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The Presidents of Costa Rica*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

James L. Busey
James L. Busey*
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
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Extract

Writers have long claimed that Costa Rica has achieved standards of popular, constitutional government unusual for Latin America. A few recent commentators have attempted to modify the unstinted praise which others have been prone to lavish upon Costa Rican political institutions and processes.

To evaluate properly the assumption that Costa Rica is somehow more “democratic” than her neighbors, there must be examination of a number of elements of Costa Rican political life—that is, press and public expression, individual rights, political parties, roles of judicial and legislative bodies, role of the military, and the like. Some studies have touched upon a few of these elements. Scholarship has yet to cover all of them. The present paper will confine itself to a further aspect of Costa Rican political life—that is, the presidential history of the country. By what means and under what circumstances have presidents secured and left office? How many have been long-term dictators? What have been the backgrounds and characteristics of leading Costa Rican presidents? How many have come from the military profession, and how many from civilian life?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , July 1961 , pp. 55 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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Footnotes

*

The Council on Research and Creative Work of the University of Colorado provided a Faculty Fellowship Award which made possible the travel and research for this and associated studies.

References

1 For a list of references to Costa Rica’s alleged democratic achievements, see Busey, James L. “Foundations of Political Contrast: Costa Rica and Nicaragua,” Western Political Quarterly, 11 (September, 1958), 630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Leading Costa Rican scholars are convinced that their country is rather uniquely democratic. Lic. Vega, Eugenio Rodríguez Apuntes para una sociología costarricense (San José: Imprenta Torino, S. A., 1953), pp. 73 Google Scholar and elsewhere. Hugo Navarro Bolandi claims that no movement for dictatorship has arisen from within Costa Rican society—that democracy has been a natural growth “from the roots”; and, that “the natural climate of Costa Rica is democracy …,” La generación del 48 (México, D. F.: Editorial Olimpo, 1948), pp. 83–85. Carlos Monge Alfaro, noted Costa Rican historian and professor at the University of Costa Rica, states that “Costa Ricans have endured governments incapable of carrying forward their administrative functions, but they have never permitted that their liberties be restricted or that their persons be maltreated.” Historia de Costa Rica, 9th ed. (San José: Imprenta Trejos, S. A, 1959), p. 263.

The most complete over-all study of Costa Rican social and political institutions is still John, and Biesanz, Mavis Costa Rican Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944).Google Scholar

2 E. g., Kantor, Harry The Costa Rican Election of 1953: A Case Study (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, Latin American Monographs No. 5, 1958), pp. 5–12.Google Scholar Martz, John D. Central America—The Crisis and the Challenge (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), pp. 210 and 211,Google Scholar presents a more than usually restrained view of Costa Rican democratic achievements; though by comparison with other Central American republics, Martz considers Costa Rica to be “by far the most democratic.” Ibid., p. 21.

3 Busey, op. cit. Kantor, op. cit. For estimates of Costa Rican attainments in these spheres, see Fitzgibbon, Russell H. “A Statistical Evaluation of Latin American Democracy,” Western Political Quarterly, 9 (September, 1956), 607–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Some standard political history texts are available in Costa Rica, e. g., Monge Alfaro, op. cit.; Guardia, Ricardo Fernández Cartilla Histórica, 28th ed. (San José: Librería e Imprenta Lehmann, 1957)Google Scholar; and other less general studies that will be cited. No study, in Costa Rica or the United States, attempts to summarize Costa Rican presidential history in the terms suggested here.

5 Peralta, Hernán G. “Don José María de Peralta,” Centroamericana, 5 (October-December, 1958), 84.Google Scholar

6 Monge Alfaro, op. cit., pp. 165 and 239; Fernández Guardia, op. cit., p. 108; and Selección de artículos originales del prócer (Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno) (San José: Imprenta Nacional, 1946), pp. 60–61.

