Yearbook 2007
Costa Rica. On November 7, the government won by a marginal majority a referendum on the free trade agreement with the United States that President Oscar Arias pledged to allow Costa Rica to join. The agreement means, among other things, that Costa Rica can join the Central American Customs Union and that the monopoly in the telecommunications and insurance industries must be broken, creating strong protests among employees in these governmental sectors to date. The main opposition to the agreement, the center-left party Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), first threatened to block a series of government proposals in Congress but later withdrew.
- According to abbreviationfinder: CR is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Costa Rica.
According to CountryAAH, San Jose is the capital city of Costa Rica. Vice President and Minister of Justice Laura Chinchilla launched a campaign during the year, Puentes de Luz (“Bridges of Light”) to curb rising youth crime. The project focuses on preventive work rather than stricter prison sentences according to previous methods.
Throughout 2015, thousands of Cubans attempted to travel through Central America on their way to asylum in the United States. But in November, Nicaragua closed the border for transit Cubans. In December, Costa Rica closed the border with Panama for traveling Cubans. At that time, 7,800 Cubans were stranded in Costa Rica. In January, the United States paid to fly the 7,800 over Nicaragua or all the way to Miami. Due. the closed border with Nicaragua, Costa Rica’s border with Panama remained closed to Cubans. Throughout the spring, several thousands tried to cross the border illegally. The reason for the widespread flow of Cubans was that many Cubans feared that normalizing the relationship between Cuba and the United States would at the same time cause the United States to abolish its “open door” policy towards Cubans.
The economic situation gradually deteriorated in 2017. The state budget for that year was $ 15.9 billion. US $, of which approx. 1/3 was to be used on interest and repayments on the external debt. At the same time, the budget for 46% was dependent on loans. In other words, the state’s finances rested on rising borrowing. The country’s international credit rating was reduced in 2017 and the OECD announced that the reduction of external debt should be the highest priority for the government. In August, the country ran into liquidity problems and President Solís declared that the state would try to find increased funding through higher VAT and higher income taxes. Economic annual growth was 4% and inflation was low. But 20% of the population still lived below the poverty line.
Costa Rica weather in March, April and May
Daily temperatures averaging 29 to 31 ° C are to be expected over the next three months. The temperatures hardly fluctuate during this time.
Do you want to go on a beach holiday? The water temperatures are in March, April and May 26-28 ° C. This is great weather for a great time on the beach and in the water.
In March it rains depending on the region of 2 (San Jose) to 13 days (Puerto Limón), April to 7 (San José) to 13 days (Puerto Limón) and in May of 15 (Limón) to 17 days (San José).
In the period from March to May , the sun shines an average of 6 to 9 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in March in San José, with less sun you have to get by in March in Puerto Limón.
History
The elections of February 1978 were won by the conservatives who, for the first time since 1953, obtained, in addition to the presidency of the Republic, also the parliamentary majority. The new administration, led by R. Carazo Odio, had to face a sharp worsening of the economic situation, following the oil shock of 1980 and the subsequent international recession, accompanied by a growth in social unrest. At the same time, the intensification of the Central American crisis and in particular the events in Nicaragua did not fail to have repercussions on Costa Rica, which was involved both in the last phase (1978-79) of the struggle against A. Somoza, in which San José gave its political support, both, since 1982, in the operations conducted by the anti-Sandinist guerrillas starting from Costa Rican territory. These problems were destined to persist even after the defeat of the Conservatives in the elections of February 1982 and the return of Partido de Liberación Nacional (PLN) in government with LA president Monge Alvarez.
From an economic point of view, the worsening of the terms of trade with foreign countries and the rise in international interest rates made the service of the foreign debt very burdensome (among the highest in Latin America, in terms of per capita), while the restrictions on domestic consumption and public spending required by foreign creditors exacerbated social tensions. As regards the regional crisis, maintaining the position of ” neutrality ” officially assumed by the Costa Rica was made difficult by its conditions of economic dependence on the United States, aggravated by the financial crisis, and by the latter’s pressures for a decisive deployment of San José in the anti-Sandinist camp. In fact, the presence of guerrilla bases near the Nicaraguan border and the inevitable incidents that followed caused a serious deterioration in relations between the two states.
Only after the elections of February 1986, still won by the PLN, and the advent to the presidency of O. Arias Sánchez, were the foundations for the start of a gradual detente. The attempt to relaunch the peace process in the region, on the basis of a project formulated by Arias himself in February 1987, obtained a first result with the Esquipulas (Guatemala City) agreements of August 1987, between the presidents of the five Central American states. involved in the crisis (Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica); following these agreements Arias received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1987. In 1987-88 the Costa Rica expelled the anti-Sandinist forces and in 1990, with the advent of the presidency of V. Chamorro and the end of the civil war in Nicaragua, it reached a full normalization of relations between the two countries.
On the economic level, despite some signs of recovery at the end of the 1980s (but the gross national product per capita in 1989 it was still lower than in 1979), the situation remained difficult, above all because of the huge foreign debt, the service of which continued to absorb a significant share of the value of exports (further problems were created after July 1989 by the collapse of the international price of coffee, the main export of the country). In 1988-89, the structural adjustment policy conducted by the government at the request of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank provoked a wave of social unrest, while the involvement of members of the PLN, including former president D. Oduber Quirós, in episodes of corruption connected with drug trafficking it further wore the consensus for this party.
The elections of February 1990 saw the victory of the conservative opposition, which met since 1983 in the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), which obtained the parliamentary majority and the presidency of the republic. The new president, RA Calderón Fournier, who took office in May 1990, continued the austerity policy and strengthened ties with the United States.