Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Costa Rica is one of the most unequal countries in the world. In recent years, despite a rising inequality, this Central American country continues to uphold imaginaries that support a sense of exceptionality rooted in national myths associated with equality. This article examines Costa Rican perceptions of inequality through a cross-sectional, descriptive, and exploratory quantitative study. For this purpose, the study utilizes the Survey on Freedom of Expression and Trust in the Media conducted by the Center for Research and Political Studies (CIEP) for the Program on Freedom and the Right to Information (PROLEDI 2023). The analysis reveals that factors such as older age and greater trust in public universities are associated with higher perceptions of increasing inequality. Conversely, the data suggest that higher levels of trust in legislators and more frequent consumption of radio and print newspapers are related to lower perceptions of a rising  inequality. The article proposes a discussion on institutional, media, and political system factors to explore how the population interprets the increase in economic inequality in Costa Rica. 

Through the combination of the Analysis of the Situation (ADC) and the Analysis of Protest Events (AEP) this work focuses on understanding the dynamics of the mobilizations undertaken by the National Rescue Movement (MRN) during the period from July 22 to November 18, 2020. The analysis focuses on the first place in capturing the development of the situation from the main actors, events, scenarios and correlations of forces; and, on second place in reconstructing the day of mobilizations from the demanding actors, the defendant actors, the repertoires of action and the different demands. Among the main results, it concludes the emergence of a new actor with radical tendencies must be understood from the context of exception provided for by COVID-19.

El texto del sociólogo hondureño y militante del Movimiento Estudiantil, López-Sánchez (hijo de una maestra y de un campesino, ambos lucha-dores sociales) realiza un ejercicio académico que Norbert Elías describiría como un equilibrio entre “distancia y compromiso”.

This essay studies the violence at “the beginning of the war” (ixe’t u ch’aao) in San Juan Cotzal, a municipality located in northwest Guatemala. To this end, it analyzes oral histories, testimonies, and memories of two Ixil cousins that suffered the kidnapping of their fathers Domingo Sajic and Francisco Córdova at an early age in 1969-1973. Both recount the accusations, persecution, and the consequences of violence on women and children in the home. From a gender perspective, this work follows the levels of conflict, temporalities, sequences, and emotions in these indigenous accounts. The cousins’ account clarify and go beyond the male emphasis in Mario Payeras’ take of Sajic’s death, as well as the war historiography centered on male politicians in the public sphere. Considering the experience at home, the politics of their actions and genderized memory, these two female memories emphasize the dynamics of ch’exel and Ixil kinship. Finally, this essay brings forth the importance of envy (chi’nank’u’lil) as a central element in the origin of the war in the Maya highlands.

Esta obra de Elizet Payne Iglesias nos conduce en la larga duración temporal –desde el siglo XVI al XIX – por la historia portuaria del Caribe costarricense, para enfocar Matina y presentar rasgos importantes del desarrollo de Moín, Portete y Punta Blanca, más tarde Limón. Llena un vacío existente en ese tema tan importante para la historia del país y del Caribe en general. Sus seis capítulos se encuentran hilvanados uno con otro dando un seguimiento certero y continuo en el tiempo y en el espacio a la historia de los puertos en esa región.  

From a analytical proposal championed by the historians Viales y Clare (2009), this related to the “scientific regime” construct, the article discusses the formal establishment of Costa Rica´s archaeological scientific campus. Thereby for the local context the extents that characterized and integrated this regime are deliberated about, for example: the State´s role, the educational sector involvement (University), and the scientific research institutionalization. The above beside the national and international support to the first researcher societies and the “scientific politics”. All previous aspects had been intertwined and permit that between 1938 and 1960 the Costa Rican Archeology could settle. Likewise, in this context, the position of Jorge Lines Canalías was crucial as a central actor between the development and concretion of the implicated processes.

En el vasto panorama académico dedicado al estudio de los puertos marítimos, emerge una figura destacada cuyo conocimiento y dedicación han iluminado la comprensión de la importancia histórica, económica y social de los puertos del Caribe de Costa Rica. Nos referimos a la eminente académica Elizet Payne Iglesias, cuyas contribuciones en el campo de la investigación histórica han dejado una profunda huella.

In the context of the escalation of state violence in the 1970s, insurgent organizations with organs of propaganda and counterpropaganda emerged in El Salvador. This article situates itself within this process, analyzing the role of clandestine press in characterizing the military dictatorship using a predominant category: fascism. Through documentary sources from the insurgent clandestine press, the different uses and debates surrounding the category of "fascism" are examined. In particular, the content of Prensa Comunista, the clandestine publication of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) between 1975 and 1978, is analyzed.

Este trabajo realiza un análisis del acta legislativa donde se propuso declarar a Carlos Luis Fallas Sibaja como benemérito de las letras patrias, en 1977. En este análisis, se propondrá la hipótesis de que tanto el proceso y la adjudicación del título de benemérito de las Letras Patrias, en este caso, correspondieron a un ejemplo de formación de canon literario, el cual contribuyó en el proceso de consolidación de un escritor modelo para la Costa Rica del presente y del futuro.

La barricada es el título de la última novela de Rafael Cuevas Molina. En sus capítulos el escritor nos retrata un mundo poco conocido por los costarricenses de la Gran área Metropolitana, pues se desarrolla en el Caribe Sur, sobre todo, y en el ambiente creado por la pandemia del covid-19. Entre personajes, paisajes y debates se hacen presentes en el relato, las luchas sociales contra el paquete fiscal impulsado por el gobierno de Carlos Alvarado, las manifestaciones callejeras y, destaca, el papel de las iglesias fundamentalistas con su vinculación con la política nacional.