Costa Rica 2014
Yearbook 2014
Costa Rica. The first round of the presidential election on February 2 was a great success for the unprecedented Luís Guillermo Solís from the left-wing Citizens Action (PAC). During most of the election campaign, he had support from only 6% of voters according to opinion polls, but until the election day he had asked up to 31%. The victory margin was scarce; In second place was Johnny Araya from the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) with 30%, and he was put against Solís in the second round of elections on April 6.
However, Araya gave up as early as March and Solís was finally declared the winner. Costa Rica population in 2020 is estimated at 5,094,129. The turnout was thus unexpectedly record low, 57%. The victory of the PAC meant a violation of traditional Costa Rican politics where two parties, the PLN and the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC), have dominated for 84 years. Solís swore presidential order May 8. It was predicted that Solís would have as difficult as outgoing President Laura Chinchilla to include in the legislative process the congress, where the split after the election became apparent. Although PLN remained the largest party with 18 seats, it lost 10 seats. Most of these went to Solís PAC and the left party Breda front (FA), which made four of the five congressional parties virtually equal.
No president has ever held a weaker position in Congress than Solís. It became especially clear when Solís promised to prioritize the fight against corruption, something that will hardly get the PLN that held the presidential office for eight years to help in the legislation. No formal coalition government was formed, but Solís struck agreements with both the PUSC and the FA on cooperation on certain issues, and the PUSC also received two ministerial posts.
According to topb2bwebsites, relations with neighboring Nicaragua continued to be chilly due to the San Juan River border conflict, and Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega was not officially invited to Soli’s presidential installation.
COSTA RICA
Population growth continues, albeit at a slower pace. Between the last two censuses (1973 and 1984) the population went from 1,871,780 to 2,416,809, with an average annual increase of 2.6%; an increase that does not tend to slow down because, in the face of a still very high birth rate (28.9ı in 1987), the death rate fell to 3.8ı, one of the lowest in the world.
According to a 1988 estimate, the population was 2,816,400 residents with an average density of 55 residents per km 2 ; the distribution of the population is irregular due to the strong attraction exercised by the capital and its province. The city of San José in 1988 had 278,561 residents, but the agglomeration complex has exceeded 600,000, thus hosting over a quarter of the total population of the country and just under half of the total urban population.
The attraction of San José and also that, however much less, of other urban centers are transforming the Costa Rica into a different, less rural country. Although agriculture continues to provide a fair share of the gross national product and to be the only producer of goods to be exported, it employs less and less manpower (26% of the active population in 1986) and sees a reduction in the area used, which now covers little. more than 10% of the territorial one. The cultivation of coffee – of which 1,450,000 q were produced in 1987 – maintains its primacy, both in terms of cultivated area and in terms of export contribution; a slight decline is felt in the other main crop, that of the banana (1,050,000 q of bananas in 1988); more marked decline are those of cocoa and sugar cane.
Mining is always irrelevant, as the bauxite exploitation projects have not been implemented. However, the progress in the energy sector has been very remarkable: the installed power (quintupled in the last thirty years) more than doubled between 1973 and 1987, the year in which it amounted to 914,000 kW, over three quarters of water origin. The increase in the processing industry was rather modest, based on numerous small businesses (food, chemical, tobacco) and on a few larger metalworking plants.
Imports (oil, manufactured goods) are constantly higher than exports (agricultural products, among which coffee and bananas are clearly prevalent); but the negative balance of the trade balance is modest and tends to be offset by tourism revenues (261,000 arrivals in 1986). The United States is by far the most important partner, absorbing nearly 40% of both imports and exports; trade is also active with other Latin American countries (especially Mexico and Venezuela as exporters, Guatemala as importer), with Germany (above all former federal) and, limited to imports, with Japan.
