Keys to the first round, doubts about round two
2018 Marzo Costa Rica
In his bid for the presidency, neo-Pentecostal Congressman Fabricio Alvarado burst onto Costa Rica’s electoral scene by obtaining a majority in the...

A phantom is roaming the planet
2018 Febrero Internacional
Many of us were hoping the 21st century would be a leap toward something new, toward a certain universal consciousness that would lead the planet beyond...

Does the new government have a new way of doing politics?
2014 Junio Costa Rica
Costa Rica decided to change: that’s the phrase that worked its way into the Costa Rican self-image after the surprising victory of the Citizen’s Action...

Winds of change blowing among surprises
2014 Marzo Costa Rica
Costa Rica is experiencing winds of change. Over three decades of bipartisan political order, during which power was divvied up between the National...

Eight months before the next elections, is the country really “Pura vida”?
2013 Junio Costa Rica
A sizable group of Costa Ricans lined the General Cañas freeway on May 3, waving little flags and applauding the imposing US presidential caravan as...

From Calero Island to the “Dirt Road”
2012 Noviembre Costa Rica
The dredging of Nicaragua’s San Juan River, whose southern bank forms the border with Costa Rica, got underway in October 2010 and went on into 2011....

Chinchilla’s Victory Seals Twenty Years of Rightwing Politics
2010 Marzo Costa Rica
The morning of October 28, 2009, was a remarkable one in San José. The traffic heading towards the Zapote district was considerably slower than usual....

Insecurity in Reality, the Media and Our Self-Image
2008 Agosto Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, as in so many other countries unfortunately, the security issue has become the raw material for prejudices and hasty conclusions. Phenomena...

Ticaraguans: Bi-national Identities on the Liquid Border
2007 Noviembre Nicaragua
Feet run across the line. There’s no reason to feart heir murmur. What are they taking, what are they bringing? I don’t know. What’s important...

Media Positions on the CAFTA Referéndum
2007 Septiembre Costa Rica
The first referendum in Costa Rica’s history will be held on October 7 to decide whether or not to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement...

Reforms to the Migratory Law: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2007 Junio Costa Rica
Called a repressive, draconian law by Costa Rica’s President himself, the new Migration and Alien Affairs Law will be a year old as of August. In that...

The Country Oscar “the Eagle” Arias Will Be Flying Over
2006 Mayo Costa Rica
The neoliberal implant that has been laying waste to Latin America since the 1980s has been less orthodox in both Costa Rica and Uruguay than anywhere...

Nicaragua’s Indispensable Migrants and Costa Rica’s Unconscionable New Law
2006 Abril Costa Rica
Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica is nothing new. It goes back at least a hundred years, with the numbers of migrants and their motives fluctuating...

La Carpio: Sensationalist Reporting and Clear Voices
2005 Enero Costa Rica
A sprawling community called La Carpio has sprung up northeast of San José’s central canton. It is home to some 23,000 people, about half of them impoverished...

“Pardon me, I haven’t come to make trouble”
2004 Mayo Costa Rica
On nearly 400 occasions over the past two and a half years, César Meléndez has lived and relived the role of ”El Nica” in a two-hour monologue performed...

Are We Costa Ricans “Exceptional”?
2004 Enero Costa Rica
Relations between Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans in Costa Rica have developed like a three-act play. Act One: Some intellectuals postulate that immigration—especially...

Costa Rican Democracy on the Edge
2002 Mayo Costa Rica
By the middle of the last decade, Costa Rica had acquired at least one common denominator with other Latin American countries: the rock-bottom credibility...

Figueres Succumbs to Neoliberal Orthodoxy
1995 Agosto Costa Rica
Those who study Costa Rica's political system have an objective foundation. This country's model of liberal bourgeois democracy is the least limited...

Interview with Figueres: We Want 'Costa Rican Development
1994 Abril Costa Rica
The electoral triumph of National Liberation Party candidate Figueres opens new perspectives in the region. It is another setback for the neoliberal...

The End of Passivity
1992 Abril Costa Rica
"Calderón promised to eliminate the poor, and he's doing it; he's starving us all to death." This popular joke, repeated almost daily on the streets...

Showcase for Democracy and Economic Reformism?
1990 Mayo Costa Rica
Despite other, more earth-shaking events in the world in 1989, Costa Ricans' attention was on the country's election campaign during most of the year....

Costa Rican Follies
1989 Abril Costa Rica
As the Oliver North trial in Washington revealed details of Costa Rica's covert role in the contra war, corruption and drug scandals at high levels...

Arias Beats Around the Bush
1989 Febrero Nicaragua
The Central American presidential summit known as Esquipulas IV, scheduled for January 14-15, was cancelled for the fourth time since August 1988. In...

Between Dignity and Submission
1988 Marzo Centroamérica
Three factors shaped Costa Rica's year in 1987: the Esquipulas peace process and the related awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Oscar Arias;...