No whammies! No whammy, no whammy…. STOP!

Costa Rica got hit with a double dose of bad news yesterday when Intel and Bank of American announced significant layoffs in the country.

Bank of America Corp. and Intel Corp. stunned Costa Rica’s government by announcing they would fire about 3,000 workers in the Central American nation just two days after the opposition won a presidential runoff.

Intel, the world’s largest computer-chip maker, is cutting 1,500 out of 2,500 jobs in the country as part of an effort to consolidate some operations in Asia, spokesman Chuck Mulloy said yesterday. Hours later, BofA said it would be exiting operations in Costa Rica, Guadalajara, Mexico and Taguig, Philippines, without saying how many jobs would be lost. Costa Rica’s foreign investment agency said the BofA move would result in 1,500 layoffs.

This is horrible news for Costa Rica, of course, but it is also terrible for the rest of the Central America. Each country is trying to attract high quality, better paying jobs, and the fact that Costa Rica can't maintain 3,000 Intel and Bank of America jobs should make them rethink what potential they have to attract such jobs.

Instead, they'll just have to settle for deal such as Fruit of the Loom shifting its clothing operations to Honduras.