Background
Mario Echandi Jiménez was born in San Josae on 17 June 1915.
Mario Echandi Jiménez was born in San Josae on 17 June 1915.
In the election of 1948, he supported Otilio Ulate Blanco. Following the civil war of 1948, which was fought to uphold Ulate’s election, Echandi served as Costa Rican ambassador to the United States and as foreign minister.
Echandi won the 1958 election.
Echandi ran for president again in 1970, at the head of a coalition of opposition parties, but got only 41.2 percent of the vote against Figueres. In 1982 he was again a candidate, but this time he headed a splinter right-wing group and won only 3.3 percent of the vote.
During the presidential term of José Figueres Ferrer (1953-1958), Echandi serving in the national legislature, became a hero of anti-Figueres elements. In January 1955 armed forces under the exiled Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia unsuccessfully invaded Costa Rica from Nicaragua, with the aid of that nation’s dictator, Anastasio Somoza García. Figueres became convinced that Ulate and Echandi were involved in the conspiracy. When Figueres used his majority in the Legislative Assembly to lift congressional immunity of Echandi in order to bring him to trial on charges of treason, the courts refused to try Echandi, and he returned to Congress in triumph. Figueres had inadvertently given the opposition a presidential candidate.
As a President he had been a major critic of recent changes in Costa Rican society, he did not undo economic and social reforms, concentrating on strengthening the private sector, attracting foreign investment, and promoting public works. Echandi faced perilous international codifions marked by the fall of long-time Caribbean dictators and the rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba. He steered a neutral course during this period, and Costa Rica benefited from the Alliance for Progress.
A wealthy lawyer-businessman, he represented conservative and traditional elements in Costa Rican politics.
