All Blog Posts Tagged 'Costa Rica' (83)

No government keeps credible or reliable track of how many of its citizens disappear while traveling abroad annually or how many foreign nationals disappear while traveling in its country. This information deficit has major implications for the global traveling public. In the absence of timely, credible news, data, and analysis, how can travelers make informed decisions? How can media contextualize “missing abroad” stories as to whether they are anomalies or symptoms of a larger…

Dave Seminara is one of the few journalists paying serious, continuing attention to the issue of people who go missing abroad. Please take a moment to read his blog post, updating his earlier feature on the disappearance of Chicago-area doctoral student David Gimelfarb in Costa Rica in 2009.

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The recent disappearances of high-school valedictorian August Reiger in Baños, Ecuador, andArmando Torres, a U.S. Marine, in Matamoros, Mexico, have begun bringing attention to an underreported problem that has become a…

This article is the most comprehensive piece I've seen on the disappearance of David Gimelfarb in Costa Rica four years ago. It's rare for any of our stories to be told well -- rarer still for them to be contextualized in terms of the broader policy issues that paint targets on the backs of travelers and put their families through unnecessary levels of hell.…

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A Costa Rican doctor under investigation for running an international kidney trafficking operation was advertising his services on YouTube.

Journalist Amelia Rueda’s news site posted a video on Tuesday of Dr. Francisco José Mora promoting his medical expertise and Costa Rica as an attractive destination for medical…

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A Canadian man has been killed in Costa Rica in an apparent home invasion, police there have confirmed. Brad Deering, 42, was shot outside his home in Escazu, near the capital San Jose, Costa Rican police said in a statement on their Facebook page.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has not confirmed the man's identity, only saying in an emailed statement that "our thoughts are with the family and friends of a Canadian citizen who passed away in…

Read this useful article in the Tico Times

State Department says they can't help because he doesn't have his passport (it was stolen). Family has been trying to get him home for a month. Read the full article

President Obama is in Costa Rica NOW -- please share this story widely and let the White House know you want the…

Things must be getting bad in "Latin America's Safest Country" -- the U.S. State Department has finally gotten around to issuing a warning about the violent-crime spree that has been plaguing Costa Rica:

Within the last few weeks, the Embassy has received increased reports of armed robberies of tourists in the Puerto Viejo…

Inside Costa Rica reports that  Costa Rica is the safest country in Latin America, according to a study published recently by publisher-analyst, Latinvex. The ranking of 19 countries is based on data from…

The German Embassy in Costa Rica has stated that delays in receiving healthcare for a tourist in Costa Rica caused her to suffer the amputation of her right arm.

The incident  occurred on December 14, 2012, when the German Evelyn Jurgensen, 23 years old, was vacationing in Santa Teresa de Cóbano, Puntarenas. According to the note, the girl and her boyfriend had an accident on an ATV and she suffered “multiple open fractures.”

The German Embassy said the Malpais Emergency asked…

Three years after his disappearance in Costa Rica and the Dixon family is no nearer to finding out what happened to their son.

Michael was last seen leaving his hotel in Tamarindo, Costa Rica on 18 October 2009.The British and Costa Rican response to the incident has been bugged by incompetence and false hope from start to end.

The Foreign Office did not tell the…

Another conversation with another mother (in this case, a mother -- could be a father, daughter, son, sister, brother, friend...) of a person missing in a foreign country, her own government (and mine) unwilling, unable to provide meaningful guidance, support, advice. I'm happy to be able to provide a bit of moral and practical advice and a connection with someone in her state who has been through the same ordeal. Then I'm on Facebook and see a guy who is scheduled to move in a couple weeks…

Been very busy of late, and am really grateful for the people who have been keeping active and engaged. Special thanks to Julie Jones for staying on top of missing persons news and forwarding relevant cases and doing outreach where she believes K9 search and rescue resources can be of assistance, and to …