concessions

Just hours after President Luis Guillermo Solís stalled 19 bills to prioritize the passage of one, lawmakers on Tuesday evening approved a bill that authorizes reconstruction of a highway between San José and San Ramón.

Costa Rica will send China a new proposal by the end of the month for a revised contract to expand Route 32, which connects San José with the country's Caribbean port city of Limón, Public Works and Transport Minister Carlos Segnini said Tuesday.

A solid majority of Limón residents say that a $1 billion APM Terminals port project will be a positive thing for the impoverished region, according to a survey from Borges y Asociados. The poll results came out soon before the government announced it would restart negotiations with striking dockworkers on Thursday morning.

A Tico Times reporter takes a stroll down Limón's main boulevard and asks local residents what they think about a proposed $1 billion Moín Port expansion project at the center of the ongoing controversy.

Costa Rica’s proposed $1 billion Moín port expansion is facing another potential setback as the Atlantic Port Authority’s union began a strike in Limón on Wednesday. SINTRAJAP leaders and some lawmakers believe a provision of the concession grants AMP Terminals a monopoly on handling containers, and therefore threatens stevedores’ jobs.

School children fidgeted in plumed marching band uniforms and historical costumes in the Alajuela sun as elected officials and ministers spoke in the shadow of the statue of Costa Rican folk hero Juan Santamaría on Friday, a sharp contrast from the violent protests that interrupted the holiday last year over the troubled San Ramón highway concession.