I have often heard that people in Costa Rica love to spin tales.

The mayor of a Costa Rican town must have a nose like Pinocchio after a fib he told about a Disney theme park opening in the Central American nation went viral.

The announcement by the mayor of the city of Liberia on a morning variety program was quickly replicated by various media outlets for a few hours after being denied not only by the Disney Corporation and by the supposed developer of the project, but even by the aforementioned mayor, who was not able to confirm the information.

In Central America there are frequently announcements of projects -large, medium or small- by “entrepreneurs” or public servants which do not have, at first glance, the minimum necessary seriousness in terms of economic viability.

Projects for oceanic canals (dry or wet), plants generating power from waste products, hydroelectricity stations both large and small, or oil refineries, are released by the Central American press in general without further analysis, even when they do not have the support of companies with the experience and assets needed to undertake them.

Poverty and hopelessness make the region fertile ground for both locals and foreigners alike,who forge fantasies that have no viability, profiting in the process. Most of the time it only takes to get a government permit for a project that will obviously be canceled in the future to obtain – through a means of a lawsuit for “lost profits” from the State involved – awards of millions of dollars.

It would be good if before publishing preposterous announcements of projects promoted by nonexistent shell companies with invisible investors, business journalism in Central America made its job to investigate and confirm the minimum viability in economic, technical and financial terms.