List of heads of state of Costa Rica
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2020) |
The following is the list of all the heads of state of Costa Rica. The current Constitution establishes that the President of Costa Rica is both head of state and head of government, and the current officeholder is Carlos Alvarado Quesada of the Citizens' Action Party.
First independent governments (1821–1824)
On October 11, 1821, the province of Costa Rica proclaimed its absolute independence from Spain. On the 29th of that month, the city of Cartago, head of the Partido de Costa Rican, also signed an act declaring the absolute independence of the Spanish Government.
During this period the main divisions occurred between two sides; the imperialist who sought to annex Costa Rica to the First Mexican Empire and the Republican who sought full independence from Costa Rica. The monarchicals or monarchists also advocated the recognition of Agustín de Iturbide as emperor.
.svg){kind=small} Political chief of the Province of Costa Rica[1] |
Office | Term | Faction | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| ||||||
 |
Juan Manuel de Cañas-Trujillo y Sánchez de Madrid | Political chief | October 11, 1821]– November 12, 1821 | Españolista | ||
|
Nicolás Carrillo y Aguirre | President of the Town's Legates Junta | November 12, 1821 – December 1, 1821 | Imperialista | ||
|
Pedro José de Alvarado y Baeza | President of the Provisional Government Junta | December 1821– January 1822 | Imperialista | ||
 |
Rafael Barroeta y Castilla | President of the Electors Board | January 6–13, 1822; president of the Superior Government Junta, January 6 – April 13, 1822 | Imperialista | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
Santiago de Bonilla y Laya-Bolívar | President of the Superior Government Junta | 13 Aprial – June 15, 1822 | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
José María de Peralta y La Vega | President of the Superior Government Junta | June 15 – October 17, 1822 | Republican | |
 |
José Rafael Gallegos Alvarado | President of the Superior Government Junta | 17 octubre de 1822– January 1, 1823 | Imperialista | ||
| José Santos Lombardo y Alvarado | President of the Superior Government Junta | January 1 – March 20, 1823 | Imperialista | |||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
Rafael Francisco Osejo | President of the Diputación of Costa Rica | March 20–29, 1823 | Republican | |
 |
Joaquín de Oreamuno y Muñoz de la Trinidad | General Commander of Arms, de facto | March 29 – April 5 1823 | Imperialista | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
Gregorio José Ramírez y Castro | General Commander of Arms, de facto | April 5 – 16, 1823 | Republican | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
José María de Peralta y La Vega | President of the Constituent Provincial Congress | April 16 – May 10, 1823 | Republican | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
Manuel Alvarado e Hidalgo | President of the Superior Government Junta | 1823–1824 | Republican | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
Eusebio Rodríguez y Castro | President of the Superior Government Junta | January 8 – February 12 1824 | Republican | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
Manuel Alvarado e Hidalgo | President of the Superior Government Junta | February 12 – September 8 1824 | Republican | |
Emperor (1822–1823)
 Emperor |
Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Agustín de Iturbide | May 19, 1822– March 19, 1823 |
During the period of permanence of Costa Rica in the First Mexican Empire, Emperor Agustín de Iturbide was the monarch of the country as of the rest of the Empire. However, imperial sovereignty was not universally recognized. The disputes between imperialists loyal to Iturbide and Republicans seeking full independence led to the first Costa Rican civil war. |
President of the Federal Republic of Central America (1823–1839)
Between 1824 and 1838 Costa Rica was a member of the Federal Republic of Central America, and the president was the federal president of the country, although the political influence of the federal government was minimal.
