Word: costas
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...Many Costa Ricans feel that the Arias generation, which did such an impressive job keeping those problems at bay at the end of the 20th century, has let them leach into the country in the 21st. If Chinchilla's winning platform is any indication, rising drug-related violence worries Costa Ricans the most. ("Security, security and more security," she promised.) But worsening social inequality is high atop her campaign's list as well, particularly when it comes to access to education. Schools used to be one of Costa Rica's largest sources of pride and a big reason First World...
...Even Costa Rica's vaunted green luster has begun to brown. Its rain-forest protection and ecotourism are still envied in the Americas; Chinchilla says she's committed to Arias' goal of making the country carbon-neutral by 2021. But Arias has been accused of lax national-parks preservation and pandering to open-pit mining ventures in Costa Rica...
Chinchilla, as a result, has had to fend off suggestions by Solis and other political foes that she's a puppet of Arias, under whom she served as Vice President, and his social-democratic National Liberation Party, to which she belongs as well. The daughter of a former Costa Rican comptroller general, Chinchilla earned a master's degree in public policy at Georgetown University in Washington in the 1980s. But while she often wore indigenous fashions as a college student and criticized the Reagan Administration's involvement in Central America's conflicts, she is a social conservative, opposing abortion rights...
Political analysts say Chinchilla, who takes office May 8, has a talent for dialogue and coalition building, which she'll need when she faces Costa Rica's ultra-fractured Congress. Her center-right credentials set her apart from the other female heads of state in Latin America today: Chile's outgoing President, Michelle Bachelet, is a moderate socialist; Argentina's Cristina Fernández represents her Peronist Party's left wing; and the leading candidate in this year's Brazilian presidential election, Dilma Rousseff, hails from the leftist Workers Party. At the same time, Kaufman notes, Chinchilla follows a string...
Mora points out that Chinchilla, a former Justice Minister, "is generally regarded as an incorruptible woman, which is a very important calling card right now for Costa Ricans," who in the past decade have seen at least two former Presidents investigated (but so far not charged) in major financial-kickback cases. Still, he says, "the generational change she represents is the most significant." Being the first Tica President is definitely important - but taking Costa Rica back to the future will matter even more...