Social Conservative lawmakers lashed out at President Luis Guillermo Solís’ decision to fly the rainbow flag of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement Friday, saying that that the leader’s decision “provoked” Christian politicians.
Two weeks ago, before leaving on a trip to the country's distant Isla del Coco, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla stood before the press at the Caldera Coast Guard base in the country's central Pacific and discussed her legacy in marine conservation.
This case just keeps getting more bizarre by the minute. Now taxpayers will have to foot the bill for 650 shark fins seized from a finning boat in 2011, as well as the defendant's legal fees. So ordered Puntarenas Judge Franklin Lara.
Kathy Tseng, a Taiwanese-Costa Rican businesswoman, was absolved Monday in a Puntarenas court on charges of illegally landing 652 shark fins on a Costa Rican dock in 2011. According to prosecutors and ocean conservation groups, the landmark ruling by a Puntarenas judge has opened multiple loopholes for finners looking to skirt the law.
Long-awaited changes could be coming to the country's fishing regulatory agency, Incopesca. President Laura Chinchilla sent a bill to the Legislative Assembly last week that, if passed, would eliminate Incopesca's controversial board of directors.
Carrying signs, horns and noisemakers, hundreds of shrimp fishermen marched outside the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday to protest the permanent expiration of another shrimp trawling license following the country's trawling ban.
Ocean conservation group MarViva filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court onThursday, alleging that the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute illegally renewed three shrimp trawling licenses following a court order not to do so. Incopesca denies the allegations.
The case started in 2011, when a boat belonging to the case’s defendant, Taiwanese-Costa Rican Kathy Tseng Chang, docked in Puntarenas, on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast. Fishermen on Tseng’s boat had allegedly carved out all of the meat, bones and innards of 36 sharks, leaving only the spinal column with the fins attached by strips of skin.
