Costa Rican citizens are still celebrating the surprise presidential win of gay marriage supporter Carlos Alvarado Quesada.
Many were surprised when the novelist and former labor minister won, because most were expecting his opponent, Fabricio Alvarado Munoz, to come out victorious. This is because Fabricio Alvarado won the initial round of voting back in February.
That said, many are now saying that Fabricio Alvarado’s loss (with only 39% of the population’s support) is due to his aggressive campaigning.
Fabricio Alvarado came on strong in the relatively laidback nation. He pushed an extremely conservative campaign that emphasized on opposing a court ruling supporting marriage equality from earlier this year.
But, as we reported earlier this week, Fabricio Alvarado’s opponent offered a different option for Costa Rican voters.
Though the two share a last name and later found out they are distant cousins, they were both on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Plus, not only did Carlos Alvarado approve of the same-sex marriage ruling, but he also tried to steer the debate towards the country’s economy.
You see, Costa Rica is currently facing a record fiscal deficit and has had four credit rating downgrades in the last five years. As NBCNews reports, Fabricio Alvarado was poor in his focus towards the country’s lowering economy.
“There’s no question that Fabricio’s extremism created fears and doubts among people,” said Alejandro Abarca, an economics professor at the University of Costa Rica.
“Fabricio was horrible in the debates. He came across as unprepared,” Abarca added.
That said, Carlos Alvarado pledged to make his main focus be the lightening of the country’s deficit.
“I call on lawmakers to move forward in debating the fiscal reform bill,” Alvarado said in his victory speech to supporters in the capital San Jose. “Costa Rica needs to resolve this.”
While it’s important to acknowledge that the right candidate won due to his focus on the important issue of economics, we here at Instinct have to share that we’re breathing easier for Costa Rican citizens now that Fabricio is out of the picture.
Like in many areas in the world, there has been a sweep of conservative notions in Latin America. Having Fabricio Alvarado as the Costa Rican president would have only increased this surging wave. Luckily, the Costa Rican people recognized that homophobia and intolerance is not acceptable. Especially when there are bigger problems afoot.
