Some 200 representatives of tourism chambers and associations, entrepreneurs and professionals are meeting this week at the 18th National Tourism Congress to discuss key issues to improve Costa Rica's status as a popular tourist destination.
The National Insurance Institute begins collecting payments today for mandatory vehicle circulation permits, known as marchamos, from an estimated 1.2 million auto owners across the country. The deadline to pay the marchamo is Dec. 31.
More than 1,500 dockworkers affiliated with the union SINTRAJAP went on strike for 16 days, yet the Atlantic Port Authority's (JAPDEVA) board of directors on Wednesday voted to pay them full wages for their time away from the job. In response, the Libertarian Movement Party's top lawmaker, Otto Guevara, on Thursday filed a criminal complaint alleging embezzlement against JAPDEVA’s Executive President Anne McKinley and other top officials at the agency.
Costa Rica's Agriculture and Livestock Minister Luis Felipe Arauz confirmed Thursday morning that crops of carrots, cabbage, onions, cauliflower and potatoes grown north of the province of Cartago “have not been severely affected by the Turrialba Volcano’s activity.”
The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, or Sala IV, this week ruled unconstitutional several articles of Costa Rica's Traffic Law that obligate motorists to register an email address in order to receive notifications of fines and other information from the Roadway Safety Council.
The Roadway Safety Council reported that it will briefly close sections of two highways to install pedestrian bridges. On Wednesday night, Route 32, which connects San José with the Caribbean province of Limón, will be closed for four hours beginning at 10 p.m. A stretch of the Inter-American Highway in the southern Pacific region will be closed at noon on Thursday and will reopen at midnight Friday.
Costa Rica will send China a new proposal by the end of the month for a revised contract to expand Route 32, which connects San José with the country's Caribbean port city of Limón, Public Works and Transport Minister Carlos Segnini said Tuesday.
The report, “Suicide Mortality in the Americas: Regional Report,” released in late October, includes data from 48 countries and states that Central America has the lowest suicide rates behind South America and North America.
Costa Rica's Roadway Safety Council, or COSEVI, is developing a "National Plan for Motorcyclists" that aims to reduce by 20 percent the number of fatalities in the next six years.