 President |
Term (Election) |
Profession | Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
José Matías Delgado | 1823 (interim) |
Catholic Priest | Liberal Party | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
First Triumvirate: | (1823) | Liberal Party | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
Second Triumvirate: | 1823–1825 | Liberal Party | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
Manuel José Arce | 29 April 1825-13 April 1829 (Appointed by Congress) |
Military | Liberal Party | |
|
Mariano Beltranena y Llano | 13 April 1829-14 June 1829 (Deposed) |
Aristocrat | Conservative Party | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
José Francisco Barrundia | 26 June 1829-16 June 1830 (interim) |
Journalist | Liberal Party | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| |  |
José Francisco Morazán Quezada | 16 September 1830-16 September 1834 (1830) |
Military | Liberal Party | |
 |
José Cecilio del Valle† | (1834. Died before assuming office) | Military | Conservative Party | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
José Gregorio Salazar | 16 September 1834-14 February 1835 (interim) |
Politician | Liberal Party | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color| | |
José Francisco Morazán Quezada | February 14, 1835 – February 1, 1839 (1835, Costa Rica splits from the Federation). |
Military | Liberal Party | |
Heads of State of Costa Rica (1824–1847)
Between 1824 and 1847 and according to the Constitutions of the United Provinces of Central America (1824), of Costa Rica from 1825 and 1844, the chief of the executive branch bore the title of supreme chief or first chief.
Liberals almost completely dominated Costa Rican politics during this period, to the point that many historians call this the "Liberal State". In Costa Rica there was no war between liberals and conservatives as was common in the rest of Latin America and even coup d'etats and de facto governments were mostly between liberal factions. The only conservative president of this period was José Rafael de Gallegos y Alvarado who did not end his term. Another conservative, Nicolás Ulloa Soto, never took office.ref>Msc. Marvin Carvajal Barrantes.[2]
President of the State of Costa Rica (1847–1848)
.svg) President of the State of Costa Rica[1] |
Province | Term (Election) |
Profession | Faction | Vice President | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 1 |  |
José María Alfaro Zamora | Alajuela | May 1, 1847 – May 6, 1847 (interim) |
Trader | Liberal | José María Castro Madriz |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 2 |  |
José María Castro Madriz | San José | May 8, 1847 – August 31, 1848 (1847) |
Lawyer | Liberal | José María Alfaro Zamora (1847) Juan Rafael Mora Porras (1847–1848) |
President of the Republic of Costa Rica (1848–1948)
Current title of the head of state and government since the Constitution of 1847. The historiography tends to divide this historical period in two, the previous one to the civil war of 1948 and the subsequent one to it. During the first period from 1847 to 1948, the liberals almost completely dominated Costa Rican politics. The liberal hegemony only broke briefly with the government of Vicente Herrera Zeledón (who however had been elected by the liberals) who ruled de facto for just over a year between 1876 and 1877. Even the dictator Federico Tinoco whose dictatorship lasted two years was also liberal. In addition, Costa Rican politics was then (and continues to be to some extent) eminently personalist, so political parties such as Civil, National, Peliquista and Republican revolved mostly around leaders and political figures and not ideologies although, in general terms, they usually be diffusely associated with liberalism.
Costa Rican liberalism was also closely linked to the coffee-growing oligarchy and an important sector of the aristocracy. Attempts to create party alternatives not only formally ideological but more to the left were the Reform Party of Father Jorge Volio Jiménez, strongly influenced by the Catholic social teaching and Christian socialism and Manuel Mora Valverde's Workers and Peasants Block (which precisely it would break with the Reform Party after Volio's alliance with the liberal Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno of the Republican Party) that would lead to the Costa Rican Communist Party. However, even after the war, an important influence of liberal thinking could be seen in the presidents emanated from opposition coalitions as well as within the Social Christian Unity Party.
