Costa Rica: Technicians Better than Post Graduates

The need for staff with technical rather than academic skills continues to grow in the field of technology and communications. A study by the Chamber of Information Technology and Communication concludes that only 2% of companies in the technology sector in the country plan to hire professionals with a PhD, while only 32% said they expected to hire graduates.
It is not only technical or professional training which is crucial when recruiting staff in technology. Bilingualism is also a factor along with the need for soft skills. 'This is a sector that has approached the US market, of course I know English will be important (...). However, knowledge of a third or fourth language also generates value added.'
Nacion.com reports that "... Sectoral mapping also revealed that the companies plan to hire technicians and diploma holders in software development (22%), web development (15%) and other areas such as metrology, data base management, marketing, precision mechanics and maintenance. "
Source: Nacion.com

Tourism competition with Cuba seems to be nearing

The U.S. Treasury says new rules relaxing restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba will be implemented beginning today. Under the new rules, Americans will not need to apply for a license to be able to travel to Cuba for any of a dozen approved reasons, including family visits, education, and humanitarian and religious work. Travel agents and airlines will be allowed to provide authorized services without a license. But general tourism to Cuba remains banned. But maybe not for long. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama would like to see all travel restrictions removed. “However, there are limits on what the president can change in that relationship using his executive authority," Earnest said. "So we certainly would welcome congressional action that would make it possible for people to travel to Cuba solely for the purposes of spending time on the beach in Cuba.” Starting today, that commercial activity will expand. U.S. travelers will be allowed to import up to $400 worth of goods purchased in Cuba for personal use, including $100 worth of tobacco and alcohol. The new rules will also raise a limit on remittances. Americans will be able to send up to $8,000 to Cuba a year, up from $2,000 previously, and take $10,000 with them when they travel to the country. They will also be able to use credit and debit cards. As a result of the action by the U.S.

president, United Airlines said Thursday that it planned to serve Cuba with flights from Houston and Newark, New Jersey, subject to government approvals. Other airlines are likely to follow. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways said they would look into adding services. Cuba is just 90 miles from the U.S. coastline, and its beaches rival any in the world. The country already hosts 3 million tourists a year, compared to the 2 million who come to Costa Rica. And the statistics here include some 400,000 Nicaraguans. Cuba has a sophisticated medical tourism business and there also is a thriving sex tourism industry, one of Costa Rica's mainstays. Prices are considerably lower in Cuba, too, when compared to Costa Rica. Plenty of U.S. citizens travel there now, but those who were not endorsed by the U.S. government faced massive fines if caught. Under the new rules, there also are restrictions, but U.S. official are likely to look the other way. Many U.S. citizens visit Cuba via México and even Costa Rica.  They make sure Cuban officials do not stamp their passports.

Victory by Solís was nothing less than a landslide

Luis Guillermo Solís promises an open government, free of corruption with the participation of citizens with economic development, respect for nature and social equality. The speech with a central theme of change was before his supporters at Plaza Roosevelt  San Pedro.




Preliminary results from Sunday night showed Acción Ciudadana had garnered 77.8 percent of the votes compared to 22.15 percent for Liberación Nacional. 

Still, nearly half of the country's registered voters abstained from filling out ballots, according to the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones.

While the president elect again echoed the virtues of change he carried throughout his campaign, he said this was a historic moment of transition for Costa Rica.

Expat banking woes

House panel asked to consider expat banking woes

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is being asked to hold hearings on the problems Americans are having overseas with banking. Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Rep. Mick Mulvaney have asked the committee to investigate reports of Americans Overseas being denied banking access, both foreign and domestic, as a byproduct of new legislation and Patriot Act regulations. The main concern is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act that threatens foreign banks if they do not report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service about their American clients. Many banks simply have closed bank accounts held by Americans instead of complying with the reporting requirements. Mulvaney and Ms. Maloney head what is known as the House Americans Abroad Caucus. Their request for a hearing was reported by the American Citizens Abroad, Inc., an expat advocacy organization that has been deeply involved in lobbying Congress to loosen restrictions on overseas banking by Americans who live outside the country. Another expat advocacy organization, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, notes that the Americans Abroad Caucus, a bi-partisan, bi-cameral caucus is designed to represent the interests of Americans living overseas,  Ms.

Maloney is a New York Democrat, and Mulvaney is a South Carolina Republican. Both expat advocacy organizations have been gathering reports of problems Americans are having in banking. They also have offered some changes in legislation that would reduce their problems. For example they have said Congress should treat expats who live overseas different from U.S. citizens who simply stash money in an overseas account. The banking problems have been going on since at least 2008. In the U.S. banking institutions frequently have trouble with overseas customers because they cannot easily comply with the know-your-client rules. Overseas American citizens are consequently being denied the basic right to maintain normal commercial relationships with their country, says the Association of Americans Resident Overseas. American Citizens Abroad said that it has been compiling testimonials from Americans who have been faced with issues of financial lock-out and looks forward to working with both Ms. Maloney and Mulvaney to help educate the legislature, IRS and Treasury Department on the problems and to identify potential solutions.

Police Officials Sentenced For Drug Trafficking

Costa Rica Police Officials Sentenced For Drug Trafficking

Seven Costa Rican police officers have been sentenced to 22 years in prison for drug trafficking. Their convictions are more evidence of the increasing influence of criminal organizations on the very institutions in Costa Ricaresponsible for fighting trafficking.

The seven members of the Fuerza Pública (national police force) were convicted of international drug trafficking and embezzlement. Another Costa Rican national who was convicted as part of the same case was a member of the Coast Guard until just a year before his arrest.

These crimes were committed in collusion with a Colombian drug trafficking organization. The same organization is suspected of trafficking several major cocaine shipments seized by authorities, including one shipment of 1,441 kilos intercepted in July 2009, 382 kilos last August, and 700 kilos last September.

InSight Crime Analysis
Costa Rica is becoming more important to smuggling operations through Central America. Authorities in May 2011 noted that land routes through Costa Rica are increasingly important as drug trafficking organizations are forced to abandon air and sea routes through Panama due to a crackdown by authorities there. The head of the JudicialInvestigation Police (OIJ) warned last December that Costa Rica has gone from being a transit point for drug shipments to being a center of negotiation between Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations.

Proof of increased smuggling operations point to this new reality of a greater criminal influence in the country. This past February, Costa Rican law enforcement seized a single shipment of two tons of cocaine, the largest bust in six years, from boats off the Pacific Coast. In the first four months of 2012, four tons of cocaine were seized at oneborder crossing, the same amount seized in all of the country in the last six months of 2011.

As InSight has reported, criminal organizations are building stronger relationships with security forces in Costa Rica. The amount of narcotics seized in the past year suggests that these organizations are getting more confident that these connections will facilitate large shipments and keep them from being intercepted. It is also very likely that there have been large single shipments like the one seized in February that have gone unnoticed byauthorities.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla correctly identified the problem in an interview late last year, saying, “This has to do with the institutions, and what [drug cartels] do is corrupt institutions to disrupt the legal system and the rule of law... I don’t remember in our whole history a menace like this menace from organized crime.”