{"id":18041,"date":"2026-02-02T13:25:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=18041"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:25:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:25:33","slug":"fernandez-wins-costa-rican-presidency-steering-latin-america-further-right-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=18041","title":{"rendered":"Fern\u00e1ndez wins Costa Rican presidency, steering Latin America further right | Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rightwing populist Laura Fern\u00e1ndez has won Costa Rica\u2019s presidential election<\/a> by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s nearest rival, centre-right economist \u00c1lvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40% needed to avoid a runoff.<\/p>\n

With 94% of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing president, Rodrigo Chaves, had captured 48.3% of the vote, compared with Ramos\u2019s 33.4%, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).<\/p>\n

As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s Sovereign People\u2019s party erupted in celebrations around the country, waving blue, red and white-striped Costa Rican flags.<\/p>\n

\u201cViva Rodrigo Chaves,\u201d some cheered, in a nod to Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s mentor.<\/p>\n

Appearing via video link at her party\u2019s official election night gathering in the capital San Jose, Fern\u00e1ndez, 39, thanked Chaves for giving her \u201cthe confidence to be president-elect of Costa Rica\u201d and said his legacy was in good hands.<\/p>\n

She vowed to \u201cfight tirelessly\u201d to ensure Costa Rica \u201ccontinues on the path of economic growth, freedom, and above all, the progress of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country of 5.2 million people, famous for its white-sand beaches, has long been seen as an oasis of stability and democracy in Central America,<\/p>\n

But in recent years, it has gone from transit point to logistics hub in the global drug trade.<\/a><\/p>\n

Drug trafficking by Mexican and Colombian cartels has seeped into local communities, fuelling turf wars that have caused the murder rate to jump 50% in the past six years, to 17 per 100,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n

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Fern\u00e1ndez cites iron-fisted Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, who has locked up thousands of suspected gang members without charge<\/a>, as an inspiration on how to tamp down crime.<\/p>\n

Bukele was the first foreign leader to congratulate her.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s win confirms a rightward lurch in Latin America, where conservatives have ridden anger towards corruption and crime to win power in Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Honduras.<\/p>\n

Chaves plucked Fern\u00e1ndez from relative anonymity to serve as planning minister and chief of staff.<\/p>\n

In a conversation with her on Sunday night, Chaves said he was confident that under her leadership \u201cthere will be neither dictatorship, nor communism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaves presided over a sharp rise in violence but avoided blame by pointing the finger at the judiciary, saying it was too soft on crime.<\/p>\n

Jessica Salgado, 27, said she voted for Fern\u00e1ndez as the continuity candidate, because she felt the government was on the right track, even if violence had increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe violence exploded because they (the government) are going after the ringleaders, it\u2019s like dragging rats out of the sewer,\u201d Salgado told AFP.<\/p>\n

Costa Ricans also voted for members of the 57-seat Legislative Assembly on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s detractors fear she will try to change the constitution to allow Chaves to return as president after her four-year mandate ends.<\/p>\n

Under the current constitution, he is barred from seeking re-election until he has been out of power for eight years.<\/p>\n

Former president \u00d3scar Arias, winner of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize, warned on Sunday that the \u201csurvival of democracy\u201d was at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing dictators want to do is to reform the constitution to stay in power,\u201d he said, alluding to Chaves.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez insists that she is committed to upholding Costa Rica\u2019s democratic tradition.<\/p>\n

The drug trade has sucked in the high-density informal settlements of cities such as the capital San Jose, where shootouts between rival drug gangs are increasingly frequent.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez has vowed to complete construction of a maximum-security prison modelled on Bukele\u2019s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).<\/p>\n

She has also promised to stiffen prison sentences and to impose a Bukele-style state of emergency in areas worst hit by crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Fern\u00e1ndez #wins #Costa #Rican #presidency #steering #Latin #America #Costa #Rica<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rightwing populist Laura Fern\u00e1… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}