Thursday, February 03, 2022

CAPITALI$T PARADISE
Costa Rica: Central America's green pin-up


Thu, 3 February 2022

In this file photo taken in 2018, a woman casts her vote at a polling station in San Jose in 2018 
(AFP/-)
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This file photo taken in 2019 shows a view of the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge in Limon, Costa Rica
 (AFP/Ezequiel BECERRA)


A view of a crowded street during sunset in San Jose in 2019
 (AFP/Ezequiel BECERRA)


Costa Rica is known for neutrality, strong democracy and political stability
 (AFP/Ezequiel BECERRA)

Costa Rica, which elects a new president Sunday, is a small country thriving on ecotourism. Its neutrality, strong democracy and political stability have earned it the nickname of Central America's Switzerland.

Here are four facts about the country of more than five million people:


- Beacon of peace -


Independent since 1821, Costa Rica is considered a model of democracy in Central America.

A short civil war in 1948 led to the abolition of the army and helped put in place the country's political stability.

In the 1980s, when several other Central American countries were mired in civil wars, neutral Costa Rica acted as peace broker, earning then-president Oscar Arias Sanchez the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987.

It saw a political shift in 2014, when the two rightwing parties that had shared power since the 1960s -- the PLN and PUSC -- suffered an historic defeat as centrist Luis Guillermo Solis was elected president.

Outgoing president Carlos Alvarado is from the same party.

On the international stage Costa Rica has fought for disarmament and for a total end to nuclear weapons and the strengthening of the non-proliferation regime.

Over recent years it has seen an increase in organised crime, largely due to the drug trafficking that has ravaged its neighbours.

- Green paradise -


With its stunning beaches on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, its lush rainforests and imposing volcanoes, Costa Rica has become known as a green democracy and global leader for its environmental policies.

Nature reserves cover a quarter of Costa Rica's 51,000 square kilometres (19,700 square miles), territory that hosts five percent of the world's biodiversity.

It is one of the few countries to have banned blood sports and to have shunned exploitation by the mining and oil giants, which are the main source of income for many Latin American countries.

Over the last decade the environment has nevertheless come under strain from economic development, with a poor administration of protected areas, increasing air, ground and water pollution, and damage caused by the cultivation of pineapples.

Costa Rica is nevertheless the only tropical country which has managed to reverse deforestation, according to the World Bank.

It has invested heavily in clean energy, passing the threshold of generating electricity exclusively from renewable energy 300 days in one year, in 2017.

The nation has vowed to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2050.

- Decades of growth -

Costa Rica has seen 25 years of regular economic growth, thanks to the opening up to foreign investment and a gradual liberalisation of foreign trade.

Its main exports are bananas, pineapples and coffee. It is also the world's biggest exporter of butterflies.

GDP per capita has tripled since 1960, but in 2020 it contracted by 4.1 percent due to the Covid pandemic.

In 2021 growth was expected to reach 3.8 percent, according to the World Bank.

The poverty rate that year rose to 23 percent, according to official statistics.

Costa Rica has a top-notch social security system and has invested heavily in education.

It is ranked 62nd out of 189 countries on the UN's Human Development Index.

The tourism sector represents eight percent of GDP, but was hammered by the pandemic.

A member of the OECD since 2021, the country has been trying to attract digital nomads to boost its economy.

- Land of asylum -

More than 100,000 Nicaraguans, fleeing the violent crackdown on anti-government protests, have taken refuge in Costa Rica.

A conservative, religious country, but with a long tradition of opening its arms to asylum seekers, Costa Rica has taken in hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people who were persecuted in their home countries in Central America.

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Ex-heavyweights resurrected in Costa Rica polls, but election still unclear


Former Costa Rica president Jose Maria Figueres leads a tight and bloated field ahead of elections (AFP/Ezequiel BECERRA)

David GOLDBERG
Thu, February 3, 2022,

There is a feeling of uncertainty hanging over one of Latin America's most stable democracies as Costa Rica heads to the polls on Sunday with a crowded presidential field and no clear favorite.

Often referred to as the region's "happiest" country, Costa Rica is nonetheless grappling with a growing economic crisis and the ruling Citizen's Action Party (PAC) is set for a bruising defeat.

The economy has tanked under the progressive program of President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and the PAC candidate, former economy minister Welmer Ramos, seems to be paying the price for sky-high anti-government feeling, polling just 0.3 percent.

"The ruling party is completely weakened and has no chance" after two successive terms of office, said political analyst Eugenia Aguirre.

"The presidential unpopularity figure of 72 percent is the highest since the number was first recorded in 2013," she added.

It means the country's traditional political heavyweights -- the centrist National Liberation Party (PLN) and the right-wing Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) -- could return to the fore.

According to one poll published this month, former president Jose Maria Figueres (1994-98) of the PLN leads with just over 17 percent, while PUSC's Lineth Saborio is on just under 13 percent.

Until PAC's Otton Solis reached the second round run-off in 2006, the PLN and PUSC had enjoyed decades of a near political duopoly.

To win outright in Sunday's first round, a candidate needs 40 percent of the vote, otherwise there will be a run-off on April 3 between the top two.

Costa Rica is known for its eco-tourism and green policies: its energy grid is 100 percent run on renewable sources.

Unlike many of its volatile neighbors, Costa Rica has no army, has had no armed conflicts since 1948 and no dictator since 1919.

But the worsening economic situation has hit confidence in the political class. And with 25 presidential candidates, more than 30 percent of the 3.5 million voters are undecided.

Despite the country's stable reputation, voters under 40 have only known "periods in which not only problems have not been resolved, but they have worsened," university student Edgardo Soto, who says he does not know who to vote for, told AFP.

Unemployment has been steadily rising for more than a decade and sat at 14.4 percent in 2021.

Poverty reached 23 percent in 2021 with debt now a staggering 70 percent of GDP.

"If someone expects to find a bed of roses, that won't be the case with this government," Saborio, 61, told AFP.

"Costa Rica is in a moment of social, economic and political crisis."

- Pent-up frustrations -


Apathy and abstentionism have always been issues in Costa Rica's elections. In 2018 the abstention rate was over 34 percent.

With so many undecided, Costa Rica's opinion polls can be notoriously poor reflections of what will happen in an election.

In 2018, Alvarado Quesada was running sixth with 5.6 percent in polls but ended up beating evangelical Christian singer Fabricio Alvarado Munoz by 20 points in the run-off. Quesada cannot stand for re-election.

Alvarado Munoz, of the right-wing New Republic Party (PNR), was third in this month's poll with a little over 10 percent.

He commands loyal support from the Christian community, which makes up around 20 percent of Costa Rica's five million population.

In fourth is economist Rodrigo Chaves of the newly formed centrist Social Democratic Progress Party, on eight percent, with the top left-wing candidate Jose Maria Villalta of the Broad Front on 7.5 percent.


Figueres, 67, says the crowded field "is a reflection of this whole frustration that has built up."

"If there are 25 options it is because the parties are not understanding the needs of a society that is changing before their eyes."

Not everyone is feeling blue ahead of the poll.

"I understand why the people are distrustful ... they have been cheated for years. But this time there is more hope," said Chaves.

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