Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a Central American republic located north of Panama and possessing two seacoasts (Pacific-west, Caribbean east). The capital and largest city, San Jose, is located in the central mountain valley. Costa Rica is notable among many Latin American countries for its long-standing democratic form of government. Costa Rica is well known for their hydroelectric plants and agricultural goods.

I. Government:

1) Capital: San Jose

2) Country: Costa Rica

3) There are presidential elections every 4 years.

4) Costa Rica has a Democratic Republic.

a. The president of the Republic of Costa Rica is Miguel Angel Rodriguez. Which is part of the Christian Unity Party

b. Costa Rica is constantly growing and so is their economic system.

5) Their constitution was written November 9, 1949.

6) Costa Rica is divided into 7 provinces.

a. San Jose its capital city,

b. Alajuela,

c. Cartago,

d. Heredia,

e. Guanacaste,

f. puntarenas

g. and Limo’n.

7) Costa Rica boarders Panama and Nicaragua

8) The voting age in Costa Rica is 18 years old male/female

II. Historical Background

1) Costa Rica was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502, on his fourth trip to the Americas. He founded Port Limo’n, on the Caribbean coast. Because he was so impressed by the vegetation and the gold/jewelry the natives wore he called it Costa Rica (Coast of Plenty). In 1821 Costa Rica declared independence from Spain. Costa Rica celebrated its 100th anniversary of democracy in 1989. The army was abolished in 1948 by means of a new constitution promoted by Mr. Jose Figueres Ferrer, which was looked upon as a national hero. Ever since there has bean no army and the headquarters was made into a National Museum.Costa Rica has also bean nominated for the Nobel Peace prize 12 times

2) The president at the time is Miguel Angel Rodriguez

3) There are three main political parties:

a. National Liberation Party

b. Reformist Organization

c. Social Christian Unity Party

4) After WW2 Costa Rica did much like many of the other Latin countries, later causing its economy to start an imbalance and the price compared to one dollar dropped.

5) The flags seven stars represent the seven provinces, the three volcanoes represent Costa Rica’s three mountain ranges,

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...up to 5 or 6 years if you get technical classes)

c. University

8) President Jose Maria Figueres implied the training of 500 teachers.

VII. Sports and Leisure

1) The chief sport in Costa Rica like most of South America is soccer (foot ball)

2) Water sports like sailing and rafting are also very popular.

3) Costa Rica has a wide range of entertaining activities like scuba diving, sailing, water skiing etc.

4) Costa Rica was has not been in any of the recent World Cup matches.

5) Some sports heroes in Costa Rica are Claudia Poll which placed first in the 200m freestyle, and Fredrico Ramirez which was the winner of the cycling tournament in the 1996 Olympic games.

Costa Rica’s culture and education are rapidly spreading throughout South America. Costa Rica’s language schools are known to be some of the best in the world. Their economy is also getting better and is expected to keep rising in oncoming years. Costa Rica has a good president and is expected to lead them to a new height by the year 2002 when there is the next election. More religions and cultures are influencing Costa Rica because of attractive scenery and good universities.