COSTA RICA POLITICS – Former president Rafael Angel Calderón (1990-1994) in presenting the new political party, the Partido Republicano Social Cristiano (PRSC), says he is the “ideological leader” behind the new political party, but “aspires to absolutely nothing.”
The PRSC, based on the “Calderonismo” political ideology, with aims to contribute to political renewal in the country counts with high profile policitians like Rodolfo Hernández (former presidential candidate for the PUSC party); Miguel Carabaguiaz, former head of the INCOFER (Costa Rica’s railway); Marvin Herrera, former minister of Education; and Carlos Gónogora, former Libertation legislator, the new ‘Republican’ party may be an option in 2018.
“I aspire to absolutely nothing”, says former president Calderón after presenting last Sunday the new party. The former president said that he will not hold any post in the party, less in aspirations to be the presidential candidate, emphasizing that his function is strictly one of an ideological leader.
Rodolfo Hernandez, who ran as the PUSC presidential candidate in 2014, said for now he plans on only being a “pawn” but did not rule out the possibility of leading party into the 2018 presidential elections.
Carabaguiaz said the creation of the new party is a new opportunity to get back the support lost by the PUSC. Carabaguiaz stressed that for now he will focus his work on building up the party, looking to some elected post in the future.
Calderón Politics
Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier was born in Diriamba, Nicaragua, on 14 March 1949. His father was Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, who served as president from 1940 to 1944, his mother was Maria del Rosario Fournier Mora. He was born while his parents were in exile.
Calderón served as President of Costa Rica from 1990 to 1994.
In 2009, Calderón was the presidential candidate of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) for the national elections held in February 2010, but resigned his candidacy on 5 October 2009, when he was sentenced to five years in prison for two counts of corruption: found guilty on charges receiving money from the Finish firm Instrumentarium in exchange of contracts for the firm with the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS)
On 11 May 2011 Calderon Fournier’s appeal was rejected by the Sala III. The judges confirmed the previous sentence. However, they reduced the term to serve in prison from five years to three. According to the Costa Rican law, he can be expected not to serve this time in prison.
El Calderonismo
The Calderonismo is a political and ideological doctrine of Costa Rica, which emerged in the 1940s under the leadership of the leader Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, before, during and after he became president, and was continued by various political forces as Unity coalition, National Unification Party and the current Social Unity Party Cristiana (PUSC).
For decades the is with the Calderonismo, with liberation tendency represented a kind of bipartisanship in Costa Rica from 1948 to 2002 when the two-party system that revolves around the Calderon family breaks.
The Calderonismo period included eight presidents: Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (1940-1944), Teodoro Picado Michalski (1944-1948), Mario Echandi Jiménez (1958-1962), José Joaquín Trejos Fernández (1966-1972), Rodrigo Carazo Odio (1978-1982), Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (1994-1994), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría (1998-2002), and Abel Pacheco de la Espriella (2002-2006).
