No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeNewsletterCosta Rica promises to compensate sickened banana workers

Costa Rica promises to compensate sickened banana workers

Costa Rica has agreed to pay the medical bills and other compensation for some 12,000 banana workers and their relatives suffering lingering effects of exposure to pesticides in the 1960s and ’70s.

The workers and their relatives were sickened after being exposed to the chemical Nemagon while toiling in Costa Rica’s banana plantations.

Vice President Ana Gabriel Zúñiga late Tuesday announced the decision to make the payments after meeting with representatives of the affected workers.

“This is a historical debt owed by the government,” she said. “The government is committed to once and for all resolve the situation for the affected families.”

Between 1967 and 1979, thousands of laborers who worked in banana plantations owned by multinational corporations in Costa Rica and elsewhere in Central America were exposed to Nemagon, a pesticide linked to sterility, cancer, miscarriage and genetic deformities.

After a long legal battle, victims of the pesticide in Costa Rica succeeded in getting lawmakers to pass a measure promising compensation for continuing ill effects from the chemical, but a decade and a half later they are still waiting to be paid.

Tuesday’s meeting was held after Costa Rica’s Supreme Court last month ordered the government to take steps to resolve the matter.

Trending Now

Costa Rica Surf Film Festival Honors ‘Pura Vida Bodysurfing’ with Top Audience Award

Pura Vida Bodysurfing is an award-winning short film that strips surfing back to its essence—riding waves without a surfboard. Filmed across Costa Rica’s legendary...

Internet Cut in Panama Near Costa Rica Border Amid Bocas del Toro Unrest

Panamanian authorities suspended internet and mobile phone services on Saturday in the Caribbean province of Bocas del Toro, following President José Raúl Mulino’s declaration...

Panama Vows Constitutional Action Amid Worsening Bocas del Toro Unrest

Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino announced Thursday that he will take “constitutional measures” to stop the wave of protests and road blockades affecting the...

Celso Gamboa Allegedly Ran Drug Ring with Costa Rican Government Ties

Celso Gamboa, once Costa Rica’s Security Minister and a Supreme Court judge, now faces extradition to the U.S. for leading a major cocaine trafficking...

Costa Rica’s President Chaves Accused of Illicit Campaign Financing

On Monday, Costa Rica’s Prosecutor’s Office formally accused President Rodrigo Chaves along with six high-ranking officials and pro-government legislators of allegedly engaging in illicit...

El Salvador Extradites Lev Tahor Members to Israel, Guatemala Over Child Abuse Charges

El Salvador has extradited two members of the Lev Tahor sect—an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse—to Israel and Guatemala,...
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica