🇨🇷 A new Chavista president

Throughout much of his term in office, right-wing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves has had to fight for survival against a hostile legislature, which vetoed his appointments, blocked or diluted many of his reform proposals and tried to strip him of judicial immunity.

That will no longer be the case for his successor and protégé, Laura Fernández, who won 48.3% of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election, comfortably beating her nearest rival, Álvaro Ramos (33.4%) and surpassing the 40% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

The results earned Costa Rica’s ruling Pueblo Soberano party a simple majority in the next legislature, holding 31 of the assembly’s 57 seats — a steep jump from its current tally of 10. This will be enough to pass ordinary bills without a need for negotiations, though it is still short of the supermajority Chaves was hoping for, which would allow his party to…

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