Andrés León Araya is an anthropologist, affiliated with the Department of International Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, and the Department of Political Science at the University of Costa Rica. He is the author of The Coup and the Palm Trees: Agrarian Conflict and Political Power in Honduras.

02.15.2026

• Andrés León Araya

Mano Dura Comes to Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s surge in violent crime should have been a liability for President Rodrigo Chaves’s right-wing party. Instead, his handpicked successor, Laura Fernández, won resoundingly by promising law-and-order policy unencumbered by democratic institutions.