huge schools of tropical fish attract dolphins and whales. Top dive sites include the Devil’s Pinnacle, a spot frequently visited by reef sharks, manta rays and barracudas, and Paraside; if you’re lucky, you’ll see hammerhead sharks and sea turtles. The only way to reach the island is via snorkeling (US$80) and diving (US$135) tours, arranged by most accommodations in Bahía Drake, as well as operators such as Drake Divers and Osa Divers.
The excellent museum at Sitio Arqueológico Finca 6, halfway between the Costanera Sur and Sierpe, offers the best opportunity to view the pre-Columbian stone spheres that are Costa Rica’s most important archaeological finds. Included on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites, these stones are pretty much the only traces left behind by the mysterious Diquís civilization that populated the Diquís Delta; between 300 B.C. and 1500 A.D., the Diquís invested huge efforts in the creation of these perfectly spherical stone globes, with the largest measuring 2.5 meters across and weighing a staggering 24 tons. While their purpose is unclear, historians believe that some were status symbols while others were aligned in groups for ceremonial purposes or as solar calendars.
The original article can be found on the Lonely Planet
QCOSTARICA – Following legislative authorization to borrow and with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE/CABEI) willing to provide financing, the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (INCOFER) – Costa Rica railway – is going shopping.
The president of the INCOFER, Guillermo Santana, in an interview on Dialogos by La Nacion, announced plans to buy eight new units in France, Spain, the Czech Republic or the United States.
Santana said that they plan to invest “…just over US$30 million in the purchase and maintenance of trains. They are selfpropelled units which can be operated from either end. ”
In addition, work will be done to refit stations and to implement an electronic payment systems and the possibility of an electric train.
The Incofer aims to have the new trains operational in early 2017.
In the 30 minute interview, Santana did not touch on the very important subjects, mainly of avoiding the constant collisions between the train and vehicles and the lack of proper signalization and security at most of the train level crossings.
Santana said that thanks to a new law, the trains could possibly operate under concession (with private operators) and all changes have the objective to increase daily services, even on Saturdays.
TODAY NICARAGUA – Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is seen easily winning his third consecutive term in office in elections on Nov. 6, which would put him in power until 2020, according to a poll published on Monday.
The poll, conducted by Mamp;R Consultants, showed that 65 percent of those surveyed planned to vote for Ortega’s leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party, compared with just 13 percent for the entire opposition.
“What is at stake in this election is who will take second place,” said Raul Obregon, head of the polling firm.
The opposition Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) each had 5.6 percent of the vote, according to the poll, with the rest divided up among smaller parties.
Obregon attributed the wide victory margin to the Ortega administration’s economic policies and divisions among the opposition.
The poll of 2,000 people was conducted between June 11 and 20 and had a margin of error of 2.24 percent.
Ortega, a 70-year-old former guerrilla leader, first ruled the country in the 1980s and returned to power in 2007 after a fracture in Nicaragua’s right-wing parties.
TODAY CUBA, HAVANA — MasterCards from Florida-based Stonegate Bank are the first U.S.-issued credit cards that can be used to withdraw cash at automatic teller machines in Cuba, the first vice president of the country’s central bank said Monday.
Irma Margarita Martinez, speaking to media on the sidelines of a financial services conference, said Cuba was open to extending the service to all American credit card holders.
“To date, no other U.S. bank has approached us or expressed an interest,” she said.
Stonegate has issued about 500 cards, mainly to Cuban Americans who travel to their homeland and American businesses interested in the Caribbean island, Tania Fernandez, manager of the bank’s Havana office said in a news briefing outside the event hosted by Miami-based International Money Transfer Conference.
While the card can be used at hotels, car rental agencies, some restaurants and now at Havana cash machines, it was not being accepted at more than 10,000 retail shops run by the state, Fernandez said.
Stonegate, which in May 2015 became the first American bank since the 1959 Revolution to open an office in Cuba, issued the MasterCard this month. MasterCard said in January it would allow its cards issued in the United States to be used in Cuba, effective March 1.
As part of a growing detente between the two Cold War foes begun in 2014, more Americans are traveling to Cuba and American businesses are taking a closer look at the once-forbidden island, but financial services are lagging far behind.
President Obama has loosened restrictions on financial services to reduce the risks U.S. travelers face from carrying large amounts of cash, but little has changed.
Meanwhile, a large “Four Points by Sheraton” sign has gone up outside the Havana hotel that this week becomes the first in Cuba to operate under a U.S. brand since the 1959 revolution.
QCOSTAIRCA by Henry Morales, Vozdeguanacaste.com – On May 1, Carlos Arias Chavez’s term as mayor of the Municipality of Nandayure ended. However, he is not free from the municipality yet because he is now facing a lawsuit for alleged illicit enrichment.
According to the municipal auditor, Gilberto Hernandez, Arias collected a salary as mayor at the same time as having a pension due to retirement from the National Teaching, which would violate Article 20 of the Municipal Code. That article explains that if the mayor qualifies for a pension and does not give up that pension, he or she can only receive 50% of the total salary for expenses of representation.
Arias served as mayor during the 2010-2016 period and received an approximate salary of ¢1,980,000 ($3,735) plus the prohibition bonus, which is 65% of the base salary (approximately ¢1,300,000 or $2,450). He likewise received a pension of about ¢1,400,000 ($2,645), which adds up to an income of ¢4,680,000 ($8,830).
The Voice of Guanacaste tried to contact the former mayor, but despite several phone calls and voice messages, there was no reply.
The auditor added that Arias is not entitled to payment of the prohibition bonus since that category only applies to liberal arts professionals such as lawyers, engineers, doctors and public accountants, but not to an educator, as dictated by the Law Against Corruption and Illicit Enrichment in Public Service.
“Our position was always against paying him a salary and prohibition bonuses and in due time we let the former mayor know it. We presented reports before the council and they are there in the minutes. We also notified the Comptroller General of the Republic. They told us that it was in effect necessary to apply
Article 20 of the municipal code. Finally we were forced to file a complaint with the district attorney in Nicoya,” Hernandez commented.
The Criminal Suit
According to Hernandez, the former mayor of Nandayure’s case is in the hands of the Nicoya District Attorney’s Office. The lawsuit was filed by the municipal audit department on December 18, 2015.