7 Selección, op. cit., p. 63.

8 Lic. Braulio Carrillo (1838–1842); General Francisco Morazán (1842); D. Juan Rafael Mora Porras (1849–1859), with aid of later fraudulent elections; D. José María Montealegre (1859–1863); Lic. Jesús Jiménez (1868–1870); Lic. Bruno Carranza (1870); and General Tomás Guardia (in power 1870–1881, though others briefly held the office during parts of that time).

9 D. Rafael Moya (1844–1845); D. José Rafael de Gallegos (1845–1846); D. Salvador Lara (1880–1881); Gen. Apolinar de Jesús Soto (1888–1889); Lic. Ascensión Esquivel (1889); and Dr. Carlos Durán (1889–1890). The count here is complicated by the fact that some individuals (such as Lic. Bernardo Soto, 1885–1889) first secured office by legal designation, then remained on with aid of subsequent elections of one sort or another.

10 D. Juan Mora Fernández (1824–1833); D. José Rafael de Gallegos (1833–1835); Lic. Braulio Carrillo (1835–1837); D. José María Alfaro (1842–1844); D. Francisco Oreamuno (1844); D. José María Alfaro (1846–1847); Dr. José María Castro (1847–1849); Lic. Jesús Jiménez (1863–1866); Dr. José María Castro (second term, 1866–1868); Gen. Próspero Fernández (1882–1885); and Lic. Bernardo Soto (1885–1888).

11 There can be much debate as to what might constitute an “administration” in the Costa Rican context. In some cases, very brief interim regimes should perhaps not be counted. Or, a sound argument may be made for inclusion of the four puppet presidents who held office during the Tomás Guardia period (Lic. Antonio Pinto Castro, 1872–1873; D. Joaquín Lizano Gutiérrez, 1875; Lic. Aniceto Esquivel Sáenz, 1876; and Dr. Vicente Herrera Zeledón, 1876–1877; during the remainder of the 1879–1881 period, General Tomás Guardia served as president).

12 D. Federico A. Tinoco (1917–1919); and Figueres junta (1948–1949).

13 General Juan Bautista Quirós (1919); Lic. Francisco Aguilar Barquero (1919–1920); and D. Santos León Herrera (1948).

14 D. Rafael Yglesias (1894–1902); Lic. Ascensión Esquivel (1902–1906); Lic. Cleto González Víquez (1906–1910); D. Julio Acosta (1920–1924); Lic. Ricardo Jiménez (1924–1928); Lic. Ricardo Jiménez (1932–1936); Dr. Rafael Calderón Guardia (1940–1944); and Lic. Teodoro Picado (1944–1948).

15 Lic. José Joaquín Rodríguez (1890–1894); Lic. Ricardo Jiménez (1910–1914); and Lic. Alfredo González Flores (1914–1917), a compromise dark horse candidate whom Congress elected after dirct vote gave no other candidate a majority.

16 Lic. Cleto González Víquez (1928–1932); Lic. León Cortés (1936–1940); probably D. Otilio Ulate (1949–1953), though only after revolt had implemented election returns of 1948; D. José Figueres (1953–1958); and Lic. Mario Echandi (1958–1962).

17 Again, reference to the list of administrations will reveal the difficulty of exactly placing several regimes. That of D. Julio Acosta (1920–1924), for example, secured power after a direct election in which there was minor, token opposition, following a forceful overthrow of the Tinoco regime (1917–1919). It was unlikely that anyone except Acosta, a prominent leader of the revolt, would be elected. I therefore place his regime in the “essentially non-competitive” category, though others might wish to put it in either the “force” or the “competitive” classifications.

18 Lic. Manuel Aguilar, 1838; Lic. Braulio Carrillo, 1842; General Francisco Morazán, 1842; D. José Rafael de Gallegos, 1846; Dr. José María Castro, 1849; D. Juan Rafael Mora Porras, 1859; Dr. José María Castro, 1868; Lic. Jesús Jiménez, 1870; Lic. Bruno Carranza, 1870; Lic. Alfredo González Flores, 1917; D. Federico A. Tinoco, 1919; and Lic. Teodoro Picado, 1948.

