Your dollars buy fewer colones than at any point on record, El Niño puts the whole Central Valley on alert, Independence week became a fight over the courts, and the best essay yet on why.
This week in three items
The dollar is worth less here than it has ever been
The dollar fell to ₡446.80 on the Monex market Thursday, its sixth straight session at a record low and the lowest since the Central Bank started the series in 2007, before edging back to ₡447.78 Friday. If your income arrives in dollars, your rent, groceries and Caja payment all got a little more expensive in real terms this week, and the trend has run for more than two years. The Central Bank is not signalling a change. Half of this is a Costa Rica story, and half is the dollar itself. The Fed raised its rate a quarter point on Wednesday, to 3.75 to 4 percent, and Treasury yields jumped even after Washington tripled its bond buybacks. El Financiero says the hike leaves the Central Bank less room to cut local rates. The New York Times has a clear piece on how the debt and the use of sanctions are shaking confidence in the dollar worldwide.
What to do. If you hold a colón obligation you can prepay, such as a lease or marchamo, this is the argument for waiting; the rate has not helped dollar earners in a long time. If you are moving a lump sum, move it in pieces.
La Nación · La Nación, on what the rate means for public finances · La Nación, Treasury yields · The Tico Times, what it means for retirees · El Financiero, the Fed hike · The New York Times, gift link
El Niño puts the whole Central Valley on alert
The national emergency commission declared an orange alert Friday in 23 cantons in Guanacaste, the Central Pacific and Los Santos, and a yellow alert in 51 more. The yellow list takes in nearly every Central Valley canton, from Escazú and Santa Ana to Heredia, Alajuela, Cartago and Grecia. Rain in the Central Valley has run 20 percent below normal since January, and 37 percent below in the North Pacific. The IMN expects El Niño to strengthen to "very strong" between November and January, right as the dry season starts. A stormy weekend like this one does not change the totals.
What to do. Yellow is a preparation phase, not rationing. But if your water comes from an ASADA or a municipal system that already cuts service in March and April, expect the cuts to start earlier this year. Price a storage tank now, before everyone else does.
La Nación, with the full canton list · The Tico Times · Delfino
Independence week turned into a fight over the courts
Thousands marched in San José on the eve of Independence Day in a lantern procession organizers called the Faroleada for Democracy, aimed at the Fernández government's pressure on the judiciary. In Cartago, police cordoned off the Plaza Mayor for the official ceremony and removed unionists, a journalist and opposition citizens; four constitutional challenges have been filed and the mayor has ordered a review of the operation. The president used her September 14 speech to demand the courts move faster on organized crime, while the judiciary warned that a budget provision would leave the OIJ without a director in January. Late in the week the Constitutional Court ordered the justice minister to explain his claim that the government has critics it calls "zurdos" identified, and the legislative president promised to schedule the vote on the court's alternate magistrates, which the ruling party has blocked since February. In Cartago, a petition to declare Rodrigo Chaves persona non grata passed 9,000 signatures.
What to do. Nothing yet, but watch this. Residency, property titles and every dispute you might ever have here run through the courts, and their independence is now the central political question of this government. Expect more marches in San José; the next ones will be announced a day or two ahead and will close Avenida Segunda and the streets around Parque Morazán.
The Tico Times · La Nación, San José · La Nación, Cartago · La Nación, OIJ · La Nación, "zurdos" · La Nación, alternates · Semanario Universidad, Cartago petition
Local
The data leak is now under formal investigation
The technology ministry confirmed that a sample from a large personal-data dump offered on the dark web contains real records on people in Costa Rica. Nobody has said where it came from, and the Central Bank says its own systems were not breached. Prodhab, the data protection agency, opened a formal case Wednesday, and prosecutors are running a criminal investigation alongside it. If you have a cédula, a Caja number or a local bank account, assume you are in it. Watch your accounts, and treat any call that already knows your name and account number as a scam. A fake Correos de Costa Rica "ticket" email is also making the rounds. If money does go missing, new Sugef rules in force since September 11 set out the claim: file on your bank's form with a copy of your OIJ report and keep the receipt code. The bank has to block the product immediately, and it is liable for any unauthorized transaction after your claim.