Hernandez said that after they filed the lawsuit, the district attorney raided some municipal offices and proceeded to seize some minutes, payroll forms and other documents in order to gather evidence. Although the process has been underway for more than a year, the Public Ministry has not emitted a decision.
The district attorney’s press department indicated that the process is in the stage of review and analysis of evidence.
“The Deputy District Attorney’s Probity, Transparency and Anti-Corruption (FAPTA) reported that they are reviewing the closing summons made by the Deputy District Attorney of Nicoya, in relation to lawsuit 15-000569-0414-PE, pursued against a man by the last names Arias Chavez, former mayor of Nandayure, for the crime of illicit enrichment.”
For his part, Hernandez said that they are waiting for the courts to rule favorably so that the former mayor is obligated to reimburse the municipal coffers with the money earned during the four years and received under the prohibition bonuses, which amounts to about ¢180,000,000 ($340,000).
Similar Scenarios in Other Municipalities
Although Article 20 of the municipal code seems to make clear the path that a retired person who aspires to be mayor should follow, there are some precedents that cast doubts.
For example, in 2011, the current mayor of Santa Cruz, Maria Rosa Lopez, filed an appeal because the Santa Cruz council wanted to apply that article since she served as vice mayor at that time. The Constitutional Court accepted the appeal and ordered that municipality to pay costs and damages.
However, a year later, in February 2012, the mayor of Tibas, Gonzalo Vargas, turned to the Constitutional Court due to a similar case and the court rejected the appeal, giving credit to Article 20 of the municipal code.
QCOSTARICA by Wilberth Villalobos Castrillo, Vozdeguanacaste.com – Hydroelectric reservoirs promise to be an alternative to address the problem of water shortages faced by several Guanacaste cantons.
The Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA- Acueductos y Alcantarillados) and the National Groundwater, Irrigation and Drainage Service (Senara- Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas Riego y Avenamiento) are betting on taking advantage of the water from these reservoirs to satisfy human consumption needs.
During the Cañas Municipal Council session on June 20, Jose Luis Arguedas, project director for AyA, said that the institution will make an agreement with the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE- Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) to take some of the water from the ARDESA Hydroelectric Complex and convey it to the city’s central supply network and to the community of Bebedero.
The specialist commented that this water usually goes into the sea and is wasted.
“Coincidentally, it is water that is not used in the channels and it is wasted and goes into the sea,” he explained.
At present, AyA is in the phase of basic topography studies and they hope that the agreement with ICE will be signed soon and that they will have it completed by the end of 2018.
According to the engineer, the project costs approximately $4 million, including catchment work, pumping, a water treatment plant with a capacity of 200 liters, conducting the water to the tanks in Cañas and piping that would take the water to Bebedero.
AyA will assume the costs of the works carried out by ICE within the Sandillal reservoir, although there is also the possibility of a grant from the government of China for the rest of the project.
“This is AyA’s star project for Canas because we would have water beyond 2035,” Arguedas said.
Water for the Lowlands
The second water supply project is for the Guanacaste lowlands area.
During the session, members of the Cañas council listened to explanations from Alejandro Villalobos, regional coordinator of Senara’s engineering and project development department, who discussed the Tempisque River Middle Basin and Coastal Communities Water Supply System.
This project’s objective is to supply water for irrigation and human consumption to the cantons in the Guanacaste lowlands such as Carrillo, Nicoya and Santa Cruz.
To that end, they intend to divert water from the Piedras River reservoir to a 1300-hectare area near the Lomas de Barbudal Reserve in Bagaces.
“There are already studies that indicate that 20 cubic meters per second can be taken from what would be the reservoir because it would alleviate the water shortages in a good way. We are talking about the irrigation of some 18,000 hectares of land,” Villalobos explained.
AyA would be requesting 2 cubic meters per second for human consumption.
According to data from Senara, 55 kilometers of new canal would be built and part of the existing one will be widened, which will be covered in concrete.
In addition, Villalobos pointed out that about 23 properties need to be expropriated, most of which belong to the company El Pelon de la Bajura, CATSA and Ingenio El Viejo.
The cost of this project is estimated to be $500 million and is currently in the studies phase. Work is anticipated to begin in 2018 and the first phase would be finished in 2021.
The Aedes aegypti or yellow fever mosquito is a vector for transmitting several tropical fevers such as Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya. Only the female bites for blood, which she needs to mature her eggs.
QCOSTARICA – The development of a safe and effective vaccine against the Zika virus against humans may be successful, with results of a major study published in the international weekly journal of science, Nature. The researchers said, based on their findings, a Zika vaccine for humans “will likely be readily achievable”.
Researchers tested two trial vaccines, a DNA vaccine and an inactivated virus vaccine, in mice.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Zika virus vaccine protection in an animal model,” Dr. Dan Barouch from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School said.
According to Dr. Barouch said human clinical trials of the vaccine should start as soon as possible. The vaccinated animals showed no evidence of active virus after being infected with the Zika virus and both vaccines were safe as well as effective.
“And the protection was striking. The protection was complete,” he said. “All of the mice that received the vaccine showed no virus in the bloodstream after challenge, whereas all the mice that did not receive the vaccines became infected and had high levels of virus in the bloodstream. One of the important points is that the protection could be achieved by a single immunization.”
The Zika virus is a flavivirus that is responsible for an unprecedented current epidemic in Brazil and the Americas. Zika has been associated with fetal microcephaly, intrauterine growth restriction, and other birth defects in both humans and mice.
In February, the World Health Organization declared the Zika epidemic a global public health emergency. Since then, drugmakers have been working to create vaccines that could protect against it.
Nelson Michael, director of the military HIV program at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland, is co-author of the Nature article.
He says the vaccines are in production now, and researchers hope to begin human trials in October.
“I would say, at this point, no one is really in a position to say if it’s going to jump ahead of expanded safety studies. But I can tell you it’s going to move very quickly,” he said.
While pregnant women are most at risk from Zika, Michael says the initial trials will begin with healthy women who could become pregnant.
If enough people are vaccinated, he added, that could extend protection to pregnant women, who might not need the vaccine.
Both vaccines could be available as early as next year.
In Costa Rica, according to the Ministry of Health, as of last week the number of peope with the virus has grown to 127 cases. Read more Zika Outbreak Worsens In Jacó
HAVANA – A large “Four Points by Sheraton” sign has gone up outside the Havana hotel that this week becomes the first in Cuba to operate under a U.S. brand since the 1959 revolution.
