Presidenta Laura Chinchilla Miranda, after what was expected to be a promising presidency, is ending her term with the title of least-popular president in Costa Rica. And the Americas.
Political scientist Francisco Barahona points out some of the major failures of Costa Rica’s first woman president.
For the expert, the choice of her support staff tops the list. During her term, the Presidenta was forced to replace 15 ministers. This led to her management being questioned, not only by experts, but by the public in general.
The Border Trail road (Ruta 1856) or “La Trocha” was a major blunder for the presidenta. The project was fraught with allegations of corruption, mishandling of funds and the ill planned out construction project which today is still unfinished.
The third blunder was the “narco plane” scandal, taking a trip to Peru on a private plane with alleged ties to a drug trafficking cartel, resulting in the firing of her communications minister, Francisco Chacon and her personal assistant, Irene Pacheco. This single event cause major damage to her public image.
Doña Laura’s administration also lacked the financial savvy to deal with the country’s finances, like the mishandling of the San José – San Ramón road rebuilding, where her government was forced to cancel an over inflated concession contract, which will end up costing the people US$35 million dollars in contract penalties and no road.
The Presidenta leaves office in May with a huge debt to the country’s female population, which mostly gave her their vote. Barahona says that this sector of the population placed much confidence in her to eradicate “machismo” (sexism) in the country. Also, there are many poor women who have not seen any improvements in their family income, women who placed their future in the hands of ther first woman presidenta, to change their economic condition, according to the expert.
Doña Laura’s presidency was also done in by the same machismo that people had hoped was a thing of the past. Her detractors questioned her every move and held her responsible for the misdeeds of her ministers. Because she is a woman, her judgment was called into question unlike that of her predecessors, even the ones who were clearly corrupt. The “narco plane scandal” was much ado about nothing. The road projects should have been better researched, and the border trail (and Nicaragua’s allegations of environmental damage) should have been more closely monitored; but is it really the president’s responsibility to go behind her “experts” and question their advice and assurances? If she had done so, would her detractors have criticized her for not delegating and not attending to other issues? Costa Rica’s history is one of corruption and bad decisions. President Arias was second-guessed about the Caldera Highway, CAFTA/TLC (which bitterly divided the people), and the Canadian gold mining concession (the latter two of these very questionable decisions); but somehow he ended his presidency without serious damage. Doña Laura has been treated by her opposition and the press as a stupid woman, a fact that shows how far Costa Rica needs to go before it can be considered a progressive country.