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The giant stone balls of Costa Rica: huge and uncannily perfect spheres, hand-made and of unknown origin. They are even beside the airport runway ... There’s absolutely nothing to tell who made the spheres, or when or why. Bewildered archaeologists can merely clutch at straws ... More than fifteen hundred giant stone balls have so far been found. The biggest eight feet across and weighing sixteen tons. The granite they are made from has been brought from mountains many miles away. They are mathematically precise and must have taken years to grind down with nothing more that stone tools and braces. Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World
Approximately one million people cannot afford a minimum diet, nor pay for clothing, education or health care. Gallup report, cited Prensa Libra
Economic constraints and foreign pressures have narrowed the political system in the approved manner. In the 1990 elections, the two candidates had virtually identical (pro-business) programs, and were highly supportive of US policies in the region. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
An underground torture chamber was found in the building of the Costa Rican Special Police (OIJ), where prisoners were beaten and subjected to electric shock treatment. ibid.
Arias promoted a neoliberal economic model, participating in the dismantling of the social-democratic institutions. He also presided over the Reagan-backed restoration of the police to a ‘camouflaged army’ and the increase in human rights violations by the security forces. ibid.
In Costa Rica, the United States was willing to tolerate social democracy. The primary reason for the benign neglect was that labor was suppressed and the rights of investors were offered every protection. The founder of Costa Rican democracy, Jose Figueres, was an avid partisan of US corporations and the CIA, and was regarded by the States Department as 'the best advertising agency that the United Fruit Company could find in Latin America. ibid.
In earlier years, when he was better behaved, Figueres recognized that the Costa Rican Communist Party, particularly strong among plantation workers, was posing an unacceptable challenge. He therefore arrested its leaders, declared the Party illegal, and suppressed its members. The policy was maintained through the 1960s, while efforts to establish any working-class party were banned by the state authorities. ibid.
Battered by charges of corruption and drug trafficking, the Arias administration receives another blow to its diminishing reputation as a bulwark of democracy. Central American Report cited ibid.
A tiny country linking two vast continents. A tropical corridor between two great oceans. A people defined by nature. This is Costa Rica. Escape to Costa Rica I, Channel 4 2017
That’s about three and half metres I’d say long; that’s not a small crocodile. ibid.
This is one of the world’s rarest woodlands – the Monteverde Cloud Forest. ibid.
I’m heading for a country that’s made saving the planet a matter of national pride. Escape to Costa Rica II
Half a million different species. The happiest, most sustainable country in the world. ibid.
More than a quarter of its land under conservation. ibid.
It’s this that’s letting them down – transport. ibid.
Guanacaste Province: I’m trying to understand why people here are among the happiest and most long-lived in the world. Escape to Costa Rica III
Costa Rica: All along the beach in a spectacle that has remained unchanged for millions of years mother sea turtles emerge from the ocean in their hundreds of thousands. David Attenborough, Blue Planet II e6: Coasts, BBC 2001
Costa Rica: Home to some of the most intelligent monkeys in the world … These white-faced capuchins are in a perilous position … These monkeys should have an innate fear of humans … Tourists are only fuelling this bad behaviour. Cities: Nature’s New Wild III, BBC 2019
Just what are the Costa Rican spheres? … We still don’t know why they were carved so perfectly in stone. The Unexplained with William Shatner s1e2: Mysterious Structures, History 2021