The Tico Times · La Nación · La Nación, Central Bank statement · El Financiero, Prodhab · La Nación, the claim rules · La Nación, the Correos email
Heredia loses water and power Thursday; CNFL has 16 more outages on the calendar
The ESPH cut water and electricity to more than 23,000 people in Heredia on Thursday for maintenance. Separately, CNFL has scheduled 16 power suspensions between now and October 7 in parts of San José, Desamparados, Pavas and Heredia. Both lists are published by sector; check yours before the day.
La Nación · El Financiero, CNFL schedule
Paraíso train pushed to 2027, and the Taras–La Lima contractor is being fined
The government set a new 2027 date for extending the commuter train to central Paraíso, a project announced in 2023 and delayed ever since. On the same corridor, the transport ministry says the consortium building the Taras–La Lima stretch has run up ₡150 million in penalties and should have its machinery off site by next month. If you commute from Cartago, nothing changes soon.
La Nación, train · La Nación, fines
Cambronero stays closed at least two more months, and Route 32 had a slide
The Interamericana Norte through Cambronero remains shut, and haulers say the detour adds about ₡15,000 and hours to every trip. If you drive to Guanacaste, plan on Route 27 and the coast, and expect trucks to be doing the same. On the other side of the valley, a landslide at kilometer 26 closed Route 32 to Limón on Friday afternoon, and MOPT gave no reopening time. Check before you head to the Caribbean.
La Nación · La Nación, Route 32
Uvita quake: 202 aftershocks and counting
Ovsicori has logged more than 200 aftershocks since the magnitude 5.5 quake off Uvita on September 10. Activity is tapering but small tremors could continue for months. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are questioning a cut to earthquake and volcano monitoring in the 2027 budget.
La Nación · The Tico Times, monitoring budget
Also this week
- DEKRA opens eight inspection stations today, Sunday, including Heredia, Alajuela, Alajuelita, Santo Domingo and Cartago, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. By appointment only. Heredia Hoy
- The Constitutional Court froze the demolition of the ICE headquarters in Sabana Norte while it hears a challenge from the ANEP union. La Nación
- Work on the new El Coyol interchange on the Bernardo Soto now starts in December or January, six months late, with two new turnarounds built first. La Nación
- British Airways makes its London flight year-round from October and moves it from Gatwick to Heathrow: five a week through March, three a week after. El Financiero
- Rebeca Grynspan led the third informal Security Council vote for UN secretary-general. The Tico Times
- Foreign minister Manuel Tovar told the Miami Herald that Costa Rica has broken relations with Cuba; Havana says it was never notified. La Nación
- Washington kept Costa Rica on its list of major drug transit countries, but not among those it says failed to cooperate. La Nación
- Air arrivals fell 5.9 percent in August, and visitors from the United States fell 13.9 percent. El Observador
- An appeals court says judges must use a documented, current exchange rate when setting child support for parents paid in dollars. The Tico Times
- Driving with a pet on your lap is a ₡123,000 fine, the same as holding your phone. La Nación
- Western Union will wind down its Costa Rica operations center over 12 months, moving more than a thousand jobs abroad. Retail transfers are not affected yet. The Tico Times
- An immigration employee in Limón was arrested for falsifying records to push through a residency renewal. The Tico Times
- Arajet has not flown to Costa Rica since August 8 and has nothing scheduled until November. The Tico Times
- Taxi and tour drivers protested a bill that would let Uber and similar apps pick up at the airports. La Nación
- Curridabat is planting the country's first Miyawaki pocket forest. La Nación
Rules and paperwork
If you own property through a corporation, register its email
The law now makes email the official address for court and government notices to every sociedad anónima and SRL. From today, September 20, the legal representative can register or change it for free on rnpdigital.com with a firma digital, or through a notary. It stays free until December 3, 2027, and costs about ₡7,300 in fees after that.
