In 2011, Costa Rica had a population estimated at over 4.7 million people. Its economy was largely reliant on tourism and exports of coffee, bananas and pineapples. Foreign relations in 2011 were marked by strong ties to Central American countries, particularly those in the Central American Integration System (SICA). Politically, the country was a unitary presidential republic ruled by President Laura Chinchilla since 2010. The president was assisted by his cabinet and the Legislative Assembly which is composed of two chambers; the Legislative Assembly and the Supreme Court of Justice. In 2011, Costa Rica held its general election in February that year and re-elected President Laura Chinchilla with 47% of the vote. See mathgeneral for Costa Rica in the year of 2017.
Yearbook 2011
Costa Rica. According to Countryaah official site, President Laura Chinchilla was confronted with her first labor market conflict when a strike broke out among doctors demanding reform of the Social Security Fund (Caja del Seguro Social, CSS) that has been plagued with major financial problems for several years. Health Minister María Luísa Ávila resigned as a result of the criticism, as did the state telecommunications company manager José María Tijerino, as financial irregularities during his time as head of CSS were discovered. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of CRI that stands for the country of Costa Rica.
A worse hardship for the president was the trips around the presidential post in Congress in early May. The ruling party PLN (Partido Liberación Nacional), which has dominated Costa Rica politics since World War II, has been deeply divided for a long time because of a proposed tax reform, and when Luis Villanueva was elected President in a dramatic vote on May 1, he was forced to step down two hours because of protests from both the opposition parties and other members of the PLN. The opposition took the opportunity to unite and elect Juan Carlos Mendoza (Partido Acción Ciudadana, PAC) and Patrícia Pérez from (Movimiento Libertario, ML) to the President and Vice-President respectively. For the first time in 40 years, the opposition holds the presidency.
HISTORY
Touched by Columbus in 1502, with the hope that it was rich in gold (hence the name), C. was conquered by the Spaniards only around 1570. The city of Cartago, founded in 1563, became the administrative capital of the province, which was placed under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia of Guatemala (including all of Central America to the North of Panama and part, with Mexico and the Caribbean, of the viceroyalty of New Spain). The hostility of the environment and the resistance of the indigenous people in the coastal regions led the settlers to settle mainly on the Meseta Central, where they gave life to subsistence agriculture based on small peasant ownership. The conditions of relative isolation and economic backwardness lasted until the first half of the nineteenth century, when the introduction of the cultivation of coffee laid the foundations for a development of exports and for the start of a process of modernization.
The proclamation of independence of Mexico (1821) was followed by that of the Central American provinces which, in 1823, formed the Federation of the United Provinces of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, C.) survived, amidst difficulties and conflicts, until 1839. The institutional structure of the country, after various government upheavals, stabilized starting from 1870, when the coup d’etat of General T. Guardia was followed by the launch of a presidential constitution, in force from 1871 to 1948. The expansion of coffee cultivation in Meseta Central determined, alongside the formation of some large plantations, also an enhancement of the traditional small peasant company, which provided a social base for the evolution of the country in a liberal-democratic sense. Some border disputes caused moments of tension with Nicaragua (1916) and with Panama (1921): an agreement with the latter was reached only in 1941.
In 1948 acute social tensions caused by post-war economic difficulties degenerated into a civil war that brought J. Figueres Ferrer to power. After the approval of a new presidential constitution, which sanctioned the abolition of the army and the extension of the vote to women, a new Parliament was elected (with the exclusion of forces loyal to the previous government) and Figueres left the presidency to O. Ulate (1949-53). The Partido de liberación nacional (PLN), of social democratic inspiration, established itself as the main organization of the country and continuously maintained the parliamentary majority from 1953 to 1978, although the conservatives M. Echandi Jiménez (1958-62) and JJ Trejos Fernández (1966-70) alternated with Figueres (1953-58; 1970-74) and his party comrades, F. Orlich Bolmarich (1962-66) and D. Oduber Quirós (1974-78). The reforms promoted by Figueres broadened the social foundations of the regime and contributed to an intensification of economic development. Economic and political ties with the United States were strengthened; diplomatic relations with the socialist countries, including Cuba, were established only in the 1970s (those with the USSR had been interrupted after the 1948 crisis).
In the 1980s, the explosion of a heavy financial crisis was accompanied by the repercussions of the Central American conflict, since C. became the base of the Nicaraguan guerrillas. O. Arias Sánchez, president between 1986 and 1990, actively devoted himself to pacification. Despite the partial relaxation, however, a full normalization of relations with Managua it only took place in 1990, with the advent of the civil war in Nicaragua. In the 1990s the conservatives (united in the Partido unidad social cristiano) and the PLN continued to alternate at the helm of the country; However, both sides tried to face the worrying economic situation with a policy of economic liberalism, privatizations and cuts in public spending. In 2006 O. Arias was re-elected president. In 2007 a referendum ratified the accession of C. to the CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) which associates it with the United States as well as with Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
At the presidential consultations in 2010, L. Chinchilla Miranda, former vice president of the government of Arias Sánchez, the first female president of Costa Rica, was elected president. representative of the center LG Solís and the candidate of the right-wing party in power J. Araya, who renounced the second round of the consultations, conceding the victory to the opponent, who won 77.6% of the votes, while the first round of the presidential elections held in the country in February 2018 was won by the conservative F. Alvarado Muñoz, who was defeated in the ballot held in April by the Social Democrat and former Minister of Labor C. Alvarado Quesada.