Costa Rican History 102

A Brief Costa Rican History: Modern era: 1948 to present

This article goes into recent Costa Rican history, from aftermath of the 1948 civil war to the present. It will help you understand Costa Rica, her people and culture.

The civil war of 1948 marks Costa Rica's transition to the modern era. It was a small interruption in a string of democratic elections going back to the early 19th century. The only previous break was in 19XX. It was a mild civil war compared to most 20th Century conflicts, but Costa Ricans were shocked that their countrymen had been killed at all.

The Tico reaction was a vigorous support of peace and democracy that continues in this millenium. A unique nation was formed.

About the 1948 Civil War

The party in power, under President Teodoro Picado, rigged the election of 1948, according to scholars. Both major parties used all the tricks in the book in this election, but when the ballots were counted, it appeared that candidate Otilio Ulate of the opposition had won. The ruling party reacted by voiding the election, following a tradition of weak and corrupt democracies of Latin America. Jose Figueres had been criticizing the ruling party for some time, and had gained political strength. Although not a candidate in the election, he sent out a call to arms from his “La Lucha” hacienda near Cartago.

Figueres, later affectionately known as Don Pepe by Ticos, had many contacts in Latin America. He called for support from those who believed in democracy and formed a ragtag band, poorly equipped and sharing only a common language. The 500-soldier Costa Rican Army was not much better off and many stayed home, ignoring the call to put down the insurgents. The Figueres force suffered few setbacks and the civil war lasted only a few weeks. Ulate had fled into exile and a military government headed by Figueres ruled the country. Ulate was offered the presidency, but declined to take power, saying, “I won’t govern without a constitution.”

The civil leaders then formed a constitution, completed in 1949. This constitution had many new ideas: a unicameral congress (the Legislative Assembly), civil rights measures such as giving resident foreigners the same rights as native-born Costa Ricans, two vice presidents for orderly succession and, most importantly, the institution of an independent, apolitical Supreme Elections Tribunal to conduct elections and act as watchdog during campaigns. After the constitution was approved, Ulate took office, but only for the end of his originally scheduled term and is mainly recognized for the conciliatory tone of his administration.

During the junta, Figueres made two decisions that were to assure his place in Latin American and even world history.

Faced with the dilemma of having two poorly equipped armies, and no budget to pay them, he had a brainstorm: Why not eliminate both? Costa Rica's army was too small effectively defend an invasion anyway, so this was a logical solution. Military leaders were not as powerful here as in many countries, so were unable to block the plan.

Don Pepe was a strong supporter of democracy, so he handed over power to Ulate as soon as possible. He was the only 20

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century military leader, other than Kemal Ataturk of Turkey in 1923, to relenquish power voluntarily. (The reader should recall that in this time period most Latin American nations were under dictators backed by the military. The Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua lasted 42 years before being overthrown.) Figueres later won two free elections and became Latin America’s most successful politician.

After the revolution the economy was forced to change also. Costa Rica was traditionally an agriculturally based economy, depending on two main crops (coffee and bananas) to earn foreign currency. During Figueres’ final term in the 1970s, the government began to seek foreign investment. Tourism became an important industry, aided by firms like Costa Rican Expeditions and Calypso Cruises. In the 1990s tourism replaced coffee as the No. 1 revenue generator and is still an important industry today, although electronic components are now Costa Rica's top export.

After the civil war, the second most important event was the near-collapse of the economy. Rodrigo Carazo of the (Social Christian) Unity Party won the election and followed Daniel Oduber as president. Costa Rica was deeply in debt to international banks. He needed the revenue generated from coffee exports to pay the debts, but in 1980 coffee prices went into free fall in commodities markets. At the same time fuel prices took off. President Carazo was not at fault for many elements of the crisis, but he did ignore counsel from his finance minister, Leonel Baruch, and tried to control inflation by spending the Costa Rica's gold reserves. Order was not restored until Luis Alberto Monge (National Liberation Party) won the 1982 election and negotiated with the creditor institutions. Meanwhile, the colon had gone from 6.62 per dollar to 80 per dollar. Monge instituted the mini-devaluations that saw the colon creep up to more than 500 per dollar in 2006.

The third event that affected Costa Rica in the 20^th Century was the Nicaraguan Revolution in the late 70s. Its aftermath placed Costa Rica on the brink of a Central America crisis that lasted over 10 years. First, the Somoza dynasty was brought down by the leftist Sandinista movement. While President Carazo feigned ignorance, the Sandinistas used Costa Rican territory for base camps and transport of supplies. Once they gained power, the CIA began to mount covert operations, and used Costa Rican territory to support the Contras (the anti-Sandinista movement).