The military-owned Gaviota 5th Avenue Hotel, close to the Caribbean seafront, is one of two hotels that Starwood Hotels amp; Resorts Worldwide agreed to manage in a multimillion-dollar deal with Cuba in March.
For decades, such arrangements have been prohibited under the U.S. economic embargo of the Communist-ruled island. But while the embargo remains in place, the Obama administration has loosened restrictions on trade and investment since it announced a detente with Cuba in December 2014.
“This is a historic moment,” said Nancy Sarabia, public relations manager for the hotel, adding that the official inauguration would take place on Tuesday. She called the hotel “a symbol of brotherhood and collaboration.”
Starwood is the first U.S. company to commit major money to Cuba since Fidel Castro and his bearded rebels overthrew a pro-American government on Jan. 1, 1959.
The company said it would not close the 5th Avenue Hotel while it refurbished it, a process that would take several months. Workers were re-painting the lobby on Monday.
According to Starwood’s website, it will start operating state-owned Gran Caribe Inglaterra Hotel under its Luxury Collection brand on Aug. 31.
U.S. President Barack Obama has called the embargo a failure and Washington is increasingly issuing special permissions to companies to do business with Cuba.
Florida-based Stonegate Bank has received permission to issue credit cards for use in Cuba. On Monday, Cuba confirmed these could be used to withdraw cash in the country.
These examples remain exceptions to the rule. Only the U.S. Congress can completely remove the Cuba embargo, and the Republican majority leadership wants it in place as long as Cuba’s one-party state represses domestic political opponents and holds a media monopoly.
Many U.S. business executives see Cuba as a missed opportunity and have stepped up interest since the detente.
Among those are U.S. hotel chain executives, keen to get in on Cuba’s recent tourism boom.
Cuba had 1.5 million tourists visit in the first four months of 2016, up 13.5 percent from a year earlier, partly due to relaxed U.S. travel restrictions.
Those numbers are expected to balloon if the United States lifts its travel ban altogether.
At Gaviota 5th Avenue Hotel, bookings are already unavailable for several future dates, with rooms going for nearly $200 a night.
Castro nationalized the tourism industry after the revolution, but since then, Cuba has struck joint venture deals with several foreign hotel operators.
It will cost the Judiciary ¢55 million colones monthly to house 160 officials of the Constitutional Court in this office building in La Sabana
QCOSTARICA – It pays to be a landlord in Costa Rica, especially when your tenant is the government. In this case, the Constitutional Court signing a 12 year lease paying some ¢55 million colones monthly.
The office building “Impala” is located in Sabana Sur will house 160 officials of the Court, that will be moved from the Corte Suprema de Justicia (Supreme Court) building in downtown San Jose, for the lack of space.
Ana Isabel Romero, executive director of the Poder Judicial (Judiciary), confirmed the deal. “The lease agreement is firm,” said Romero.
The deal elevated the Court’s budget by ¢20 million monthly. Initially the deal negotiated was for a monthly rent of ¢35 million colones, but increased due to modifications required by the Judiciary. The total floor space is 3.442 square metres (37.000 square feet).
The public and at least one legislator is questioning the spending when times are tight and the government turning over rocks to find new sources of revenue
The Impala building was developed by Copiarte, a company headed by Juan Jose Wedel and built by Van der Laat & Jiménez, based on a design by Ossenbach, Pendones y Bonilla architects.
The news of the rental, which includes a purchase option if the Court by way of a trust with the Banco Improsa, has gone viral.
Some comments include, “WTF, the government spending this kind of money when times are tight and is looking for ways to get more from us” and “¢2 million a day!”.
In the political arena, Mario Redondo, legislator for the Alianza Demócrata Cristiana (ADC) party, had this to say, “The country is experiencing a fiscal crisis, resources are limited and the blanket (the budget) does not cover everything. This – for their cost – building does not seem an essential and urgent spending”.
“The judiciary should not turn a deaf ear to valid concerns,” insisted the legislator.
Maureen Boza, a monther of two, was crowned Mrs. Costa Rica last Saturday night
COSTA RICA EXTRA – The mother of two children, 33 year-old Maureen Boza was crowned Señora Costa Rica 2016 (Mrs. Costa Rica) at the Saturday night event held at the Croc’s Casino in Jacó.
The contest, in its 10th year, donated the proceeds of the event to the Fundación Pro Unidad de Cuidado Paliativo, a foundation since 2006 helping children and youths with terminal illnesses.
“I made the decision to participate in the competition once I learned of the cause it supports. That was the final push I needed to compete,” said Boza.
Boza explained that she had the support of family and friends who assured her she had the qualities, charisma and motivation.
In total, eleven ladies, all mothers and wives, from Guanacaste, Heredia, Pérez Zeledón, San José, and San Carlos, participated in the event.
The 11 contestants participating in the Señora Costa Rica event Saturday night at the Croc’s Casino in Jaco. Proceeds from the event went to the Fundación Pro Unidad de Cuidado Paliativo
The runway competition included a bathing suit and gala dress contest. The judges chose five finalists, Tatiana Argueta, Jennifer Villalobos, Michelle Jones, Yenny Soto, and Maureen Boza, to compete in a randon question answer session.
Finally, Boza took the crown and will now represent Costa Rica at the Mrs. Wold international competition to be held on October 5 in South Korea.
“I feel very happy, this contest is also about inner beauty. The whole process has been very spiritual, we are all very complete women, “said Boza.
Some 200 buses in the greater metropolitan area will be turned into rolling Wi-Fi hotspots starting in August
QCOSTARICA – Soon there will be another reason to ride the bus in the San Jose area: free internet.
Starting in August, buses on at least 10 routes in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) will turn into wi-fi hotspots for their passengers to connect.
The Subite logo will identify buses with free wi-fi onboard
The initiative is thanks to an agreement between Subite and Claro, which will equip some 200 buses.
The free internet will be available on the following routes: Cartago-San José, Alajuela-San José, Desamparados, Aserrí, Santo Domingo de Heredia, Tibás, San Pedro, Curridabat, Zapote, Hatillo, Alajuelita, Moravia, Guadalupe, Escazú and Santa Ana.
“The buses with free internet will be marked with the SUBITE logo,” said Luis Miguel Herrera, general manager of the company.
