Costa Rica

Costa Rica The second smallest Central American state, it is often referred to as the ‘Switzerland of Central America’ owing to its geography, its political stability, and the absence of a standing army. The working of the 1871 Constitution was considerably helped by the existence of a relatively homogeneous and educated farming population. The political order was challenged in 1917 by the establishment of a military dictatorship by the Minister of War, Federico Tinoco Granados, but US hostility and domestic opposition forced a return to democracy in 1918. It was the only Central American country to maintain a democratic government throughout World War II, though a serious challenge to its system appeared when the government tried to annul the 1948 elections. After a popular uprising led by Figueres, stability was restored and a new Constitution was passed in 1949, which abolished the army, introduced universal suffrage, and strengthened the presidential democracy.

Since then, the dominant political force has been the centre-left social democratic Partido de Liberación Nacional (Party of National Liberation, PLN), which attempted to reduce US influence without provoking the US government or scaring US investors. Thus it allowed, for example, the stationing of US-backed Contras for the Civil War in Nicaragua in the 1980s while promoting its own solutions for the region's stability. This culminated in the Arias Peace Plan, for which its author, President Arias, received the Nobel Peace Prize. From 1983, the centre-right Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (United Christian Social Party, PUSC) emerged, which subsequently became the second major national party. It obtained power under President Rafael Calderón Fournier (1990–4) and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría (1998–2002). Under President J. M. Figueres (PLN, 1994–98) and Echeverría, the government was struggling to fight the drugs trade, which used the country for transit. It continued in its efforts to liberalize the country's telecoms structure and promoting tourism. These were seen as ways of combating the country's high foreign debts and low world prices for its major exports, bananas and coffee. In 2002 Abel Pacheco of the PUSC was elected to the Presidency.