President-elect of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, will appoint ambassador to Nicaragua – 04/05/2022

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The elected president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, announced on Monday that he wishes to appoint an ambassador to Nicaragua and that he aspires to have respectful relations with that neighboring country and all the nations of the world.

“My inclination is to appoint an ambassador to Nicaragua, (because) we have diplomatic relations and we are not at war,” Chaves declared in his first press conference as president-elect, after the elections in his country last Sunday.

Keys, from the Social Democratic Progress Party (centre right), gave the example of the war between Russia and Ukraine, in which despite the conflict these nations “are still talking.” He assured that he will maintain the democratic and freedom values ​​that characterize Costa Rican foreign policy.

“If diplomatic relations have to be broken for reasons of merit, we break them, but not be in the little game of having diplomatic relations and not having ambassadors,” he declared.

The current government of President Carlos Alvarado did not send an ambassador to Nicaragua and in various international forums he has denounced human rights violations in that country and has advocated a return to democracy.

Until now Costa Rica has strongly criticized the Nicaraguan government for imprisoning activists, journalists and presidential candidates and has said that the November 2021 elections in which Ortega was re-elected were not clean or transparent.

On another front, also yesterday Chaves promised to approach the opposition, with whom he will have to work to reach agreements in a fragmented Congress.

For its part, the business sectors of Costa Rica asked him to attend to the economic reactivation as a priority.

Profile of Keys

Rodrigo Chaves, 60, is the leader of the conservative Social Democratic Progress party.

He has a doctorate in Applied Economics, Markets and Institutions from Ohio University (USA) and worked for more than 30 years at the World Bank, until 2019 when he returned to Costa Rica after being director of the office in Indonesia.

He is a specialist in Public Policies and has provided advice to the government and civil society in more than 40 countries, according to his resume. He served as Minister of Finance in the current government of Carlos Alvarado, a position he assumed in November 2019 and left six months later.

He focused his campaign on messages against corruption, the “same old” and “powerful” and “influential” sectors, and promised the population a “change” in the way of governing. He announced that he will bet on actions in economic matters to reduce procedures and facilitate business action, reduce social charges, demand results from public institutions, generate jobs, attract more foreign investment and lower the cost of living through decrees, the content of which has not been specified. .

He has maintained a sour pulse with the media, whom he insults with a traditional “rogue press!”

Despite allegations of social harassment, which he has denied, he was elected president with 52.9% of the votes in the second electoral round, ahead of former president José María Figueres, who obtained 47.1%. He will assume power on May 8, for a period of four years. (With information from EFE and AFP)