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	<title>Council on Hemispheric Affairs &#187; Costa Rica</title>
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	<description>COHA is an NGO specialized in monitoring Latin American and Canadian Relations for more than 30 years...</description>
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		<title>Home, Sweet Home: Migration between Latin American Countries</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/home-sweet-home-migration-between-latin-american-countries/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/home-sweet-home-migration-between-latin-american-countries/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:54:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Argentina]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bolivia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brazil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COHA Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colombia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Costa Rica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecuador]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guatemala]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nicaragua]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paraguay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Venezuela]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14752</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Source: http://lokheilorrainecheung.wordpress.com/ In the final decades of the twentieth century, Latin America – once a prominent destination for migrants – slowly transitioned to become the largest migrant source, mainly as a result of the economic crises that took place in the 1980s. As the number of European and Asian immigrants to countries like Argentina and Brazil dramatically decreased, Latin American emigrants accounted for an astonishing nine percent of all emigrants worldwide. Today, migration patterns in Latin America are changing once again.  More potential emigrants now stay within the region as new education and work-related opportunities expand their reach to a larger segment of the population. Yet, there still exist vast economic and social disparities between neighboring countries throughout the region.  As a result of these disparities, as well as difficulties associated with emigrating to the U.S., those who leave their homes in search of better opportunities often do not travel as far: Guatemalans emigrate to Mexico, Nicaraguans to Costa Rica, Colombians to Ecuador and Venezuela, and Bolivians and Paraguayans to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. While many Latin Americans previously migrated in response to political violence, today migration is mostly motivated by economic reasons. Mexico and Costa Rica are just a few [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Low Taxation Perpetuates Insecurity in Central America</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/low-taxation-perpetuates-insecurity-in-central-america/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/low-taxation-perpetuates-insecurity-in-central-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Chile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COHA Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Costa Rica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[El Salvador]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guatemala]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honduras]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=14739</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Source: The World Bank Taxation – who pays, how much they spend, and where this revenue goes – is a contentious issue in Latin America. Governments collect imposts from their citizens, and in return, the state is expected to invest prudently in education, health, and security programs that benefit society. In Central America, the taxation-governance nexus between the people and the state chronically falls short of implied expectations. Tax revenue comes in at a notoriously low level. Consequentially, Central American states routinely have limited funds to combat the security threat posed by the rapidly expanding Mexican drug wars. Indisputably, Central American tax policies are highly ineffective at harvesting revenue. In the “Northern Triangle,” comprised of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was a mere 13.53 percent in 2010. Conversely, Chile and the U.S. respectively had tax takes of 18.6 percent and 26.9 percent in the same year. Tax evasion throughout Central America is predictable and further compounds this dilemma. In the words of ombudsman Ofelia Taitelbaum, “tax evasion is the national sport” in Costa Rica. Even more troubling is the regressive nature of Central American tax code, which favors wealthier citizens over the less fortunate. Most [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Costa Rica: An Army-less Nation in a Problem-Prone Region</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/costa-rica-an-army-less-nation-in-a-problem-prone-region/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/costa-rica-an-army-less-nation-in-a-problem-prone-region/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:35:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Costa Rica]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=12910</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Central American nation of Costa Rica is one of the few countries in the world that does not possess a standing military. Nevertheless, Costa Rica, like other Latin American countries, faces a variety of security threats that test the country’s security capacity. Major national security issues include border control, drug trafficking and the expansion of international criminal organizations into the country, like for example, the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel.  On the international front, Costa Rica is currently involved in a border dispute with Nicaragua, which includes the occupation by a contingent of Nicaraguan army troops of disputed territories along the San Juan River since last year.  The river traditionally has served as a natural border between the two countries, but Nicaragua altered the river’s course last year, resulting in a newfound control of the disputed Calero Island, at least for the time being. In response, San José has created a new elite border unit. The combination of rising criminal activity and the current border dispute with a state that possesses a relatively strong standing military means that Costa Rica will have to develop a stronger defense capacity  to tackle growing security-related issues. The History Costa Rica’s revered president, José [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
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		<title>Dredging Up an Old Issue: An Analysis of the Long-Standing Dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua over the San Juan River</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/dredging-up-an-old-issue-an-analysis-of-the-long-standing-dispute-between-costa-rica-and-nicaragua-over-the-san-juan-river-2/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/dredging-up-an-old-issue-an-analysis-of-the-long-standing-dispute-between-costa-rica-and-nicaragua-over-the-san-juan-river-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Costa Rica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nicaragua]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reports]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=11572</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As mounting tensions continue to smolder on the Korean Peninsula, another border dispute has been heating up in Central America, pitting Nicaragua against Costa Rica. Though it lacks the geopolitical gravitas and explosive nature of the conflict between North and South Korea, the standoff over a small area along the San Juan River has been the recurrent basis of a bitter and protracted affair. This deep-rooted dispute over an area of uninhabitable marshland is becoming increasingly nasty and convoluted. The historical resentment between the two neighbors blends with current political objectives that pose no small danger of bringing conflict to the region. In the January 11 &#8211; 13 opening arguments before the International Court of Justice, representatives from Costa Rica and Nicaragua pulled out all of the stops in an effort to convince the Court of the merits of their respective cases. Indeed, according to Pablo Gamez, reporting from The Hague, “the hurling of accusations” that took place during the preliminary hearings served to further strain bilateral relations between the two Central American neighbors.1 The long-standing dispute resurfaced in October when Costa Rica objected to Nicaragua dredging part of the San Juan River in preparation for the latter’s possible construction [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
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		<title>Costa Rica-Nicaragua Border Dispute</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/costa-rica-nicaragua-border-dispute/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/costa-rica-nicaragua-border-dispute/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:49:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Costa Rica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Front Page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nicaragua]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=11283</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[To Our Readers: A number of you have emailed to express your surprise over COHA’s silence on the recent eruption of the longstanding border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Rest assured, the COHA staff has been following this issue closely; Director Larry Birns recently conducted a 20-minute interview with BBC on the subject, and a more in-depth analysis of the situation along the Rio San Juan will be published on the COHA website within a matter of days. It is clear that the dispute has become a prominent campaign vehicle designed to fortify Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s shifting popularity at home. The opportunity to rally the Nicaraguan people around a nationalist cause rather than regional harmony may have been too much for the Sandinista leader to resist. At this point, Nicaragua remains obdurate that the status quo is more advantageous to its national interest than the principles of conciliation and mediation. For her part, Costa Rica’s President Laura Chinchilla is under pressure to use the dispute to prove herself as decisive a leader as her cagey and always ambitious predecessor Óscar Arias. Given each leader’s personal stake in the conflict, the prospects for a speedy resolution appear meager. Costa [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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