Laura Fernández assumes the presidency of Costa Rica with Bukele as an example

As if Nayib Bukele were her mentor, the right-wing political scientist Laura Fernández, who won the presidential elections in Costa Rica this Sunday, made a promise to the Salvadoran president: the “iron fist” security policy will be the priority of her government. From 39 years old, Fernández, who obtained 49% of the votes, almost ten points above what was needed to avoid a second round, is the political heir of President Rodrigo Chaves, also an admirer of Bukele and in whose government she directed two ministries.

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The self-proclaimed “continuity candidate” promises to complete a prison inspired by Bukele’s mega-prison for gang members, increase sentences, and impose states of exception in conflict zones, such as the one in effect throughout El Salvador.

Bukele was the first leader to congratulate, via telephone, the “president-elect”. “I wish her the greatest success”, he wrote on X.

“You can be sure that (…) security will remain one of the highest priorities,” he told Bukele in an electoral propaganda video when he advocated for the continuity of Chaves’ projects.

Her opponents accuse her of being a “opportunist” for adopting Bukele’s model, very popular because he ended violence in his country, but criticized by human rights groups for abuses, arbitrary detentions and even torture under the state of exception regime.

Her closest rival was the social democratic economist Álvaro Ramos (33%). She will be the second woman to govern Costa Rica, one of the most stable countries in the region, after the term of Laura Chinchilla, who also won in the first round in 2010.

“A bad copy”

Fernández, who says he relaxes by cooking, always led the polls under the umbrella of Chaves, whom his rivals call “populist” and whose confrontational and sarcastic speech enjoys approval.

Born in Puntarenas, a Pacific port hit by drug trafficking, Fernández is so unconditional to Chaves that his rivals claim that he will be the power behind the throne. She does not rule out incorporating him into her government.

According to the projections of the Congress, the ruling party would obtain about thirty out of 57 seats, a majority that is not enough in principle to make changes in the judiciary, which the government blames for the increase in criminal violence in what has been considered for decades one of the safest countries on the continent.

Nor to reform the constitutional norm that obliges Chávez to wait two four-year terms to run again. However, alliances in Congress that allow it are not ruled out.

Chaves is sarcastic and his disciple adopted the style. “Her tone is rude and populist, a bad copy of the president,” described the former president Chinchilla.

Specialist in public policies, in campaign he ascended his adversaries when he stated that he did not want to “fight with pigs so as not to end up muddy (full of mud)”.

Conservative Vision

Daughter of a farmer and a teacher, she says she was raised among cows and geese, and that during her school holidays she helped in a family hardware store in San José packing nails. He likes fishing, running, and is a dessert lover. “I have a sweet tooth,” she said. She was 19 years old when she got her first job in a project of the German cooperation. It is considered “economically liberal and socially conservative”, although she says that as a minor she managed to enter bars and nightclubs with a fake ID. She studied at a convent school, is Catholic, is married for the second time and has a three-year-old daughter, born after a high-risk pregnancy. “If you are in favor of abortion, euthanasia and believe that family is not important, this is not the place for you,” he affirms. On the eve of the elections, the press denounced that he made an alleged pact with the ultra-conservative evangelical sector to gain support in exchange for positions in his eventual government.