The buses (with free internet) will be equipped with news, information and educational content on flat screens.
With this initiative, Costa Rica joins the growing list of “smart cities” that have implemented free Wi-Fi in public transportation, such as in England, Spain, Portugal and the United States.
Do you ride the bus? Use the comment section below or post our Facebook page to tell why. Or why not.
1. Think twice before telling people you’re “American.”
People in the United States refer to themselves as “Americans” as if we own that label. Central and South Americans find this offensive as they too are “Americans” and most of their countries were founded before ours. If you refer to yourself as an “American”, you may get called a chele, which is a version of leche or milk (considered derogatory).
2. You can’t drive to the Caribbean coast (and it’s harder than you think to get around anywhere by car).
Driving in Nicaragua is like driving in many countries that are a combination of paved roads, unpaved almost-pathways, and lots of potholes. At some locations, children even stand ready with shovels and piles of small rocks to fill in the potholes for money for each driver to have a smoother ride (and then they empty the hole for the next person).
Highways or paved roads go to larger towns in Nicaragua and unpaved roads to smaller locales, but the decades of fighting between the U.S.-backed Contras and the Sandinistas from the 1960s through 1990 damaged the infrastructure necessary to drive to the Caribbean coast from Managua. This trip can now be made either by airplane or by riverboat down the Rio Escondido.
3. It’s not as unsafe here as other areas you’ve heard about in Central America.
The UN Development Program lists Nicaragua as the safest country in Central America (based on homicide rates). However, as in many places, petty, opportunistic crimes such as theft are common. Unregistered taxi drivers and other passengers have been known to rob tourists. Be alert and mindful and keep an eye on your belongings and pay attention to your surroundings.
4. Law 779 is the one to know, especially if you’re a woman.
Law 779 was passed in Nicaragua in June 2012 and it protects people against catcalling. Before the law passed, the verbal harassment of women was rampant, and victims of that and domestic violence had little recourse. Now, when a woman says “La Ley” to the catcaller or any other public harasser to get him to back off, it reminds him that he’s breaking the law.
5. Nicaraguan food mostly means red beans, rice, and maize.
Nicaraguan cuisine is a confluence of Spanish, Creole, and indigenous influences. Gallo Pinto is the most common dish (for breakfast, lunch, or supper), and it is literally red beans and white rice cooked separately and then combined and stir fried. On the coast it’s often prepared with coconut or coconut milk.
Corn is used not just in cooking (tortillas, tamales) or served twice cooked on the cob, but in drinks such as the fermented drink chica de jora (corn beer) and pinolillo (corn meal and cacao mixed with water or milk).
6. Be mindful of the way you give charity or volunteer.
One-of contacts or gifts often do little to help long-term, often only make the giver feel good but not the receiver. If you want to get involved seek out an already-existing organization that works within the communities, understands the culture, and is well respected by the locals.
Organizations like the Foundation for International Medical Relief for Children has a clinic in Limon, in the Pacific Lowlands region, which is fully integrated into the community. They focus on pediatric clinical services, health education and special projects, and all volunteers to help with these efforts.
Other potential NGOs with whom you can volunteer can be found here.
QHUMOUR – Looking for beers for the weekend? Better skip the local markets and head for the U.S. for good prices on Costa Rica made beers.
The photo of a six pack of “Imperial” talls in the United States for US$3.99 has gone viral on the social media.
Ironically, the same can of beer is almost ¢1.000 colones, that is ¢6.000 colones for a six pack in Costa Rica for a beer produced in Costa Rica.
To be fair, the beer sold in Costa Rica includes the tax, in the U.S. it does not.
One commentator on the social media suggested the high prices in Costa Rica is to reduce drunk driving in the country, making the beer expensive means less drinking by. “Imagine if they were cheap,” says the commentator.
In the first four months of the year foreign sales fell by 5.5% year-on-year, affected by lower volume and lower average international prices.
The Foreign Trade report by the Central Bank of Nicaragua said that exports in the mining sector contracted by 5.5% in the period from January to April compared with the same period in 2015, reaching $107.4 million.
In the case of gold, the report states that “…recovery was observed in the contracted price of gold, since it averaged $1243.4 per troy ounce in April 2016, the highest since February 2015. ” Laprensa.com.ni reports that “…This improvement, according to Raul Amador, a specialist in international markets is due to the uncertainty that has been seen in the international markets, which has forced investors to take refuge in that asset. ”
Amador said “…The sales price for gold has been rising and has remained in ranges of stability, what we have seen is that production levels have fallen in the country and thus affected income, which suggests that advantage is not being taken of the opportunity to do business in the upward trend seen.”
In this Wednesday, June 22, 2016, photo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Carl Vondrick looks through a protective door while standing next to a computer server cluster, right, on the MIT campus, in Cambridge, Mass. MIT says a computer that binge-watched TV shows such as “The Office,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Desperate Housewives” learned how to predict whether the actors were about to hug, kiss, shake hands or slap high-fives, a breakthrough that eventually could help the next generation of artificial intelligence function less clumsily. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, photo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Carl Vondrick looks through a protective door while standing next to a computer server cluster, right, on the MIT campus, in Cambridge, Mass. MIT says a computer that binge-watched TV shows such as “The Office,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Desperate Housewives” learned how to predict whether the actors were about to hug, kiss, shake hands or slap high-fives, a breakthrough that eventually could help the next generation of artificial intelligence function less clumsily. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
The Associated Press – Cambridge – Remember the Jetsons’ robot maid, Rosie? Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers think her future real-life incarnations can learn a thing or two from Steve Carell and other sitcom stars.
MIT says a computer that binge-watched YouTube videos and TV shows such as “The Office,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Desperate Housewives” learned how to predict whether the actors were about to hug, kiss, shake hands or slap high fives — advances that eventually could help the next generation of artificial intelligence function less clumsily.
“It could help a robot move more fluidly through your living space,” lead researcher Carl Vondrick told The Associated Press in an interview. “The robot won’t want to start pouring milk if it thinks you’re about to pull the glass away.”
Vondrick also sees potential health-care applications: “If you can predict that someone’s about to fall down or start a fire or hurt themselves, it might give you a few seconds’ advance notice to intervene.”
The findings — two years in the making at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory — will be presented at next week’s International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in Las Vegas.
