Guanacaste: Costa Rica’s New Political Focus

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Guanacaste Tree in Costa RicaThe region of Costa Rica formerly known as the “forgotten province” is now being heavily courted by politicians and public officials. In less than 20 years, Guanacaste has gone from a mostly agricultural province to a region rich in nature conservation, lavish real estate developments, tourism, technology, and more. As a result, candidates to represent Guanacaste at the national Legislative Assembly are busy presenting their “shovel-ready” agenda of projects for Costa Rica’s new and shiny Gold Coast.

News daily La Prensa Libre, one of Costa Rica’s earliest newspapers, has been closely following the burgeoning political spectrum in Guanacaste. It turns out that legislative candidates in this province are suddenly the most active in terms of practical agendas.

Whereas candidates across the six other provinces of Costa Rica: Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia, Limon, Puntarenas, and San Jose, are mostly talking ideology and lofty goals such as gender equality, carbon-neutrality, unarmed diplomacy, educational standards, etc, candidates in Guanacaste are talking about water, agriculture, tourism projects, real estate developments, theme parks, free-trade zones, etc. These are “shovel-ready” projects, which means that they are ready to be implemented because funding sources have been identified.

The following is a rundown of the candidates and their projects, as reported by La Prensa Libre. There seems to be a common theme in these undertakings: Guanacaste has turned into El Dorado and everyone wants a piece of it; however, we are not talking about gold as the precious resource. There is money to be made in Guanacaste -lots of it- and powerful entities are interested. Some of these candidates are willing to let those entities “play for pay,” which means that money must be distributed amongst the constituency.

Gerardo Brenes

This gentleman from Santa Cruz is very familiar with the textile industry and is ready to tackle unemployment with maquiladoras. He has some hopes on the stalled marina project at Flamingo, but he wants instant action with textile plants in the meantime. He is also pushing for a railroad project from Santa Elena to Playa Naranjo and to the Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport. When asked about same-sex marriage in Costa Rica, his answer is: “Look, we are all equal but we all need jobs too. Let’s focus on that first.”

Roxana Munoz

Water and public health are the foremost topics on the mind of this candidate. She knows that water shortages are major issues in Guanacaste, so she proposes turning off water to the golf courses, swimming pools and fountains of the swanky resorts and directing it to thirsty neighborhoods. She also wants to focus on making sure the EBAIS (public acute care clinics) are properly staffed and that they remain open for emergencies. She also has little patience for the alleged environmental damage caused by the RIU hotels and will propose strict regulations for future development in Guanacaste.

Juan Diego Garcia

This young candidate (he is 30 years old) knows that lots of money runs through Guanacaste each day, and he knows that private and foreign enterprises are pocketing most of it. He thinks the time has come to impose taxation and fees on these business entities for the purpose of distributing it to the poor. He is also troubled by deed-restricted access to some portions of Playas del Coco and other beaches; he would like to see hotels and other properties that limit beach access to pay dearly for that right and to use that money for social projects. He supports the rights of same-sex couples but thinks that workers’ rights are equally important.

Johny Leiva

This candidate is from Liberia and says that his biggest pride is that his cedula (national ID number) starts with the number 5, which means he was born in Guanacaste. For those born abroad, cedula numbers start with 8. Mr. Leiva wants nothing less than an autonomous region in Guanacaste. He also favors the huge energy production potential of the region (Japan seems to agree with him), and he would like to propose greater benefits for free-trade zones. He is not in favor of same-sex marriage and thinks that such matters should be handled privately and not by a legislative body.

Guanacaste residents: Who would you give your valuable vote to?

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