President Luis Guillermo Solís' proposed 2016 budget is 0.5 percent greater than the ₡7.9 trillion ($14.5 billion) 2015 budget, the largest ever in Costa Rican history.
The bill would reform several articles of the family code to formally recognize “stable" relationships of more than three years between two people, regardless of their “sex, identity, sexual orientation or choice” with all the personal and property protections of legal marriage.
Presidency Minister Sergio Alfaro Salas told reporters that Casa Presidencial will focus its strategy on building consensus on bills that could be passed, but the ambitious agenda will have to contend with a recalcitrant legislature that has shown little interest cooperating with President Luis Guillermo Solís.
Members of the Legislative Assembly's Commission on Public Income and Expenditures on Monday scrutinized the manner in which state-owned Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) appointed its current general manager and two assistant managers.
President Luis Guillermo Solís addressed the nation Sunday evening in a televised speech urging lawmakers to keep his proposed 2015 budget largely intact as a general strike by public sector unions against budget cuts loomed Monday.
Costa Rica’s new ombudswoman, Montserrat Solano Carboni, has her work cut out for her: At least 730 pending complaints have accumulated since the resignation of Ofelia Taitelbaum on July 7.
