Costa Rica is an active member of the international community and, in 1983, claimed it was for neutrality. Due to certain powerful constituencies favoring its methods, it has a weight in world affairs far beyond its size. The country lobbied aggressively for the establishment of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and became the first nation to recognize the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, based in San José.
The Isthmo-Colombian Area is defined as a cultural area encompassing those territories occupied predominantly by speakers of the Chibchan languages at the time of European contact. It includes portions of the Central American isthmus like eastern El Salvador, eastern Honduras, Caribbean Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and northern Colombia.
The Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C. is Canada's main diplomatic mission to the United States. The embassy building designed by Arthur Erickson and opened in 1989 is located at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., between the United States Capitol and the White House, just north of the National Gallery of Art. In addition to its diplomatic role, the embassy provides consular services for Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It also hosts a Trade Commissioner Service office responsible for the states of Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and West Virginia.
The stone spheres of Costa Rica are an assortment of over 300 petrospheres in Costa Rica, on the Diquís Delta and on Isla del Caño. Locally, they are also known as bolas de piedra. The spheres are commonly attributed to the extinct Diquís culture, and they are sometimes referred to as the Diquís Spheres. They are the best-known stone sculptures of the Isthmo-Colombian area.
Relations between Costa Rica and the United States have been historically close; nevertheless there were instances in history where the US and Costa Rica disagreed. One such example might be the case of Freebooter William Walker. Nevertheless, considering that Costa Rica generally supports the U.S. in international fora, especially in the areas of democracy and human rights, modern day relations are very strong.
Samuel Kirkland Lothrop was an American archaeologist and anthropologist who specialized in Central and South American Studies. His two-volume 1926 work Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua is regarded as a pioneering study. Lothrop was a longtime research associate of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and made many contributions based on fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and evaluations of private and public collections that focused on Central and South America. He is known for archaeological excavations in Argentina and Chile as well as investigations of the archaeological contexts for the stone spheres of Costa Rica. Lothrop is also known for his research on goldwork and other artifacts from Costa Rica, the Veraguas Province of Panama, and the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, Mexico.
Bilateral relations between Brazil and Costa Rica commenced in 1907, when the first Brazilian diplomats were officially accredited by the Costa Rican government. Costa Rica has an embassy in Brasilia, and Brazil has an embassy in San José. Also, Costa Rica has consulates in Curitiba, Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Both countries are members of Organization of American States.
The Diquis culture was a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of Costa Rica that flourished from AD 700 to 1530. The word "diquís" means "great waters" or "great river" in the Boruca language. The Diquis formed part of the Greater Chiriqui culture that spanned from southern Costa Rica to western Panama.
Swedish Costa Ricans are citizens of Costa Rica who have Swedish ancestry. According to the 2012 census by the INEC, approximately 1,100 citizens from Sweden live in Costa Rica, mainly professionals and retired people.
Relations between the Republic of Costa Rica and the Italian peninsula exist since 1849. Both Costa Rica and the Italian Republic are members of the OECD and the United Nations.
