![A resident wearing a face mask walks after taking a test for COVID-19 in San Jose, Costa Rica on June 26, 2020 [File: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-06-26T000000Z_1083101003_RC2BHH9JTRMK_RTRMADP_3_COSTARICA-CORONAVIRUS-TEST.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Costa Rica desperately needs to enact fiscal reform, experts say, but government efforts may reignite mass protests.
Costa Rica
![Nurse Irene Ramirez receives the first of two Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine jabs in Mexico City [Pedro Pardo/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/000_8XQ27R.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica begin mass immunisation campaigns as Argentina receives first vaccines from Russia.
![Costa Rica's economy is largely based on tourism and agriculture [Arnoldo Robert/Getty Images]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1344c936a49a4c8b853a0eae6001447d_18.jpeg?resize=570%2C380)
The Central American country seeks $1.75bn in IMF aid to help offset the economic blow from the...
![Researchers are testing a treatment that uses coronavirus antibodies from horses [File: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ba3635bb91e94d9b8cb3329ccc23874e_18.jpeg?resize=570%2C380)
Scientists are set to trial the inexpensive treatment, in which horse coronavirus antibodies are...
How Costa Rica become one of the most successful Latin American nations in the fight against COVID-19.
![LGBT community members and activists demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court of Justice to demand same-sex marriage, in San Jose, Costa Rica [File: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/e76954322f7845b69c94a1c13b69438e_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Costa Rica becomes the sixth country in Latin America and first in Central America to legalise same-sex marriage.
As Costa Rica successfully contains COVID-19, football fans celebrate return of professional league matches.
![A Paraguayan federal health worker takes part in fumigation to prevent the proliferation of mosquitoes that transmit the dengue fever at the San Lorenzo National School, in a low-income neighbourhood of San Lorenzo, Paraguay [Jorge Adorno/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/a72f009cf21b45de9a497395e28edc1c_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Experts expect 2020 to be marked by high rates of dengue, which can fill ICUs even absent the pressures of coronavirus.
![Several hundred women gathered in San Jose to support accusers of Oscar Arias, under the slogan 'Yo te creo', or 'I believe you' [Juan Carlos Ulate/ Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/8521fad746014b85bb32ff7f877ff516_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Second woman to file criminal complaint against former Costa Rican president and Nobel laureate, alleging sexual abuse.
![All eyes will be on Mexico and Brazil as Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Jair Bolsonaro hit their stride [Dronebase/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/689f862cdd4c4d62b9a40c8f6143b99f_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
As controversial new leaders find their feet and crises continue, here are the stories to look out for this year.
![Nicolas Maduro's Venezuela is increasingly isolated in the region over its ongoing crisis [File: Miraflores Palace Handout/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/d3951f8ee8254073b6d96531e141832f_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
The rebuke comes as President Nicolas Maduro is due to start a second term, following a controversial election.
![Public sector workers have been striking since September 10 [File:Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ceb43f69ad13426ab514d29b88cb534e_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Protests by public sector workers over the controversial bill have stretched into a fourth week.
Immigration authorities say so far 23,000 Nicaraguans have applied for asylum in neighbouring Costa Rica since deadly political unrest erupted in April.
For more than 50 years, Zarcero’s ‘Senor Scissorhands’ has cut and trimmed the city’s gardens into international fame.