Vondrick, a doctoral candidate focusing on computer vision and machine learning with grants from Google and the National Science Foundation, worked with MIT professor Antonio Torralba and Hamed Pirsiavash, now at the University of Maryland.
The trio wanted to see if they could create an algorithm that could mimic a human being’s intuition in anticipating what will happen next after two people meet.
To refine what’s known in artificial intelligence studies as “predictive vision,” they needed to expose their machine-learning system to video showing humans greeting one another.
Cue what Vondrick acknowledges were “random videos off YouTube.” Six hundred hours of them, to be precise.
The researchers downloaded the videos and converted them into visual representations — a sort of numerical interpretation of pixels on a screen that the algorithm could read and search for complex patterns.
They then showed the computer clips from TV sitcoms it had never seen before — interactions between “Big Bang Theory” stars Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) and Kaley Cuoco (Penny), for example — and asked the algorithm to predict one second later whether the two would hug, kiss, shake hands or high-five.
The computer got it right more than 43 percent of the time. That may not sound like much, but it’s better than existing algorithms with a 36 percent success rate. Humans make the right call 71 percent of the time.
In a video trailer of the study that showed the algorithm blowing it on a clip from “The Office,” the researchers quipped: “So it’s not perfect … still a long way to go.”
That likely will involve even more binge-watching. Six hundred hours of video sounds like a lot, but it’s not really that much. By the time we’re 10 years old, we’ve logged nearly 60,000 hours of waking-hours experience.
“Humans are really good at predicting the immediate future,” Pirsiavash, the team member now based in Baltimore, said Wednesday. “To have robots interact with humans seamlessly, the robot should be able to reason about the immediate future of our actions.”
Martial Hebert, director of the robotics institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the MIT study, called it “an important work.”
“Some argue that prediction is a central part of (artificial) intelligence,” Hebert said. “If you have a robot that can predict, you can map a deeper and more complicated understanding of the environment around it.”
The researchers’ biggest relief? The computer did all the binge-watching.
“We never had to watch the videos,” Vondrick said.
The official Costa Rica tourism website has tips for tourists to avoid traffic congestion.
QCOSTARICA – The import of vehicles in Costa Rica continues to grow significantly. In the first five months of the year a total of 67.992 vehicles, the majority new, were added to the number of vehicles circulating our collapsed roads network.
Traffic chaos in the Central Valley is no around the clock: morning, day, night and weekends. Photo from Govisitcostarica.com
Cheap(er) gasoline, which implies an increase in purchasing power and lower prices, a stable exchange rate and accessible credit, are the factors promoting a surge in vehicle ownership in the country.
Of the almost 68.000 vehicles arriving between January and May of this year, 32.000 were motorcycles. Of the total, 72% of the vehicle imports were new.
According to numbers provided by the Ministerio de Hacienda (Tax Department), of the 35.690 autos entering the country between January and May, 25.822 were new (21.321 autos and 4.501 trucks) and 9.868 used (8.966 autos and 902 trucks). Of the 32.308 motorcycles, 31.839 were new and 469 used.
Infographic by La Nacion. Source Ministerio de Hacienda (Tax Department
“Demand for new cars has been steady and is benefited by attractive bank loans,” Allan Sime, marketing director of Purdy Motor Costa Rica (exclusive Toyota dealer in Costa Rica), explained during the last Expomovil.
“The health of the US economy, interest rates, a good economic climate in the country and the relatively stable fuel prices are, among others, some of the factors that favour the purchases,” said Erick Xirinachs, regional marketing director of Grupo Q, the Hyundai dealer in the country.
The increase in vehicle imports is also good for the government coffers. Tax revenues from the imports include import taxes (duties), sales tax (13% applied to the retail price), higher Marchamo (circulating permit that includes property tax on vehicles) based on the tax value, and tax on fuel (some 50% of the price of fuel at the pumps is taxes).
The official Costa Rica tourism website has tips for tourists to avoid traffic congestion. Click here.
“Obviously everything that means that the (tax) collection grows, it will not be frowned upon by us (…),” said the Vice Minister of Finance, Fernando Rodriguez.
For the tax collectors, the revenue from the imported vehicles for the first five months of the year was ¢130 billion colones, representing 8% of total tax revenue for the period.
Of course, the negative result of the increase in imports is exacerbating traffic congestion. However, adding more vehicles on the roads is not the only factor.
Leonardo Merino, researcher for the Estado de la Nación, said the problem with traffic congestion is basically the city grew over the last 30 years, with build up areas more than doubling, expanding within the roads instractures built then, that is the same roads now.
Source: La Nacion, Visitcostarica.com, Ministerio de Hacienda
It’s the rainy season in Costa Rica and time for mosquitoes.
It’s the rainy season in Costa Rica. And the season for those pesky mosquitoes. It is important to practice mosquito prevention, especially for Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika viruses.
Most mosquitos are active at dawn and dusk. However, they can dine at any time of the day. Being dinner for a mosquito should not be one of top 10 things to do in Costa Rica. I won’t go into the what to do to prevent mosquito bites, rather in the Why mosquitoes bite some people more than others.
An article a few years back by Smithsonian.com says blood type, metabolism, exercise, shirt color and even drinking beer can make individuals especially delicious to mosquitoes.
The Smithsonian.com says you’re not alone. An estimated 20 percent of people, it turns out, are especially delicious for mosquitoes, and get bit more often on a consistent basis. And while scientists don’t yet have a cure for the ailment, other than preventing bites with insect repellent, they do have a number of ideas regarding why some of us are more prone to bites than others.
Here are some of the factors that could play a role:
Blood Type
Not surprisingly—since, after all, mosquitoes bite us to harvest proteins from our blood—research shows that they find certain blood types more appetizing than others. One study found that in a controlled setting, mosquitoes landed on people with Type O blood nearly twice as often as those with Type A. People with Type B blood fell somewhere in the middle of this itchy spectrum. Additionally, based on other genes, about 85 percent of people secrete a chemical signal through their skin that indicates which blood type they have, while 15 percent do not, and mosquitoes are also more attracted to secretors than nonsecretors regardless of which type they are.
