Central America
Ex-leader ahead as Costa Ricans elect new president
AFP
Costa Ricans voted for a new president Sunday from a crowded field of candidates, with a center-left former leader ahead of the pack with about 60 percent of ballots counted in one of Latin America’s stablest democracies.
Twelve hours of voting closed at 6 pm (midnight GMT) in what is frequently rated the region’s “happiest” country, a tourist mecca and a leading green economy.
However, polls show unemployment, corruption and creeping living costs topping the concerns of 3.5 million eligible voters in the country of five million people.
Jose Maria Figueres, 67, of the center-left National Liberation Party (PLN), had roughly 27 percent of the vote with 63 percent of ballots counted, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said.
To win in the first round, one candidate must take 40 percent of the vote — otherwise the two leading contenders will face each other in an April 3 run-off.
The eventual winner will be expected to tackle a worsening economy where unemployment has been steadily rising for more than a decade and reached 14.4 percent in 2021.
The poverty rate stood at 23 percent last year while the public debt was 70 percent of GDP.
Costa Rica’s problems have worsened with the coronavirus pandemic dealing a hard blow to its critical tourism sector.
On Sunday, Figueres, who led the country from 1994 to 1998, condemned the levels of poverty as well as housing shortages.
“We have never experienced these things in this magnitude,” he said.
For Francisco Zeledon, the first voter in line at one polling station, “voting is the most important weapon we have to solve problems.”
“We have to solve poverty and create jobs for people,” the 35-year-old said.
Polls have showed about a third of voters are undecided, faced with a choice of 25 presidential candidates.
But one outcome looked likely: the ruling Citizens’ Action Party (PAC) appeared set for a bruising defeat with anti-government sentiment sky-high.
– Record unpopularity –
“The ruling party is completely weakened and has no chance” after two successive terms in office, said political analyst Eugenia Aguirre.
“The presidential unpopularity figure of 72 percent is the highest since the number was first recorded in 2013,” she added.
This means the country’s traditional political heavyweights — the PLN and the Social Christian Unity Party — could return to the fore after decades of a near political duopoly only recently broken by the PAC.
With results trickling in around 0600 GMT, second place remained closely contested between the economist Rodrigo Chaves (16 percent) and conservative evangelical preacher Fabricio Alvarado Munoz (15 percent).
Munoz commands support from the evangelical community, which makes up about 20 percent of Costa Rica’s population.
Meanwhile, center-right Lineth Saborio of the PUSC garnered 12 percent.
Presidents in Costa Rica cannot seek immediate re-election, leaving incumbent Carlos Alvarado Quesada out of the running.
– Problems ‘worsened’ –
Costa Rica is known for its eco-tourism and green policies, with its energy grid run entirely on renewable sources.
Unlike many of its volatile Central American neighbors, Costa Rica has no army, has had no armed conflicts since 1948 and no dictator since 1919.
But the worsening economic situation has hit confidence in the political class.
Voters under 40 have only known “periods in which not only problems have not been resolved, but they have worsened,” university student Edgardo Soto, an undecided voter, told AFP.
Apathy and abstentionism are features of Costa Rican elections.
In 2018, 34 percent of voters stayed away, though participation is technically obligatory.
Eugenia Zamora, president of Costa Rica’s electoral tribunal, said Sunday’s vote kicked off with high turnout in the morning, and proceeded without incident.
“This is a country with a robust democracy… It offers lessons for other countries,” added Isabel de Saint Malo, head of the Organization of American States observer mission.
Outgoing president Alvarado said the vote was an affirmation of Costa Rica’s place among “the world’s strongest democracies.”
Costa Ricans also cast their vote Sunday for the 57-member Congress.
“I hope that whoever wins really thinks of the people,” said 77-year-old Mayra Sanchez after voting in Moravia, “and not of themselves.”
Central America
El Salvador to host World Cup qualifiers vs. Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán
El Salvador’s national football team will host its final round World Cup qualifying matches against Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán, the honorary president of the National Sports Institute (INDES), Yamil Bukele, announced Thursday via a statement on his X account.
The official explained that this decision comes after the American rock band Guns N’ Roses, originally scheduled to perform at Estadio Cuscatlán on Saturday, October 4, will now hold their concert at Estadio Jorge “El Mágico” González. This change allows both of La Selecta’s qualifying matches to be played at the “Coloso de Monserrat.”
“After a series of efforts and in response to popular demand, we are pleased to announce that our senior national team’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches next October (Oct. 10 vs. Panama and Oct. 14 vs. Guatemala) will take place at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement reads.
Bukele also thanked the event promoters and the band for agreeing to the stadium change. “We sincerely thank Guns N’ Roses and StarTicket for agreeing to move the concert originally scheduled for October 4 at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement adds.
Additionally, Bukele expressed gratitude to the FESFUT Regularization Commission for their efforts with CONCACAF to make this possible, and he urged fans to stay tuned to official channels to purchase tickets and support La Selecta in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Central America
Honduran president Xiomara Castro suspends activities due to influenza
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on Thursday that she has “temporarily” suspended her public activities due to a severe influenza virus.
“A strong influenza virus requires me to rest, trusting that I will be fully recovered for the grand celebration of our National Independence Day” next Monday, Castro stated on the social media platform X.
The president had planned to participate in several inaugurations across the northern, central, and eastern regions of the country throughout the week. She added that “these events will be rescheduled for new dates.”
Central America
Nicaragua’s government expels bishops, priests, and nuns in religious persecution
At least 261 religious figures, including the president of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, Carlos Enrique Herrera, have been expelled as part of the persecution by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime against the Catholic Church, reported the NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más in its report Faith Under Fire.
The report details that among those expelled are bishops Silvio Báez, Rolando Álvarez, Isidoro Mora, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio in Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, along with approximately 140 priests, over 90 nuns, ten seminarians, and three deacons from different dioceses in the country.
“Since the expulsion of Nuncio Sommertag in March 2022, relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican have significantly deteriorated,” the NGO noted.
The report also documents the closure of 5,609 non-profit organizations, of which 1,294 were religious, including churches, universities, schools, clinics, and humanitarian organizations. Most of these had their assets confiscated by the Sandinista government. Additionally, the telecommunications regulator TELCOR shut down 54 media outlets, including 22 religious radio stations and TV channels.
Repression has extended to other religious denominations, with forced disappearances and criminalization of evangelical pastors, control over temples, media censorship, fiscal pressure, property confiscation, and the cancellation of legal status for the Moravian Church. Pastor Rudy Palacios remains in detention as part of this pattern of persecution.
The NGO emphasized that churches, especially the Catholic Church, played a key role in the 2018 national dialogue, denouncing abuses and providing refuge to injured protesters, which fueled the government’s hostility.
In 2023, Pope Francis described Ortega’s regime as a “blatant dictatorship”, to which the Nicaraguan president responded by dissolving the Society of Jesus and labeling the Church as a “mafia” and “anti-democratic.”
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