The National Roadway Council on Wednesday confirmed the decision to postpone the first stage of expansion of the Circunvalación, a belt route bordering the capital’s central canton, until Housing Ministry officials complete the relocation of 191 families currently living where the new road is to be built.
Carlos Sojo was not only one of the most brilliant academics of his generation in Costa Rica and Latin America, but also he was a great human being. Statistics and concepts pained him, almost as much as people did. He was an expert on poverty, but he was most pained by people living in poverty.
Six months after taking office President Luis Guillermo SolÃs outlined – in a 560-page document – a roadmap for his administration that includes a promise to reduce Costa Rica’s extreme poverty rate by 45 percent by 2018, the year he leaves Casa Presidencial.
Economic concerns were front and center in the annual report on the state of Costa Rica, which highlighted topics like unemployment, inequality, poverty and the deficit. After 20 years of economic growth, the report’s authors said that Costa Rica has yet to make significant gains in human development.
Poverty and extreme poverty have climbed to a four-year high in Costa Rica – 22.4 percent – according to the 2014 National Statistics and Census Institute's National Household Survey.
Costa Rica will have four Food Banks by 2016, according to the the private organization that runs them. Food Banks take donations from several companies and distribute them to people living in extreme poverty.
During President Laura Chinchilla's term from 2010-2014, administration officials and lawmakers passed nine pieces of legislation and one executive decree aimed at helping middle-income Ticos buy homes. Yet despite the effort, little was accomplished toward the goal of increasing the number of homeowners nationwide.
The negotiation skills of Luis Guillermo SolÃs' administration were tested this week by protests on Tuesday in which hundreds of residents from several Costa Rican communities blocked main roads in three provinces for eight hours. But there's more to the story.
