#costa-rica-presidential-election

#costa-rica-presidential-election

The so-called troika of tyranny in Latin America, the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, was always a misleading oversimplification. Despite sharing some common elements due to their authoritarian resilience, 21st-century dictatorships were never a homogeneous bloc.

Official data reveals a significant discrepancy: while intelligence reports identified 58,270 gang members and collaborators at large, authorities have arrested 91,628 people, meaning over 33,000 were not previously listed as gang members.

Costa Rica is sending a strong message: no one can use our nationality to evade justice, Attorney General Carlo Diaz said. This is a historic day.

The intimate nature of small group travel strikes the perfect balance between structured guidance and personal freedom, allowing you to experience Costa Rica's wonders while connecting with like-minded adventurers. You'll gain access to local insights that guidebooks miss, share transportation costs, and enjoy the camaraderie of others who appreciate the same natural wonders you do.

Perched high above the Pacific coastline in Bahía Ballena, Costa Rica, Ojo de Nila is a house that feels less like an object placed on land and more like a continuation of it. Designed by Studio Saxe, with interiors by Atelier Sandra Richard, the home was created for a Swiss couple seeking a slower, more elemental way of living shaped by air, light, and landscape rather than mechanical systems and rigid enclosures. A clear modular logic guides the architecture.

I think we are in a transition process. It's happening in stages. Sometimes we don't see that certain preconditions must be met for this electoral process to take place. The United States, which has become a key player in domestic politics, has said so. Marco Rubio confirmed it in his meeting with the Caribbean countries: we are heading towards an electoral consultation.

In Emilio Pena Delgado's home, several photos hang on the wall. One shows him standing in front of a statue with his wife and oldest son in the centre of San Jose and smiling. In another, his two sons sit in front of caricatures from the film Cars. For him, the photos capture moments of joy that feel distant when he returns home to La Carpio, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Costa Rica's capital.

It was not just another bombastic statement in the Republican's provocative style it was the first visible sign of a policy that once again places the region under U.S. oversight. Trump revived old interventionist instincts by interfering in Honduras's presidential election and threatening to cut aid to Central American governments as leverage to force them into agreements aimed at curbing migration.

The operation, illegal according to international law, marks the latest in a long history of US interventions in Latin America, often justified by Washington with claims of regional security. Many of these interventions can be traced back to the Monroe Doctrine, a foreign policy principle which despite its 19th century origins has continued to influence US foreign policy over the past 200 years.

Although conciliatory, he reveals a persistent unease with a segment of the opposition that, he says, has judged him harshly. Capriles, an opposition leader, former mayor, former governor, and former presidential candidate, is concerned that the new political moment spoken of by interim president Delcy Rodriguez results in nothing more than an oil deal. He insists that without trustworthy institutions and freedoms, elections will change nothing.

The world's largest pencil maker has accused the Costa Rican government of misusing an old factory that the German manufacturer donated for humanitarian purposes by detaining asylum seekers there who were deported from the US by the Trump administration last year. Faber-Castell produces more than 2bn wooden pencils a year worldwide and used to have a factory in the southern part of Costa Rica, bordering Panama and supplied by trees cultivated in the region.