Author: allthingspanama.net

Property owners in Costa Rica who rent accommodations through popular platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com will soon face a new tax obligation. The General Directorate of Taxation (DGT) announced that a 12.75% tax will apply to rental income generated through these digital platforms, starting at the end of 2026. By that time, tax authorities expect to receive detailed …

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Celso Manuel Gamboa Sánchez, once a top Costa Rican security minister and judge, now sits in a maximum-security prison cell awaiting possible extradition to the United States. Authorities there have charged him with helping international drug networks move massive amounts of cocaine through Costa Rica and into the U.S. for sale. A federal grand jury …

Read more “Former Costa Rican Minister Indicted in US on Drug Trafficking Charges”

When it comes to viewing wildlife in person, timing is everything. There’s a great big world out there and the chances of you being in the exact right spot at the ideal time are slim to none. My camera traps provide me with constant proof that animals are moving throughout the environment during all hours …

Read more “Good Timing Leads to Rare Snake Encounter in Costa Rica”

In a Guatemalan town reeling from recent earthquakes, residents took matters into their own hands on Thursday night, lynching five men they accused of looting empty homes. The violence unfolded in Santa Maria de Jesus, the hardest-hit area in Sacatepequez department, where tremors up to 5.7 magnitude have claimed seven lives since Tuesday and left …

Read more “Vigilante Justice in Quake-Hit Guatemala Town Claims Five Lives”

Juan Santamaría International Airport will become the first in Central America to implement a specialized protocol to prevent, detect, and respond to cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, a serious global crime with particularly alarming levels in the Americas, where socioeconomic vulnerability increases children’s risk. This protocol marks a new phase, with …

Read more “Costa Rica Airport Pioneers Central America’s First Child Exploitation Prevention Protocol”

Emerson Colindres had just finished high school when he was sent back to Honduras by the United States, a country that he had called home since he was eight years old. Now, like many other young deportees who emigrated to the United States as children, he is struggling to adapt to life in a homeland …

Read more “Honduran teen deported by US feels like foreigner in native country”

Francisco Martínez Domínguez, the mayor of San Isidro, a small municipality in Honduras, was brutally killed in Siguatepeque, about 90 km north of Tegucigalpa. The 45-year-old was seeking re-election under the opposition National Party in the upcoming November 30 elections. His death has shocked the community and raised questions about violence in Honduras, though police …

Read more “Honduras Mayor Murdered in Motel Ambush Stirs Outrage”

The Limón branch of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the alleged construction of an airstrip inside the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge, as well as possible crimes of illegal logging and changes in land use affecting forested areas, as confirmed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The site under investigation is located at the southern end …

Read more “Illegal Airstrip Allegedly Built in Costa Rica’s Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge”

Nicaragua has increased its “harassment and retaliation” against exiled journalists and their families who remain in the country, according to a report published Thursday by the NGO Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED). The document also states that the murder of former Nicaraguan military officer Roberto Samcam, committed on June 19 in San …

Read more “Exiled Nicaraguan Journalists in Costa Rica Face Growing Harassment”

According to the most recent demographic study, over 20% of all US citizens are classified as within the Boomer age range. Every year, many decide to make Costa Rica their part-time or full-time home. While they inject money into the local economies, they also ratchet up the cost of living with each new expat arrival. …

Read more “Are Boomers Changing Costa Rica? One Expat’s Unfiltered Take”