Background
Luis Alberto Monge was born on 29 December 1926 in Palmares. His origins and schooling were more humble than those of many of the other PLN founders.
Luis Alberto Monge was born on 29 December 1926 in Palmares. His origins and schooling were more humble than those of many of the other PLN founders.
Monge began his career in the “Rerum Novarum” trade union movement under Padre Benjamin Núñez in the 1940s, which brought him to the side of José Figueres Ferrer in the 1948 civil war.
During the 1950s Monge was general secretary of the Inter American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT), with headquarters in Mexico City. In 1959 he, Figueres, and Núñez established the Inter-American Institute of Political Education in San José, for development of democratic left movements, in Latin America, and he was managing editor of the institute’s journal, Combato.
In 1963, during the administration of Francisco José Orlich Bolmarcich, Monge served as ambassador to Israel, but personal problems and concern over the conservative drift of the PLN caused him to withdraw from politics momentarily. In 1966 he assumed the position of PLN secretary general.
As secretary general of the PLN, Monge slowly built a political base. He won a seat in the Legislative Assembly in 1970 and served as its president during Figueres’ 1970-1974 term. He won the PLN nomination in 1978, lost that election, but won in 1982.