What to do. If your house or car is held in a corporation, ask your notary to register an address you actually read. Notices sent there will count as delivered.
La Nación
Vehicle import loophole
Hacienda says 30,000 vehicles, many of them luxury models, entered the country with sharply reduced import taxes through a gap in customs valuation, and has decided not to investigate. If you imported a car in the last few years and paid what the valuation table said, nothing is being reopened.
La Nación · La Nación, no investigation
Hacienda wants to seize assets without a judge
A bill in the Assembly, file 25.669, would let the tax authority embargo accounts and property for tax debts that are final, meaning every appeal has run out, without going through a court. Hacienda says 770,000 collection cases are stuck, some for more than five years. Lawyers say it guts due process. If you are current on your taxes it changes nothing. If you have an old dispute you assumed was dormant, it could stop being dormant.
El Financiero
Health
Chikungunya reaches Pavas, and dengue is running high
Costa Rica has 300 confirmed and probable chikungunya cases this year, up 55 in a single week, and health teams are fumigating after an outbreak in Pavas, the first cluster in the capital. Guanacaste still has more than half the cases. Dengue is up too: 4,172 cases through late August against 2,751 a year earlier, and the CDC has added Costa Rica to its list of countries with higher-than-expected dengue risk, though the travel advisory stays at Level 1. Both come from the same mosquito: empty standing water, use repellent, and see a doctor for fever with severe joint pain.
The Tico Times · The Tico Times, dengue
A Caja strike Thursday, and doctors may refuse October overtime
More than 4,300 Caja employees struck for 24 hours on Thursday over late and partial paychecks. By mid-morning 202 surgeries had been suspended and 31 EBAIS clinics were closed; Max Peralta in Cartago canceled all 27 of its operations. Separately, the medical specialists' union has told members not to work overtime in October unless the CCSS drops a new rule that cuts how extra shifts are paid. The Caja says it will announce Monday whether it suspends the rule. If it does not, expect longer waits for surgeries and in emergency rooms, which run on overtime.
Semanario Universidad · El Observador, the strike · La Nación
Fake Ozempic and Mounjaro on sale
The Health Ministry warned against a brand called Exogenics being sold as a weight-loss injection. It has no sanitary registration. Real GLP-1 drugs here come from a pharmacy with a prescription, not from Instagram.
La Nación
The state owes the Caja ₡4.46 trillion
The government's debt to the CCSS has doubled in six years and almost none of it has a payment agreement.
La Nación
Gluten-free labels get a protocol
The Constitutional Court ordered the Health Ministry to set up a way of verifying that products labeled gluten-free actually are. Until it exists, the label is the maker's word.
La Nación
What I'm reading and watching
David Díaz Arias, a historian at the University of Costa Rica, writing in NACLA this week. If you want to understand why the lantern march above was about the courts, start here. Díaz Arias walks through the crises Costa Rica has survived since the 1880s and argues that each one was settled by elite pacts, the habit ticos call pactismo. His case is that the movement around Rodrigo Chaves, now carried by President Fernández, is the first that does not want a pact. It has no manifesto, only a style: contempt for the press, the universities and the judiciary, and a promise of a "Third Republic" to replace the one built after 1948. He notes that Chaves, as Fernández's super-minister, keeps his immunity for four more years, and that the courts are the last institution the movement has said out loud it needs to control. About a 15 minute read, and the best single explanation I have found for what is happening.
Hernán Jiménez, the tico director behind El regreso and Entonces nosotros, is back with a film set in quintessential San José: the cantinas, the old facades, the side streets. La Nación's columnist called it a love letter to the capital, a story about love, memory and belonging.
La Nación, the column