Journal of Haiti and the Americas

Costa Rica: Rodrigo Chaves "a badly elected president"

Audio 7:30 p.m.

Rodrigo Chaves, elected president of Costa Rica, on April 3, 2022, during the speech after his victory.

© MAYELA LOPEZ/REUTERS

By: Mikaël Ponge Follow |

Mikael Ponge Follow

3 mins

Unknown until recently, the conservative Rodrigo Chaves, a former World Bank executive, won the second round of the presidential election with nearly 53% of the vote.

A new badly elected president, with more than 43% abstention, whose task will be immense.

Costa Rica is today facing a serious economic and social crisis.

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"This result is for me neither a medal nor a trophy, but an enormous responsibility", 

declared yesterday, April 3, 2022 on the evening of his victory, Rodrigo Chaves who collected 52.9% of the votes, against 47.1 % for his opponent, the former president (1994-1998) José Maria Figueres, according to figures from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) after counting 89% of the ballots.

Rodrigo Chaves overcame with voters the handicap of having been sanctioned for sexual harassment of two collaborators between 2008 and 2013 while working for the World Bank.

"Despite this ambiguity, the issue of the election was elsewhere for the citizens, in particular on economic issues",

explains our guest Kevin Parthenay, teacher at the University of Tours and researcher at

OPALC Sciences Po.

economic, and this was a paying speech in a period when the themes of taxation, unemployment, were structuring”.

The new president, however, will not have a majority in Parliament and will have to deal with the other parties.

“His mandate will be difficult: he is one of the most poorly elected presidents of the contemporary period

(more than 43% abstention in the second round, editor's note)

and support for his program is very weak.

This is not good news for Costa Rican democracy,”

summarizes Kevin Parthenay.

Rodrigo Chaves will take office on May 8, 2022.

Ecuador: at least 20 dead in a riot in a prison

The fights broke out in the middle of the night, Sunday April 3, 2022, in the high security section of El Turi prison in Cuenca, southern Ecuador.

800 police and 200 soldiers were mobilized to restore order in the establishment.

Law enforcement is still on site.

"An organization wants to take full control of the prison, but some oppose it,"

explained the Minister of the Interior.

Ecuador regularly faces violence in its prisons, usually linked to gangs.

320 prisoners were killed in fights in 2021, including 79 in February 2022, in several simultaneous riots in four prisons.

Salvador: more than 5,000 Maras arrested in one week

5,184 gang members have been captured across the country in the past 7 days, according to media reports.

President Nayib Bukele's response to the 87 people killed by the Maras, these armed gangs in El Salvador, a week ago.

The Head of State has also cracked down on the 16,000 members of these gangs already incarcerated:

"They will suffer for the crimes they have committed"

, warned the director of penitentiary centers in El Salvador, Osiris Luna.

MPs from the presidential party, meanwhile, are proposing a law to introduce the death penalty because, according to them, 

“gang members don't understand rehabilitation, they can't adapt to a new way of life.

The only thing that can stop them is risking the death penalty”

.

The state of emergency, which gives Nayib Bukele exceptional powers, has been put in place for a period of 30 days.

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  • Costa Rica

  • Ecuador

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