Carbon Dioxide
One of the key ways mosquitoes locate their targets is by smelling the carbon dioxide emitted in their breath—they use an organ called a maxillary palp to do this, and can detect carbon dioxide from as far as 164 feet away. As a result, people who simply exhale more of the gas over time—generally, larger people—have been shown to attract more mosquitoes than others. This is one of the reasons why children get bit less often than adults, on the whole
Exercise and Metabolism
In addition to carbon dioxide, mosquitoes find victims at closer range by smelling the lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia and other substances expelled via their sweat, and are also attracted to people with higher body temperatures. Because strenuous exercise increases the buildup of lactic acid and heat in your body, it likely makes you stand out to the insects. Meanwhile, genetic factors influence the amount of uric acid and other substances naturally emitted by each person, making some people more easily found by mosquitos than others.
Skin Bacteria
Other research has suggested that the particular types and volume of bacteria that naturally live on human skin affect our attractiveness to mosquitoes. In a 2011 study, scientists found that having large amounts of a few types of bacteria made skin more appealing to mosquitoes. Surprisingly, though, having lots of bacteria but spread among a greater diversity of different species of bacteria seemed to make skin less attractive. This also might be why mosquitoes are especially prone to biting our ankles and feet—they naturally have more robust bacteria colonies.
Beer
Drinking beer in San Jose, Costa Rica
Just a single 12-ounce bottle of beer can make you more attractive to the insects, one study found. But even though researchers had suspected this was because drinking increases the amount of ethanol excreted in sweat, or because it increases body temperature, neither of these factors were found to correlate with mosquito landings, making their affinity for drinkers something of a mystery.
Pregnancy
In several different studies, pregnant women have been found to attract roughly twice as many mosquito bites as others, likely a result of the fact the unfortunate confluence of two factors: They exhale about 21 percent more carbon dioxide and are on average about 1.26 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than others.
Clothing Color
This one might seem absurd, but mosquitoes use vision (along with scent) to locate humans, so wearing colors that stand out (black, dark blue or red) may make you easier to find, at least according to James Day, a medical entomologist at the University of Florida, in commentary he gave to NBC.
Genetics
As a whole, underlying genetic factors are estimated to account for 85 percent of the variability between people in their attractiveness to mosquitoes—regardless of whether it’s expressed through blood type, metabolism, or other factors. Unfortunately, we don’t (yet) have a way of modifying these genes, but…
Natural Repellants
Some researchers have started looking at the reasons why a minority of people seem to rarely attract mosquitoes in the hopes of creating the next generation of insect repellants. Using chromatography to isolate the particular chemicals these people emit, scientists at the UK’s Rothamsted Research lab have found that these natural repellers tend to excrete a handful of substances that mosquitoes don’t seem to find appealing. Eventually, incorporating these molecules into advanced bug spray could make it possible for even a Type O, exercising, pregnant woman in a black shirt to ward off mosquitoes for good.
You never have to convince yourself to get in because the temperature is always just right.
QTRAVEL by Miles Demars-Rote – There are so many excuses to visit Costa Rica but here are 6 reasons you have to get here. Plus, 6 travel hacks…all that’s left is getting here.
Costa Rica is on everyone’s radar. Before I moved here, it was on mine too. I was attracted by the rainforest, the beaches, the weather, and of course, the sloths.
And don’t worry, I have a “sloth hack” for you to get up close and personal with one of these furry balls of magic.
But since living here for more than a year, there are so many more things I’ve discovered that are simply remarkable. And I’ve figured out ways to get the most out of each of them.
This list could very easily be 25 Reasons to Visit Costa Rica but I know Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That. So I’ve somehow managed to narrow it down to the Top 6.
Here are the top 6 Reasons you must visit Costa Rica & travel hacks to optimize your experience.
1. Reason: Happiest Place On Earth
According to the Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica ranks 1st out of 151 different countries based on measuring three different components: experienced well-being, life expectancy, & ecological footprint.
What’s so great about Costa Rica aren’t these measurements but what they induce. The culture is happier, less stressed, and (quite obviously) less rushed.
It is contagious. When you’re here, you find yourself succumbing to the same lifestyle and may even wonder, “What have I been rushing towards?”
Hack: Visit the Blue Zone
There have been 5 regions in the world identified as a “Blue Zone.” These rare places have been categorized as areas where people tend to live the longest. The Nicoya Penisula in Costa Rica is one of them.
There are several characteristics that indicate why people live longer here but instead of reading about it, come experience it. Maybe even stay a while. Who knows, you may even leave a little younger.
You could spend your entire trip just on the Nicoya Penisula and leave satisfied, but here are the top spots to see while you’re there: Montezuma, Nosara, & Tamarindo.
2. The Food
You can look for bananas in the jungle instead of aisles. Like the good old days of being human.
I don’t consider myself a foodie by any stretch of the imagination so I was taken by surprise when I found myself obsessing over the fruit. In fact, back in the States I didn’t even like pineapple, mango, or papaya. But they’re so good here I went from disliking a food to it being one of my all-time favorites.
Seriously, they’re that good. And fruitful. I often go on walks and come home with a dozen green or yellow mangos simply because they line the streets where I live in Manuel Antonio.
And let’s not forget about coconuts. You can buy fresh coconut water by the liter here for half the price in the States (and completely unprocessed), or purchase one right on the beach.
Of course, there are the traditional Costa Rican dishes you must try. Casado is a Costa Rican dish of rice, black beans, plantains, salad, & tortilla accompanied by your choice of meat or fish.
And don’t forget the gallo pinto. It literally translates to “spotted rooster” but don’t let the name scare you. The dish is just rice and beans. But also don’t assume that it’s *just* rice and beans. It will likely be the best rice and beans of your life.
Hack: Eat Coconut Meat
Coconut water is all the craze but what if I told you the meat was better for you than the water?
Now that’s what I call a snack with a view.
It can be become quite the chore to get it yourself but fortunately for you, there are professionals all around.
Purchase your coconut (‘pipa’, in Spanish) from a vendor and then sip on the water. When you’re done, ask the vendor to cut it in half for you.
Ever shopped for a coconut like this before?
Grab a spoon and enjoy the meal.
3. Affordability
Often times, traveling outside of the United States can be super expensive. But it’s actually relatively cheap to fly to Costa Rica.
A simple search online (google.com/flights) while I’m writing this shows me round trip tickets from Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica for $360, only $271 from Miami, and as low as $260 from Atlanta.
under30experiences-reason-visit-costa-rica-affordable
You can travel to paradise for the price of one car payment.
