Costa Ricans have elected conservative populist Laura Fern\u00e1ndez as their next president, according to preliminary results, making her the latest right-leaning leader to win office in Latin America.<\/p>\n
With results from 96.8% of polling places counted, Fern\u00e1ndez of the Sovereign People\u2019s Party won 48.3% of the vote, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported.<\/p>\n
Her closest challenger, economist \u00c1lvaro Ramos of the National Liberation Party, trailed with 33.4%, the Associated Press reported. <\/p>\n
Ramos conceded the race on election night, with Fern\u00e1ndez, 39, to begin her four-year term in May.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A former government minister, Fern\u00e1ndez is the chosen successor of outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves, who is constitutionally prohibited from seeking re-election.<\/p>\n
She campaigned on continuing Chaves\u2019 populist agenda, which reshaped Costa Rican politics by arguing against traditional parties and promising tougher action on crime.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez served as minister of national planning and later as minister of the presidency, giving her a central role in Chaves\u2019 administration.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Crime had dominated the campaign in Costa Rica amid sharp rises in homicides, gang activity and drug trafficking by cartels.<\/p>\n
The murder rate had increased by 50% over the last six years, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez pledged a hard-line security strategy, including increased cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and tougher measures against organized crime.<\/p>\n
She has also floated controversial proposals inspired by El Salvador\u2019s President Nayib Bukele.<\/p>\n
This included construction of a special prison for gang leaders, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
‘My hand won\u2019t shake when it comes to making the decisions we need to restore peace in Costa Rican homes,’ Fern\u00e1ndez said during the campaign.<\/p>\n
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Fern\u00e1ndez in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n
‘Under her leadership, we are confident Costa Rica will continue to advance shared priorities to include combating narco-trafficking, ending illegal immigration to the United States, promoting cybersecurity and secure telecommunications, and strengthening economic ties,’ Rubio said.<\/p>\n
‘I hope that we can immediately lower the flags of whichever political party and start working only in favor of the Costa Rican flag,’ Fern\u00e1ndez said after the result. <\/p>\n
‘I believe the Costa Rican people expect nothing less of us,’ she added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Costa Ricans have elected conservative populist Laura Fern\u00e1ndez as their next president, according to preliminary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}