Yearbook 2010
Costa Rica. On February 7, for the fifth time in the history of Latin America, a woman was elected president. According to COUNTRYAAH, Costa Rica has a population of 4.999 million (2018). Laura Chinchilla of the ruling party PLN (Partido de Liberación Nacional) clearly won by 47 percent of the vote, twice as many as the main competitor Ottón Solís of the center-left party PAC (Partido Acción Ciudadana). The profit margin has not been greater since 1982, and no other election round was needed. Chinchilla is widely considered to be the very popular outgoing President Oscar Arias patron. In the congressional elections held at the same time, however, things did not go so well for PLN; the party is still the largest but lost three seats and thus still lacks its own majority in the already highly divided chamber.
At the end of the year, it was called again in relations with neighboring Nicaragua as a result of an old border conflict between the countries on the San Juan River. The International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2009 found that the area belongs to Nicaragua but also that Costa Rica has the right to free civil maritime traffic on the river. In October, armed police were deployed at a border section against Nicaragua, and in November Nicaraguan troops occupied the island of Isla Calero, prompting Costa Rica to protest with the US-based OAS.