Not only is getting here affordable but lodging is reasonable as well. Hostels right on the beach are $15-$25 per night, while a standard hotel room will run you between $50-$80… which is not a bad price to pay for paradise.
Hack: Live in Paradise
Living here is affordable too. I’ve paid as little as $250/month for a brand new living space complete with a huge outdoor kitchen and yoga deck. Combine that with getting my groceries delivered by a local farmer for less than what I’d pay in the States and my total cost for food and lodging is about 1/8th of what I was used to shelling out every month. That means I could quadruple my cost of food and lodging here and it would still be half of what I was paying in San Diego.
So, perhaps it’s time for an extended vacation?
4. Beach Life
You never have to convince yourself to get in because the temperature is always just right.
Have you ever seen the jungle and the beach collide? It’s incredible. But there is more than seeing the green jungle meet the turquoise ocean…
The ocean water temperature averages between the high 70s & mid 80s which means it’s always the perfect temperature to swim in. It’s also famous for surfing and even if you’ve never even been on a board, it’s a great place to learn how to surf.
But one of my favorite reasons to visit Costa Rican beaches is how few people there are. Most beach destinations are packed with people and you’re lucky to find several square feet of sand to temporarily call your own.
Not here. There are so many miles of beach terrain to explore you will likely find yourself staring at one of the most remarkable things you’ve ever seen asking yourself, “Where is everyone?”
Even the most popular beaches have far less people than the well known spots in Southern California–and if you take the time to talk a quarter mile away from the crowd, you will find even more more space.
Hack: Visit Best Beach in Costa Rica
Costa Rica boasts some of the best beaches in the world… so how do you choose which one to go to?
Under30Experiences did the research and published The Best Beach in Costa Rica so you didn’t have to visit every beach to figure it out (although, that wouldn’t be a mistake).
The results showed Manuel Antonio beach in Costa Rica was frequently voted the top beach and it actually recently ranked as 1 of the top 15 beaches in the world.
It’s located just 2.5 hours from San Jose and is near other popular tourist destinations like Jaco, Playa Hermosa & Arenal.
Bonus Hack: Under30Experiences has a trip to Manuel Antonio priced at a crazy low rate of $645 for 5 days/4nights.
5. Biodiversity
We found this guy on one of our recent trips to Arenal, Costa Rica.
Even though Costa Rica only takes up .03% of the world’s land mass, it hosts an astounding 4% of the total species found on the planet!
According to the National Institute of Biodiversity, there are more than 500,000 species and–in an effort to protect them–more than 25% of the land in Costa Rica is protected. Which, as you probably know, is very rare these days given the amount of deforestation happening on a regular basis.
There are even hundreds of species in Costa Rica that you literally can’t find anywhere else on the planet…including the Scarlet Macaw. It is a place where Earth still feels wild and–in a strange way–makes you feel right at ‘home’ in the nature of the jungle.
Hack: Get Up Close & Personal With A Sloth
He’s perfect and his perfect name is Anikan.
I told you there was a sloth hack coming.
People from far and wide travel to Costa Rica in the hopes they will catch a glimpse of these magical animals but they’re not always in luck. It is the essence of the sloth to move slowly and remain undetected by their eagle predators in the sky so it can be very difficult to spot them with an untrained eye. Even if you are lucky to see one, they’ll likely be off in the distance and high up in a tree.
Fortunately for you, we have a way to get you up close and personal.
Kids Saving The Rainforest is a nonprofit organization (started by kids!) located just outside Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica and they’re dedicated to protecting the biodiversity in Costa Rica. They have orphaned 3 sloths and on their Wildlife Tour you get to see them face-to-face.
6. Pura Vida Vibe + Culture
Literally translated into English, Pura Vida means pure life but in Costa Rica, it is a way of living.
At its best, the Pura Vida lifestyle will have you slowing down, relaxing the on the beach, and wondering what it was you always felt rushed to do back at home. At its worst, you find yourself unable to get out of your hammock and actually do anything at all.
Costa Rican culture is welcoming, kind, & attractive. It’s also one of the only countries in the world with no standing army which, ironically, makes you feel pretty safe.
Hack: Get Cultured
One of the most important things you can do while traveling is learn about the country you are visiting.
What is the history? What are the people like? Where do the locals hang out?
Avoid posting up at an all-inclusive resort and sipping on Mojitos all day. Instead, immerse yourself in what it’s like to spend a day in the life as a Costa Rican and gain a true sense of the Pura Vida vibe.
After all, it is the Ticos & Ticas (name for Costa Ricans) that founded this way of living and there is a lot to learn from it.
Boom!
Now that you know some of the top reasons you should visit and how to make the most of them, you are officially ready to take a trip to Costa Rica.
Do you have another favorite spot or questions about Costa Rica? Drop a line in the comments!
P.S. Besides our trip to Manuel Antonio, we adventure to Arenal where we stay at at eco-resort and hike a volcano. It’s epic.
A team of volunteers cooks for African migrants living at a camp in their town of Paso Canoas, Costa Rica. Photo Rolando Arrieta /NPR
A team of volunteers cooks for African migrants living at a camp in their town of Paso Canoas, Costa Rica. Photo Rolando Arrieta /NPR
QCOSTARICA (NPR) It’s her moral duty. That’s the belief of Debora Matamoros Jiménez, who leads a volunteer cooking crew that, for two months, has fed the hundreds of African migrants stranded in Costa Rica and sheltered in makeshift tents in the town of Paso Canoas, where she lives.
Every week she and a half-dozen helpers from the local church back up a big truck loaded with pots of warm freshly cooked food: rice, beans, plantains, chicken.
“The Costa Rican government provides the food and it gives us lots of joy and happiness to cook it for them,” says Jimenez, a housewife and devout parishioner of the Catholic Church.
A woman builds a fire at a migrant camp on the Costa Rica-Panama border. The area has seen a recent surge of migrants coming from Africa, hoping to make it to the U.S.
It’s an unlikely destination for migrants from Africa, who say they’re from the two Congo states in Central Africa as well as Angola, Eritrea and Nigeria. Like other African migrants, they’re escaping violence or poverty. Many of them come by cargo ship, paying smugglers to get them on.
