Voters in Costa Rica, a beacon of stability in Central America threatened by a surge in drug-related violence, went to the polls in general elections that are expected to bring a tough-on-crime right-winger to power.
Laura Fernandez, the 39-year-old candidate of outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves’s party, is the runaway favorite to become the next leader of the country to which tourists flock for its sandy beaches, especially from the United States.
Public polling showed Fernandez, who takes inspiration from Nayib Bukele, the iron-fisted president of nearby El Salvador, could secure the 40 percent of votes required for a first-round victory, avoiding a runoff with any of her 19 rivals.
Her popularity is linked to that of Chaves, who deflected criticism for a rise in the murder rate by placing the blame on the judiciary.
Jessica Salgado, 27, voted for Fernandez at a polling station east of the capital San Jose, because she wants the government to be tough on crime.
“The violence exploded because they (the government) are going after the ringleaders, it’s like dragging rats out of the sewer,” Salgado told AFP.
Her sister Kenia, 24, voted for an opposition candidate, however, arguing: “We need someone who will provide education and healthcare for young people so they don’t go down the wrong path.”
The number of homicides in the country of 5.2 million soared by 50 percent in the past six years to 17 per 100,000 inhabitants.
A former planning minister and chief of staff to Chaves, Fernandez has echoed his claim that judges too often let criminals go free.
After voting in the town of Cartago southeast of San Jose, she reiterated that she aimed to “win in the first round.”
She is also hoping to win a sweeping majority in the 57-seat Legislative Assembly, which would allow her to reform the constitution and overhaul the judiciary.
Her detractors accuse her of authoritarian leanings, which she denies.
“I will always safeguard democratic stability,” she insisted on Sunday.
Costa Rica has gone from being a transit point for cocaine shipments to a logistics hub infiltrated by Mexican and Colombian cartels, according to authorities.
The trade has spilled over into the high-density “precarios” (informal settlements) of cities such as San Jose, where shootouts between rival drug gangs are increasingly frequent.
Fernandez has vowed to complete construction of a maximum-security prison modelled on Bukele’s brutal CECOT penitentiary.
She has also vowed to stiffen prison sentences and to impose a state of emergency in areas worst hit by crime.
Her opponents say that Chaves, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, will be the power behind the throne if Fernandez wins.
An ally of US President Donald Trump, Chaves last year blocked Chinese companies from operating Costa Rica’s 5G network over alleged espionage risks highlighted by Washington.
A victory for Fernandez would confirm a rightward trend in Latin America, where leftist parties in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Honduras have lost elections fought on issues such as corruption and organized crime.
The opposition compares the confrontational style of Fernandez and Chaves to that of Bukele and Trump.
Bukele is a hero for many in Latin America, credited with restoring security to a nation traumatized by crime.
He has rounded up more than 90,000 people since March 2022 as part of his war on gangs, with rights groups saying that many of those detained are innocent or minors.
About 8,000 of those arrested were later released.
“At what point did we go from dreaming of being the Switzerland of Central America to dreaming of being El Salvador?” left-wing presidential candidate Ariel Robles, who is running a distant second behind Fernandez, said during the campaign.
Another contender, centrist economist Alvaro Ramos, warned that “modern dictatorships don’t always arrive with tanks.”
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