The National Republican Party led several liberals to the presidency, however, it would be under the government of perhaps its most famous president Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia that the reforms known as the Social Guarantees would be given for the benefit of the poorest classes and would be one of the triggers of the war of 48.[3]
 Presidents of the Republic of Costa Rica[1][4] |
Province | Term (Election) |
Profession | Faction/Party | Vice President | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Liberal Olympus Military Constitutional Party Civil Party Republican Party National Union Party National National Republican Party | ||||||||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 1 | |
José María Castro Madriz | San José | August 31, 1848 – November 15, 1849 (1847, deposed) |
Lawyer | Liberal | Manuel José Carazo Bonilla (1848–1849) Juan Rafael Mora Porras (1849) |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 1.a |  |
Miguel Mora Porras | San José | November 16–26, 1849 (interim) |
Trader | Liberal | Vacant |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 2 |  |
Juan Rafael Mora Porras | San José | November 26 – December 30, 1849 – August 14, 1859 (1849, 1853 and 1859. Deposed by Montealegre.) |
Empresario | Liberal | Francisco María Oreamuno Bonilla† (1853–1856) Vicente Aguilar Cubero (1856–1857) Rafael García-Escalante Nava (1857–1859) |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 3 |  |
José María Montealegre Fernández | San José | 14 August 1859-8 May 1863 (de facto after a coup, later elected in 1860) |
Medic | Liberal | Abolished Alternates appointed by Congress. |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 4 |  |
Jesús Jiménez Zamora | Cartago | 8 May 1863-8 May 1866 (1863) |
Medic | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 5 | |
José María Castro Madriz | San José | May 8, 1866 – November 1, 1868 (1866, deposed by Jiménez.) |
Lawyer | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Military Rule/meta/color; color: white| | 6 | |
Jesús Jiménez Zamora | Cartago | November 1, 1868 – April 27, 1870 (de facto after a coup, elected as single candidate in 1869, deposed by coup lead by Guardia.) |
Medic | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Military Rule/meta/color; color: white| | 7 |  |
Bruno Carranza Ramírez | San José | April 27 – August 8, 1870 (interim, appointed by Guardia.) |
Medic | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 8 |  |
Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez | Guanacaste | August 8, 1870 – May 8, 1876 (de facto after coup, elected in 1872).) |
Military | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 9 |  |
Aniceto Esquivel Sáenz | Cartago | May 8, 1876 – July 30, 1876 (1876 as Guardia's puppet, deposed by Guardia). |
Lawyer | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Military Rule/meta/color; color: white| | 10 |  |
Vicente Herrera Zeledón | San José | 30 July 1876-23 September 1877 (Appointed by Guardia, resigns due to health issues.) |
Lawyer | Conservative | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 11 | |
Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez† | Guanacaste | September 23, 1877 – July 6, 1882 (ruled as a dictator, died in office.) |
Military | Liberal | |
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 12 |  |
Saturnino Lizano Gutiérrez | Puntarenas | July 6 – August 10, 1882 (interim) |
Trader | Liberal | |
| 13 |  |
Próspero Fernández Oreamuno† | San José | August 10, 1882 – March 12, 1885 (1882. Died in office) |
Philosopher | Olympus | ||
| 14 |  |
Bernardo Soto Alfaro | Alajuela | March 12, 1885 – November 7, 1889 (interim later elected in 1886, resigns.) |
Military and lawyer | Olympus | ||
| style="background:Template:Liberal (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color:white| | 14.a |  |
Carlos Durán Cartín | San José | November 7, 1889 – May 8, 1890 (interim) |
Medic | Liberal | |
| 15 |  |
José Rodríguez Zeledón | San José | 8 May 1890-8 May 1894 (1889) |
Lawyer | Constitutional Party | ||
| 16 |  |
Rafael Yglesias Castro | San José | 8 May 1894-8 May 1902 (1894 and 1897–1898) |
Businessman | Civil Party | ||
| style="background:Template:National Union Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 17 | .JPG) |
Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra | Guanacaste | 8 May 1902-8 May 1906 (1901–1902) |
Lawyer | National Union Party | |
| 18 |  |
Cleto González Víquez | Heredia | 8 May 1906-8 May 1910 (1905–1906) |
Lawyer | National Party | ||
| style="background:Template:Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 19 |  |
Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno | Cartago | 8 May 1910-8 May 1914 (1909–1910) |
Lawyer | Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 20 |  |
Alfredo González Flores | Heredia | May 8, 1914 – January 27, 1917 (Appointed by Congress, deposed in the 1917 Costa Rican coup d'état lead by Tinoco). |
Lawyer | Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:Military Rule/meta/color; color: white| | 21 |  |