19 For this summary of turbulent episodes in Costa Rican political history, I have drawn from the pages of both Ricardo Fernández Guardia, op. cit., and Monge Alfaro, op. cit. A particularly useful chronicle is to be found in Loria, Rafael Obregón Conflictos militares y políticos de Costa Rica (San José: Imprenta la Nación, 1951).Google Scholar Obregón considers only about forty different uprisings to be important enough to class as true attempts at revolt, and deems that only a few of these have been of any real significance.

20 D. Juan Rafael Mora Porras, 1849–1859; General Tomás Guardia, 1870–1881.

21 Revista dominical, La prensa gráfica (San Salvador, El Salvador, April 3, 1960), p. 4.

22 E. g., see Gavidia, José Mata Anotaciones de historia patria centroamericana (Guatemala: Cultural Centroamericana, S. A., 1959), pp. 398 and 424.Google Scholar

23 General Francisco Morazán, Honduran, who seized power briefly (1842); General Tomás Guardia (1870–1881); and General Próspero Fernández (1882–1885).

24 Lic. Braulio Carrillo, second term (1838–1842); D. Juan Rafael Mora Porras (1849–1859); General Tomás Guardia (1870–1881); possibly D. Rafael Yglesias (1894–1902); D. Federico A. Tinoco (1917–1919); and possibly the Figueres junta rule (1948–1949).

25 For statements and studies on the general character of leading Costa Rican presidents, see Rodríguez Vega, op. cit., p. 47; Lie. Facio, Rodrigo Estudio sobre economía costarricense (San José: Editorial Soley y Valverde, 1942), p. 6 Google Scholar; Guardia, Ricardo Fernández Cosas y gentes de Antaño, 2nd ed. (San José: Editorial Trejos Hnos., 1939), especially pp. 377 ff.,Google Scholar and elsewhere; Rodríguez, Guillermo Solera Beneméritos de la patria y ciudadanos de honor costarricenses (San José, 1958)Google Scholar; Peralta, op. cit., p. 83; Monge Alfaro, op. cit., pp. 204–206 and elsewhere; and de Varona, Estebán A. Costa Rica (México, D. F.: Unión Gráfica, S. A., 1957), p. 27.Google Scholar

On Braulio Carrillo: A. de Varona, op. cit., pp. 23–24; Stephens, John L. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1949), p. 290 Google Scholar; and Monge Alfaro, op. cit., p. 162.

On José María Castro: Solera Rodríguez, op. cit., pp. 37–40; and Monge Alfaro, op. cit., pp. 167–171.

On Thomás Guardia: Solera Rodríguez, op. cit., p. 66; and Facio, op. cit., p. 51.

On Jesús Jiménez: Solera Rodríguez, op. cit., pp. 59–60.

On Ricardo Jiménez: Canas, Alberto F. Los ocho años (San José: Editorial Liberación Nacional, 1955), p. 12 Google Scholar; Jiménez, Mario Gutiérrez Vida y obra de Don Ricardo Jiménez (Secretaría General, ODECA, undated, [probably 1959])Google Scholar; Coto, Joaquín Vargas Biografía del Lic. Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno (San José: Imprenta Vargas, 1959)Google Scholar; Selección...., op. cit., pp. 7–10; and Navarro Bolandi, op. cit., pp. 37 and 40.

On Víquez, Cleto González: González, Luis Felipe Biografía del Lic. Cleto González Víquez (San José: Librería e Imprenta Lehmann, 1958)Google Scholar; Solera Rodríguez, op. cit., pp. 115–123; “Don Cleto González Víquez, Prócer Centroamericano,” Centroamericana, V (Oct.-Dec, 1958), 82; and Monge Alfaro, op. cit., pp. 236–240.

26 Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda, Dirección General de Estadística y Censos, Monografía de la problación de la República de Costa Rica en el siglo XIX (San José, April, 1951), “Censo de 1883,” p. 28; and Ministerio de Economía, etc., Censo de la población de Costa Rica, 1950 (San José, 1953), Cuadro XXXVI, “Alfabéticos y analfabéticos. …”, p. 42.