Laura Fernández: ‘There is no ‘bukelization’ in Costa Rica’

Laura Fernández Delgado (Puntarenas, 1986) has completed her first 100 days at the helm of the Costa Rican government amid three unprecedented circumstances in the Central American country, which until now had been considered a model of stability in the region: the worst crisis of security and violence linked to drug trafficking, strong hostility toward the judiciary—which accuses her of authoritarian tendencies—and the undeniable power of Rodrigo Chaves, who on May 8 handed the presidential sash to his former loyal minister of the presidency, a position he now holds himself.

Fernández, a 40-year-old political scientist and mother of a young daughter, spoke to EL PAÍS a month after Attorney General Carlo Díaz accused Chaves’s movement of trying to curtail citizens’ rights. The president, by contrast, maintains Chaves’s line of blaming the judiciary for negligence and corruption.

The offensive against the judiciary, including budget cuts that hamper its operations, includes the serious allegation of a “coup d’état.” That is what Fernández denounced on July 31 after a Constitutional Chamber ruling that reinstated alternate magistrates following the ruling party’s refusal to choose among the proposed candidates.

The president qualifies it as an “institutional coup d’état” against the Legislative Branch. “It happens when one branch of the state arbitrarily overruns, with no legal or constitutional basis, the competences of another branch of the Republic. It is a very serious situation,” says the second woman to govern the Central American country, after former president Laura Chinchilla.

Question. Don’t your continual challenges to the judiciary undermine the country’s image of legal stability?

Answer. The clear and emphatic answer is no, because I rely on the data on economic stability and economic growth. What really puts the entire development model and people’s welfare in Costa Rica at risk is the surge in insecurity. I am doing my part as president and as head of Costa Rica’s police forces, taking a hard line against corruption in police units and carrying out many projects, but it’s harder if the judiciary does not give a clear account to the people of Costa Rica regarding impunity, case backlogs, and criminals who ought to be behind bars. There is an urgent need to modernize and reform our judiciary to restore swift and effective justice. That is my cause.

Q. Should the posts of magistrates and judges be subject to popular election?

A. That could be a good suggestion. What I have said before is that I cannot accept lifetime appointments to any senior post in our country, as happens with magistrates. I do not intend to attack an institution, undermine institutional order, or seek to shut down the judiciary. I wish the judiciary had a far more constructive attitude… There is a problem: the inefficiency in these roles, which have become effectively lifetime posts. We cannot hide that, without a doubt, these magistrates adapt to political interests to guarantee their continuity in office.

Q. Are you saying that Costa Rica’s 22 magistrates have a corrupt way of remaining in power?

A. Yes. What I am saying is that we have a system that lacks mechanisms to evaluate the quality of the people we are going to reelect. I am not asserting that the 22 magistrates in our country reached their positions through corruption; I am saying that the election and renewal model has more gaps than adequate filters to ensure the right people take office.

Q. Former president Rodrigo Chaves is the founder of the movement of which you are the president, and he holds two particularly important positions in the Cabinet: Minister of Finance and of the Presidency, a role that gives him a great deal of power. Are we looking at a two-headed government??

A. I am the president of the Republic. I won the election by a very large margin, according to the democratic rules of our country, and I did so within the law. There is no two-headed government here. What I have beside me, thank God, is an extraordinary economist who was president of the Republic and is also the founder of this movement. An outstanding team colleague, minister of Finance and of the Presidency, a man who enjoys my full confidence.

Q. How far does Mr. Chaves’s power reach compared with yours?

A. Rodrigo Chaves’s power reaches as far as the law and regulations allow. And Laura Fernández’s power as president of the Republic reaches as far as the laws and the Constitution allow me. Because unlike the judiciary, I do respect the principle of legality in this country.

Q. Would you support a constitutional reform to allow Mr. Chaves to run for re-election in 2030?

A. I would say I would consider it, of course, if it were something that would bring more democracy, strengthen sovereignty, and increase citizen participation. If we had had that possibility [continuous re-election in 2026], without a doubt the person who would be president today would be Rodrigo Chaves and not me, because Rodrigo finished [his term] with overwhelming popular support in Costa Rica.

Q. Doesn’t it create a problem for you when your chief of staff calls some critics “horses” or uses other insults against them?

A. Yes, it is a problem for me, of course it is.

Q. How do you address that?

A. I have dealt with him on several occasions. Now, it is a problem for me, but it isn’t really a problem for me, because if I knew that he spoke that way with bad intentions, in bad faith, or that his purpose wasn’t for the benefit of the people of Costa Rica… But that’s just the way he is, and he speaks out on behalf of the people of Costa Rica.

Q. But you are his boss.

A. Yes, but I’m willing to overlook Don Rodrigo’s remarks for the simple reason that his contribution to national development is enormous. I’m also being very honest with you: in 99.9% of the instances where Don Rodrigo has made a statement of this nature, I’ve agreed with the substance of it. Perhaps the manner isn’t the best or may be open to criticism, but that’s something else you should bring up with Don Rodrigo in the interview we can arrange for you.

Q. On security, which remains the country’s main problem, why did you change course from Chaves’s approach? One of his early proposals against drug trafficking was to legalize marijuana to undercut criminal gangs’ business, while your strategy now is a “war” with a hard line.

A. I don’t think there has been any change in approach, because the previous government also took a hard line against insecurity, but organized crime continues to worsen in the country and that is why that hard line must continue. We must maintain Cacco [a maximum-security prison inspired by El Salvador], the C5 [a technology-enabled control center], the new police delegations, the operations — everything we are doing. Legalizing marijuana is not a priority for me at this time; I have a thousand other things on my plate.

Q. Is Costa Rica heading toward a Bukele-style model?

A. There is no “bukelization” here; what we have replicated is President Nayib Bukele’s model of maximum-containment prisons, because people deprived of liberty from within prison [an Executive responsibility] continued to run their businesses, commit frauds, and order contract killings…

Q. A major ally of the government, the United States, has proposed on-the-ground operations against drug trafficking. Is that a real possibility in Costa Rica?

A. Well, we already have on-the-ground operations against drug trafficking with the U.S. government. We have DEA bases, FBI personnel working with us; they provide technical assistance and help with extraditions — it’s not only maritime patrols. I would welcome a legislative review to better leverage the pursuit of common transnational crime targets. Some cartel leaders from neighboring countries are operating here and are also intelligence targets for the U.S. government. For those kinds of cases, I do think a review would be very worthwhile, without violating our national sovereignty and without endangering any international treaties or our Constitution.

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