Background
José Figueres Ferrer was born on 25 September 1906. The son of a physician, he was bom in San Ramón, shortly after his parents emigrated from Spain.
government official politician president
José Figueres Ferrer was born on 25 September 1906. The son of a physician, he was bom in San Ramón, shortly after his parents emigrated from Spain.
In 1924 he went to the United States to study engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology but dropped out.
He returned to Costa Rica in 1928 and acquired a rundown farm, where he created an agricultural-industrial enterprise, manufacturing coffee bags and mgs from cabuya fiber. He shared the proceeds with the peasants and workers in the form of housing, schools, recreational facilities, and clinics.
Figueres organized the National Liberation Party (PLN) and won the presidency in 1953. The PLN became the dominant party in Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica, Liberacionista leader Francisco José Orlich Bolmarcich won the 1962 presidential election, but in 1966 the PLN standard-bearer, Daniel Oduber Quiros, lost. This defeat convinced Figueres that he had to run in 1970.
Figueres became president again in 1970. This last presidency was very controversial, as Figueres, in his quest for better prices for coffee, opened trade talks and established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, which conservative groups protested vigorously. He caused a major scandal when he allowed “fugitive financier’’ Robert Vesco to settle in Costa Rica.
Figueres burst on the national scene in 1942, when he made a radio speech criticizing President Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia for his failure to prevent mob violence in the aftermath of a Gemían submarine attack on Puerto Limón. After two years’ exile in Mexico, Figueres returned home as a hero of those opposed to Calderon, whose regime had grown repressive. When President Teodoro Picado attempted to annul the victory of opposition candidate Otilio Ulate Blanco in the presidential election of 1948, Figueres rallied his supporters to overthrow Picado in a six-week civil war in March-April 1948. Although Figeures eventually installed Ulate in the presidency, he first presided over the Founding Junta of the Second Republic for 18 months.
The Founding Junta undertook a major transformation of the economy, while maintaining Calderon’s social programs and restoring Costa Rica’s democracy. It nationalized banking, insurance, energy, communications, and transportation, and instituted the concept of national planning. These progams and others were incorporated in the Constitution of 1949. Figueres also abolished the Costa Rican Army.
Much of the creative phase of Figueres’ career had occurred during the Founding Junta, and he spent his presidencies implementing and fine-tuning his program. He was especially active in the fight to achieve better international prices for basic commodities, courting the United States in this endeavor. He argued that Latin Americans did not want handouts, only just prices for their products. He linked economic justice to the struggle for democracy.
Figueres strongly opposed the Caribbean dictators by giving shelter to refugees and supporting exile movements. The dictators, in turn, attempted to overthrow Figueres several times. Without an army, Figueres called on the Inter American System for defense.
During the 1960s Figueres remained very much the international statesman. He became the symbol not merely of the antidictatorial forces but also a model for the democratic alternative to Fidel Castro. He promoted collaboration among Latin American parties of the Democratic left.
President Figueres undertook a “war on poverty,” setting up the Combined Institute of Social Assistance to aid the chronically poor. Moreover, for the first time since its founding, the PLN succeeded itself in the presidency at the end of his term, with the victory of Daniel Oduber in 1974.