Federico Alberto Tinoco Granados | San José | January 27, 1917 – August 20, 1919 (ruled after coup, elected as single candidate in 1917, deposed by popular uprising). |
Businessman | Peliquista Party | |
| style="background:Template:Military Rule/meta/color; color: white| | 22 |  |
Juan Bautista Quirós Segura | San José | August 20, 1919 – September 2, 1919 (interim, forced to resign). |
Empresario | Peliquista Party | |
| style="background:Template:Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 23 |  |
Francisco Aguilar Barquero | Cartago | 2 September 1919-8 May 1920 (interim). |
Teacher | Republican Party | |
| 24 |  |
Julio Acosta García | Alajuela | 8 May 1920-8 May 1924 (1919) |
Diplomatic | Constitutional Party | ||
| style="background:Template:Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 25 | |
Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno | Cartago | May 8, 1924 – May 8, 1928 (1923) |
Lawyer | Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:National Union Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 26 | |
Cleto González Víquez | Heredia | 8 May 1928-8 May 1932 (1928) |
Lawyer | National Union Party | |
| style="background:Template:National Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 27 | |
Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno | Cartago | May 8, 1932 – May 8, 1936 (1932) |
Lawyer | National Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:National Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 28 |  |
León Cortés Castro | Alajuela | 8 May 1936-8 May 1940 (1936) |
Teacher and lawyer | National Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:National Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 29 |  |
Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia | San José | 8 May 1940-8 May 1944 (1940) |
Medic | National Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:National Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 30 |  |
Teodoro Picado Michalski | San José | May 8, 1944 – April 19, 1948 (1944, deposed by civil war). |
Teacher | National Republican Party | |
| style="background:Template:National Republican Party (Costa Rica)/meta/color; color: white| | 30.a | .jpg) |
Santos León Herrera | San José | April 19 – May 8, 1948 (interim). |
Engineer | National Republican Party | |
Founding Junta of the Second Republic (1948–1949)
After the rupture of the constitutional order in 1948 when the third and last Costa Rican civil war broke out, the victorious side formed by the National Liberation Movement exercised de facto power for 18 months under the self-appointed Founding Junta of the Second Republic chaired by José Figueres Ferrer who proclaimed the beginning of the Second Costa Rican Republic.
President of the Republic of Costa Rica (1949-today)
José Figueres would hand over the Executive Power to Otilio Ulate Blanco on November 8, 1949 as the alleged winner of the 1948 elections whose annulment by the government of Teodoro Picado and Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia caused the civil war of the same year. A National Constituent Assembly was also convened that drafted the 1949 Constitution, still in force, and also created the official positions of First and Second Vice presidents of the Republic.
The National Liberation Party, of social democratic ideology and led by the war-winning leader José Figueres Ferrer would become the main political force after 48, but both Calderonistas and liberals would remain active allying with each other, which would allow the governments of Mario Echandi Jiménez and José Joaquín Trejos Fernández. Following the merger of almost all the antiliberacionista opposition grouped in the Unity Coalition in the Social Christian Unity Party in 1983, this party and the National Liberation would form a solid bipartisanism so that all presidents between 1982 and 2014 belonged to one of these two parties. It is in 2014 that bipartisanship is broken with the coming to power of Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, first president of the post-bipartisan stage and belonging to a party that was not linked to the two major traditional political tendencies (liberationism and calderonism) the Citizens' Action Party that had already been the main opposition force for two previous periods.[5]
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References
- ^ a b c d e Obregón, Clotilde (2002). Nuestros gobernantes: verdades del pasado para comprender el futuro. Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica. ISBN 9789977677019. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
- ^ La independencia de Costa Rica (2011) extraído en 2013
- ^ http://geografiahistoriasecundaria.blogspot.com/p/la-crisis-de-la-republica-liberal-1914.html
- ^ a b Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria (2007). "EL MENSAJE PRESIDENCIAL COSTARRICENSE DESDE LA ETNOGRAFÍA DE LA COMUNICACIÓN". Filología y Lingüística XXXIII (2): 141–178, 2007. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
- ^ http://www.primeraplana.or.cr/app/cms/www/index.php?pk_articulo=3694
