1821	Independence from Spain; capital moved from Cartago to San Jose; small farmers given ownership of coffee plantations
1848	Juan Rafael Mora elected president by coffee growers.  American William Walker (a mercenary) decides to capture Central America for a new southern slave state and create a new canal through Nicaragua.  He is supported by Pres. Buchanan and financier Cornelius Vanderbilt.
1855-6	Walker captures Nicaragua.  Mora builds a 9000 man army and drives Walker from Costa Rica (Guanacaste) and up to Nicaragua.  Walker is captured but, when he claims to Americans that he is Pres. of Honduras, he is released to the Honduran people and is promptly shot.
1860s	Mora, a national hero, is also accused of spreading cholera through CR.  Several coups through the decade create great instability.
1870-1	Constitution written; railroad built by 1890.  Italians, Chinese, and Jamaicans who helped build the railroad settle in CR.  Bananas are major crop.
1899	United Fruit Company is founded and dominates agricultural, political, social, and economic forces in CR.  Read Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude for effects.  Labor is beaten and disorganized.
1917	Federico Tinoco overthrows gov’t for two years and becomes dictator.
1934	Banana labor strike led by Communist party (PC).  Diseases of bananas create more support for labor as management suffers.
1940	National Republican party (PRN) candidate Calderon Guardia elected
1941	Right to strike recognized; social security established; land reform; collective bargaining; minimum wage; other socialist reforms, but also religion taught in public schools.  Strange alliance between Catholic Church and Communists.
1942	Figueres Ferrer (“Don Pepe”) is banished after denouncing Calderon
1944	PRN-PVP (Popular Vanguard party) candidate elected (puppet of Calderon).
1948	**Opposition coalition of PD (Democratic party), PSD (Social Democratic Party), and PUN (National Unification party) is elected.  But, since the PRN wins a majority in the Congress, the presidential election results are voided and PRN-PVP candidate remains.  It was hard to count ballots which mysteriously were burned in a counting house
**CIVIL WAR:  The 1948 Revolution	Figueres returns and wins secret US and CIA support.  PRN-PVP overthrown and Figueres takes office under “Junta of the Second Republic.”
1949	New constitution created:  army is abolished, women are given power, banks are nationalized, Catholicism is named official religion, and PVP is outlawed.
1951	Figueres creates National Liberation party (PLN); Figueres and other PLN and PUN candidates are elected. . .
1962	Relations with Cuba broken (along with US)
1970	Figueres elected.  Antigovernment protests against US involvement.  PLN calls these “communist elements.”
1974	Words “Marxist” and “communist” banned during election
1975	PVP returned to legal status.  Cuban relations re-established.
1977	Rights of indigenous peoples to land recognized
1978	PVP gains seats in legislature; opposition party elected; support of FSLN revolutionaries in Nicaragua.
1979	CR had borrowed heavily from industrial nations for infrastructure projects to modernize.  Unfortunately, oil prices went up (and CR by then needed it) and banana prices dropped (reducing profits) just as the loans came due.  CR now faced an enormous debt.
1981	Moratorium (stoppage) of debt payments
1982	PLN returns to power; Soviet diplomats expelled.
1983	Presence of contra rebels in CR (secretly supported by CR) creates tension with Nicaragua; Israel and US help train CR security
1984	Despite assurances of CR neutrality in US-Nicaragua conflict, US compels the resignation of CR foreign minister and conservative shift of government
1987	PLN President Arias wins Nobel Peace Prize for leadership in bringing about Esquipulas II peace accords between CR, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and  Nicaragua.  Costa Rica meets all the terms for compliance EXCEPT for ratification of a new Central American Parliament.
1988	US pressures Arias to allow CR to move aid to contras. Guatemala accuses CR of non-compliance with Esquipulas II.
1989	Corruption scandal.  Former presidents implicated in bribes by US government and citizens in exchange for drug trafficking or contra aid.  CR denies it will support contras.
1990	Son of Calderon is elected president
1991	CR joins GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), later called the WTO. CR makes structural adjustments to reduce gap between fiscal and trade deficits. Workers join with small farmers to protest.
1994	Son of Figueres is elected president.
1998	Intel builds in CR and becomes number one exporter.  Rodriguez administration cuts forests, stops demonstrations, and deregulates environmental controls. IMF requirements are followed, but they do not affect small businesses which are 95% of CR economy, so conditions have actually worsened.
2000	IMF pushes to privatize industry.  This cuts gov’t costs, but loses jobs and causes  strikes.  Strike in April by students, unions, and environmentalists shuts down country who oppose privatization of ICE communications company.  IMF calls for innovative agricultural companies need higher start-up costs and so shut out small farmers.  Traditional crops and sustenance farming are shut down and CR must now import basic foods.
2002	New third party (PAC) wins 25% of vote.

                

Costa Rican Politics and Recent Developments

POLITICS

 

Costa Rica is discovering the advantages of a three-party system.  The new Partido Accion Civica (Citizen Action Party) gathered 25% of the 2002 election vote only a year after it was formed.  Otton Solis, the presidential candidate, challenged the Costa Rican people to take responsibility for forming public policy instead of the status quo national government.  Now 25% of the senate seats are held by PAC, and half of those are women. (The last two Vice-Presidents were women as well.)  The democracy is participatory and active (2/3 traditionally vote compared to 1/3 in the US), and Costa Ricans sing their national anthem across the nation on Sept. 14. 

 

DEMOCRACY

 

Costa Rica has a unique and equitable democratic tradition:  free and mandatory education in 1869, elimination of the death penalty in 1882, and elimination of the army in 1948.  The Spanish never fully conquered the region and so strong class division doesn’t exist to the same degree as in the rest of Central America.  Coffee growing, for instance, usually handled by the elite in other countries, was encouraged in small farmers who would sell their crops to beneficios, or larger processing plants, allowing subsistence crops for small families.

 

MILITARY ABSENCE

 

A country without a military has several distinct advantages as well:  it’s harder for a military group to grow and rise against the government; it makes elections the only way to achieving power; it frees up money for development (medical care and life expectancy, for instance, are roughly equally to industrial nations); it confirms Costa Rica’s regional neutrality; and it makes the use of force against it automatically illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.  Finally, it established the United States as the de facto superpower in the region and implied US support in the case of attack.  But don’t be fooled:  disarmament doesn’t mean pacifism—Costa Ricans were glad the US invaded Panama.  They wished the US had done more in Nicaragua against the Sandinistas.  

 

Debt Crisis.  Nearly 1/3 of the government’s budget, however, goes to paying off the debt.  Since the gov’t employs nearly 7% of the workforce, its financial needs are high, and the IMF demands fiscal efficiency. 

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

Constitution Article 50:  All Costa Ricans “have the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.  For this reason it is legal to denounce actions that infringe on this right, and to demand payment for the damage caused.”  The Natural Resource Vigilance Committee (COVIRENAS) is active across the country, educating people about illegal logging, poaching, fishing, trading in endangered species, water pollution, and how individuals make a difference.