This put Monge in a difficult situation between strong right- and left-wing factions dividing Costa Rica. Then there were two police forces under two separate ministers, the Public Security police and the Rural Guard, which had been an idea of Pepe Figueres, wanting to be certain that arms were not under the control of a single individual. Monge used this system wisely, appointing a right-winger (a pro-American anti-communist) as head of the Rural Guard and a left-leaning minister as head of the Public Security force. When it came to light that the Rural Guard was aiding the Contras, he called in the resignations of both ministers and switched the positions between right and left. Monge even tried to convince the unicameral congress to approve a constitutional amendment making Costa Rica neutral in all conflicts, so he could point to this to excuse his avoidance of involvement in Nicaragua’s civil war. This would enable him to tell the U.S. State Department and the CIA, that his options were limited. But he was unable to implement this tactic, partly because of the the right-wing deputies in his own party. In addition, because Costa Rica needed U.S. foreign aid to resolve the economic crisis, this political adept was never able to resolve the dilemma.

At this point Oscar Arias came on the scene, facing a country reeling from the economic crisis and the war in Nicaragua. President Arias, realized that the civil wars hurt not only El Salvador and Nicaragua but the entire region, so he mounted a “peace offensive”. Which in 1987 earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. (Guatemala, in the throes of a 30-year-long murderous civil strife, largely ignored by the U.S. public and press, also benefited from Arias’s diplomacy.) At the time however he was accused of neglecting his country’s domestic needs and locally found only lukewarm support for his peace plan.

More recently, Costa Rica has jailed two former presidents, Rafael Angel Calderon and Miguel Angel Rodriguez, on charges of corruption. A third ex-president, Jose Figueres (son of the illustrious “don Pepe”) remains in Europe, he refused to return to this country to defend himself against suspicions similar to those that landed Rodriguez and Calderon in jail (later remitted to house arrest.)

Public disaffection with both major parties was reflected at the polls in the 2002 elections as a fragmentation of political power divided the congress into several small parties without a clear majority. President Abel Pacheco (Social Christian Unity) found this an overwhelming obstacle in his efforts to get his bills passed in the Legislative Assembly and largely gave up the fight during his final year in office.

The Election of 2006 was a tribute to the foresight of Pepe Figueres and the application of lessons learned in the civil war. In the election 13 candidates vied for the Presidency. The abnormally high number of candidates and non-traditional parties reflected the desire of Ticos for new alternatives to traditional parties seen as corrupt or out of touch. Otton Solís of the Citizen Action Party campaigned on a popular anti-corruption platform and opposed the CAFTA agreement, he received 646,382 votes. While Oscar Arias, able to run for re-election after a Supreme Court ruling that the law barring re-election was unconstitutional, was in favor of the CAFTA and received 664,551 votes. The slim margin of victory was disputed by the losing candidates, but the Costa Rican Supreme Elections Court had mechanisms in place for assuring a peaceful and transparent outcome. Every single ballot cast was scrutinized by hand in the presence of observers from each party, and even international observers were present. In the end Solís conceded defeat and Arias took office.

The early objective of President Arias was to force through passage of the CAFTA agreement. By the time he took office other Central American countries had ratified the treaty. Arias had hoped to pass the controversial package with a 2/3 majority voting block in the legislature. However he could not sustain the votes as the issued became hotly contested. Opponents of the free trade agreement, particularly the ICE and teacher's unions, were able to mobilize large segments of the population in anti-CAFTA demonstrations. Proponents, particularly exporters and business leaders were also campaigning heavily.

In the end the ratification of the treaty went to an historic referendum to be decided by the Costa Rican people. The treaty was approved in a narrow vote, just ahead of the deadline. The implementation of legislation required by the treaty took another 18 months, and pretty much used up the political capital of the Arias administration. The effects of the treaty have not been seen very clearly up to this point. Possibly because the Bush administration ran into problems late in its term and/or due to the global economic crisis of 2009. Neither the globalization that CAFTA opponents feared, nor the economic boom that many proponents predicted have materialized. The treaty opens the telecommunications and insurance monopolies held by the state enterprises ICE and INS respectively. As of January 2010 no competing firms have been able to enter the market however, firstly because of the delay in the passage of required legislation, and secondly because of the requirements and red tape that companies wanting to do business here will face. In addition to the delaying tactics of both monopolies.

The 2010 election was also historic.  The National Liberation party remains the dominant party, with PAC losing ground a number of smaller parties in the legislature.  Laura Chinchilla, Arias' hand-picked successor,  became Costa Rica's first woman president.  The presidential election wasn't very close, with the PLN machinery delivering the vote easily.  In the legislature however, Liberation was not able to achieve a dominant majority.  PAC was a distant second and a number of smaller parties earned a similar number of seats, including the Libertarian party, PUSC and the PASE party.  The PASE party is unique, in that its platform and purpose is heavily weighted towards Costa Ricans with disabilities.  It was arguably the most effective party in the last legislature, able to push through a number of its objectives, including an exemption on the high import taxes on automobiles for disabled drivers.