drowned tourists

In 2018, 129 people drowned in Costa Rica, according to Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).

The Costa Rican tricolor flew at half mast in observance of a national day of mourning Monday for the drowning of Costa Rican tourists in the Corn Islands.

The ship sank off Nicaragua's Little Corn Island in the Caribbean.

The Coast Guard is boosting surveillance after receiving several reports of small boats in the Pacific transporting large numbers of tourists without providing minimum security measures and without insurance policies. One company is disputing those allegations.

The National Coast Guard Service on Saturday recovered the body of a 52-year-old U.S. tourist who drowned while swimming off Flamingo Beach, in the province of Guanacaste.

Costa Rica is known around the world for its picturesque beaches, but there are no laws that require lifeguards on its sandy shores, forcing local communities to scrape together the funds to train and employ their own. Without more resources for beach safety, experts say that preventable drowning deaths will continue.

The Judicial Investigation Police and U.S. Embassy in San José confirmed the man’s identity as 34-year-old Ibrahim Karadsheh.

The missing U.S. man was swimming on Jacó’s main beach Sunday when a riptide pulled him out to sea, according to Red Cross spokesman Freddy Roman. The body was spotted more than 2 miles out to sea by a Aerial Vigilance Service search-and-rescue flight Friday morning.

Four other occupants of the boat were rescued by Coast Guard officials and taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

A report on the joint team’s findings will be presented to Costa Rican authorities in five to seven months.