The right-wing candidate Laura Fernandez won on Sunday presidential elections of Costa Rica by a large majority after promising to take strong measures against the growing violence linked to the cocaine trafficking.
Fernández’s closest rival, the center-right economist Alvaro Ramosadmitted defeat since the results of the 81.24 percent of the electoral colleges showed that Fernández won the elections in the first round with the 48.94 percent versus 33.02 percent of Ramos.
The self-proclaimed “continuity candidate” promises to complete a prison inspired by the megaprison of Nayib Bukele for gang members, increase penalties and impose states of exception in conflict zones, like the one that applies everywhere El Salvador.
Bukele was the first president to congratulate the “president-elect” by telephone. “I wish you the greatest success,” he wrote in X.
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“You can be sure that (…) security will continue to be one of the highest priorities,” he told Bukele in an electoral propaganda video when he pleaded for the continuity of Chaves’ projects.
Her opponents call her an “opportunist” for adopting the Bukele model, very popular because it ended the violence in her country, but accused by humanitarian groups of abuses, arbitrary detentions and even torture under the emergency regime.
His closest rival was the social democratic economist Álvaro Ramos (33%). She will be the second woman to govern Costa Rica, one of the most stable countries in the region, after the mandate of Laura Chinchillawho also won in the first round in 2010.
‘A bad copy’
Fernández, who says he relaxes by cooking, always led the polls under the umbrella of Chaves, whom his rivals describe as a “populist” and whose confrontational and sarcastic speech enjoys approval.
Born in Puntarenasport of Peaceful Hit by drug trafficking, Fernández is so loyal to Chaves that his rivals claim he will be the power behind the throne. She does not rule out incorporating him into her government.
According to the projections of the Congressthe ruling party would achieve thirty 57 seats, a majority that is not enough in principle to make changes in the judiciary, which the government blames for the increase in criminal violence in what has been considered for decades one of the safest countries on the continent.
Nor to reform the constitutional rule that forces Chávez to wait two four-year terms to run again. However, alliances are not ruled out in the Congress that allow it.
Chaves is sarcastic and his disciple adopted the style. “His tone is rude and populist, a bad copy of the president,” former president Chinchilla described her.
A specialist in public policies, during the campaign he promoted his adversaries when he stated that he did not want to “fight with pigs so as not to end up in mud.”
Conservative vision for Costa Rica
The daughter of a farmer and a teacher, she says that she was raised among cows and geese, and that in her school holidays she helped in a family hardware store in Saint Joseph packing nails.
He likes fishing, running and is a dessert lover. “I have a very sweet tooth”, dice. He was 19 years old when he got his first job in a German cooperation project.
She considers herself “economically liberal and socially conservative,” although she says that as a minor she managed to enter bars and clubs with a false ID.
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She studied at a nuns’ school, is Catholic, is remarried and has a three-year-old daughter, born after a high-risk pregnancy.
“If you are in favor of abortion, euthanasia and believe that the family is not important, it is not here,” he says.
On the eve of the elections, the press reported that he made an alleged pact with the ultra-conservative evangelical sector to obtain support in exchange for positions in his eventual government.
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