“It gives us lots of joy and happiness to cook … for them,” says Deborah Jiménez, who leads the volunteer cooking crew. Photo Rolando Arrieta/NPR
Some 800 have wound up in Costa Rica, unable to move further north because of the tightened borders of neighboring Nicaragua.
At the camp, heavy rains bring stagnant water and the air is rancid. But when the food comes, the fragrant aroma takes over as camp dwellers meander over and form two lines — one for women, the other for men. Kids walk straight up to the front of the line and are served first, followed by the women.
“What draws my attention the most is the pregnant women and the kids,” says Jiménez. “We just can’t ignore this.”
In recent weeks, the numbers have gone down at the Paso Canoas camp. Many of the migrants have been moved to other camps in Costa Rica. In Paso Canoa, about 100 remain.
“We were told earlier in the week that we didn’t have to cook anymore because they had all left,” Jiménez says. “But late last night I got a call asking if we could cook because there were at least 100 people still in the camp.”
Costa Rican officials, the Red Cross and other communities in Paso Canoas have stepped in to provide humanitarian aid, medical attention and food. Jiménez has also gotten clothing donations, disposable plates and utensils.
But keeping up with the donations and food provisions are becoming a burden for the residents of Paso Canoas — and for Costa Rica. Mauricio Herrara, the minister of communication, says his country is preparing for a long-term crisis, but the reality is they are not able to sustain this level of support without other countries stepping in to help.
“But anyway, they are human beings and they deserve all the respect and protection with dignity,” says Herrara.
In this food line at the Paso Canoas camp, everyone has gotten their fill and some have returned for a second and even a third plate. They are selective: Some ask for just beans and no rice or just chicken with a couple of juices to drink.
“We love it when they come back for more.” Jiménez says, with a big smile.
“And if they’re choosy about what they want, that’s fine too. After all they’ve been through it is OK if they want to be a little picky.
QBUSINESS – The multinational security solutions company has acquired the Costa Rican firm Circuito, with a plan to expand its business in the region, focu
From a statement issued by Tyco:
Tyco announced today that it has acquired Circuito SA, a leading firm in electrical design engineering with operations in Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico. For more than 40 years Circuito has excelled in providing electromechanical engineering design, project development, field supervision and commissioning in the industrial, commercial, and hospitality sectors, and other market sectors in Central America.
“There is a greater need, on the part of our customers, for more complex integrations. Circuito will improve the ability of Tyco to offer a higher level of integration to our customers in Latin America, with the highest level of service,” said Osvaldo San Martin, President of Tyco Latin America. “The Circuito workforce, highly qualified and experienced in design and engineering, combined with Tyco’s comprehensive product portfolio creates a unique combination of solutions to help our customers with their growing needs. This strategic acquisition reinforces our commitment to the region and to customers.”
QCOSTARICA – This week learned, while Costa Rica and Nicaragua are locked into a diary war, the Costa Rican dairy producer Cooperativa de Productores de Leche R.L., known as “Dos Pinos”, in 2015 purchased the industrial plant La Completa with the aim of strengthening its presence in a market, the company says, they have room to promote greater consumption of dairy products and further developdairy farming.
The purchase of the plant located in Chontales, for an undisclosed amount, was completed in August last year, but was not announced at the time in Costa Rica, where high production costs have prompted several companies to move their operations to Nicaragua.
Francisco Arias, manager of Corporate Relations and Livestock of Dos Pinos as said “we kept in confidence”.
Since last month (May), Costa Rica has prevented the entry of products from two plants owned by the Mexican plant, Lala and in what is believed to be a retaliatory action, Nicaraguan health authorities have blocked the entry of products from Dos Pinos and two other companies.
Colombia’s transport minister said authorities have seized more than 1,200 vehicles of taxi service Uber amid a campaign to clamp down on “illegal” competition in transport.
According to Transport Minister Jorge Eduardo Rojas, authorities “have been carrying out a crash plan to control the streets and what is happening in terms of illegality.”
As a consequence, the minister said, authorities throughout Colombia have confiscated 962 vehicles working with Uber and 253 working with Uber X.
President Juan Manuel Santos in November last year gave US transport company Uber six months to register as a formal company in Colombia or be banned from the South American country.
After the company failed to meet this deadline, the government banned the service and began to actively shut down the taxi app’s operations in the South American country.
The operations have infuriated Uber, which accused the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos of protection of an alleged monopoly held by the various taxi services in Colombia’s largest cities.
“No new player can offer this luxury service under the current conditions as all the quota are monopolized.”
Uber Colombia
The San Fransico-based Uber, which has labor or regulatory conflicts with governments across the globe, said that “we believe in the freedom of movement and we defend the citizens’ right to choose.
Notwithstanding, the company has refused to formally register as a company in Colombia, while employing drivers as “associates.”
In spite of its allegedly illegal service, Uber can count on significant support among urban Colombians who have long complained about the quality of taxi services, particularly in the capital Bogota.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday celebrated a bilateral ceasefire ending 52 years of violence between the state and FARC rebels and called on the international community to support pending peace efforts.
In a statement, Kerry applauded President Juan Manuel Santos, who has been politically responsible for the talks between the state and the rebels.
“Today’s announcement regarding the ‘end of conflict’ in Colombia is welcome news to the people of that country and to all who desire peace,” said Kerry.
Additionally, “President Santos deserves credit for his courage, leadership, and unwavering commitment to peace,” Kerry said.
The US Secretary of State reiterated his support for the peace process that has been attended by the State Department’s Special Envoy Bernard Aronson since early 2015.
Aronson, a senior Democrat diplomat, assisted in Thursday’s ceremony.
Kerry asked US Congress and the international community “to join in supporting the people of” Colombia “as they continue to make progress towards a just and lasting peace.”
The Colombian government has been seeking international aid to finance a peace process, victim compensation and a wide range of reforms aimed at preventing further political violence in the South American country.
US President Barack Obama earlier this year promised an increase in US aid to Colombia, which still needs to be ratified by Congress.
Stonegate has issued about 500 cards, mainly to Cuban Americans who travel to their homeland and American businesses interested in the Caribbean island, Tania Fernandez, manager of the bank’s Havana office said in a news briefing outside the event hosted by Miami-based International Money Transfer Conference.
HAVANA – A large “Four Points by Sheraton” sign has gone up outside the Havana hotel that this week becomes the first in Cuba to operate under a U.S. brand since the 1959 revolution.
