Chaos in Costa Rica
Well, not really. In my effort to bring you more world news, I was just going for some alliteration.
Actually, Costa Rica's presidential election -- the BBC has the story here -- proceeded peacefully "amid wide disillusionment with politics after a string of corruption scandals". Voter turnout was the lowest in the country's history.
If not chaos, however, then closeness: "With more than 86% of votes counted, ex-President Oscar Arias had 40.5%, compared with 40.2% for Otton Solis -- a difference of fewer than 5,000 votes." Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, is seen as "a politician untainted by the recent scandals". He supports ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Solis, who wants CAFTA to be renegotiated, is "hoping to ride the left-wing wave sweeping through some Latin American countries" -- such as Chile and Bolivia.
Interesting stuff -- seriously.
Actually, Costa Rica's presidential election -- the BBC has the story here -- proceeded peacefully "amid wide disillusionment with politics after a string of corruption scandals". Voter turnout was the lowest in the country's history.
If not chaos, however, then closeness: "With more than 86% of votes counted, ex-President Oscar Arias had 40.5%, compared with 40.2% for Otton Solis -- a difference of fewer than 5,000 votes." Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, is seen as "a politician untainted by the recent scandals". He supports ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Solis, who wants CAFTA to be renegotiated, is "hoping to ride the left-wing wave sweeping through some Latin American countries" -- such as Chile and Bolivia.
Interesting stuff -- seriously.
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
7:05 AM
4 Comments:
I am from Costa Rica, and it is really intersting your opinion...
Yes... you are right!.. it is really intersting... the political phenomenun lived in Costa Rica last Sunday really shock the specialist on the subject... and actually all the Costa Ricans are shock...
For my opinion... the real problem is larger than just the political scandals of the lasts years...
Everything begins since the apolitical life and the disagree of Costa Ricans with the political elite of the last twenty years...
In fact, the reelection is also a problem here, based on the facts behing it... actually... reelection is fine with our constitution... but it doesn't means that is legal...
The other reason is the CAFTA, that there are several groups against it... and actually... the anti-CAFTA movements support Solis' campaign...
I don't know if the 40.2% that Solis has right now is against Arias or with Solis...
Before this elections, in Costa Rica we had 2 big political parties (one is from Arias -PLN- and the other one is the one of the biggest political scandals)... right now... we cannot talk of 2 forces... and there was 14 political parties compiting for the Presidency...
Costa Rica is a political organization chaos... and the big problem here is that Costa Ricans are analizing the micro economic and social problems instead of analize the macro economics or macro socials...
In my case, I went to vote... but I didn't vote for Arias neither for Solis...
I really don`t know what will happens... The institution that organized the elections won't give Costa Rica an answer until they are really sure about the results... aprox. in 2 weeks...
By
maya, at 1:12 PM
If Costa Rica even has a "left" it is the PLN, Arias's party, which is usually considered social democratic and was the architect of the country's considerable social-welfare state. Like many social-democratic parties, it moved rightward in the 1990s, which is part of the reason why you have Otton Solis and his 'Citizens Action Party.'
Still, Otton Solis is much more 'populist' than leftist. For that matter, arguably so is Morales.
As for the 'left-wing wave', in Chile the election just held represented the fourth straight to be won by the center-left, so it's not much a wave there.
By
Anonymous, at 8:38 PM
untained my ass
By
W4Jt34G40e9407o, at 2:54 PM
BTW, there was another political party called Movimiento Libertario (ML), wich has been told to be a racist, neoliberal, right wing party. F.Y.I.
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Unknown, at 4:26 PM
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