In a resounding first-round victory, right-wing candidate Laura Fernandez has claimed the presidency of Costa Rica, propelled by a no-nonsense security agenda inspired by Nayib Bukele’s crackdown in El Salvador. In a region plagued by narco-violence, voters have clearly chosen order over compromise.
A Decisive Victory, A Message of Force
Sunday, February 1st, 2026, marked a clear political shift in Central America. Laura Fernandez, a right-wing political scientist and former minister, secured the Costa Rican presidency with nearly 49% of the vote, according to 88% of precincts counted. That figure puts her a full nine points above the threshold required to avoid a runoff. Her main rival, centrist economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded promptly, underscoring the clarity of her mandate.
Fernandez’s rise comes at a moment of deepening public frustration with a judiciary seen as soft on organized crime. Her campaign’s core promise? To reassert control, using the full power of the state to dismantle drug-related violence in what was once considered one of Latin America’s safest nations.
Laura Fernandez Costa Rica: Following Bukele’s Blueprint?
At just 39 years old, Fernandez has already held two cabinet posts under outgoing president Rodrigo Chaves—himself a controversial reformer who battled judicial inertia. But Fernandez is taking things several steps further. Her model is not Sweden or Canada, but El Salvador under Nayib Bukele.
Her security plan includes the construction of a Bukele-style high-security mega-prison, tougher sentencing, and temporary suspension of civil liberties in high-crime areas—tactics that have drawn the ire of human rights groups, but the admiration of a public hungry for results.
In a symbolic move, Fernandez declared herself “president-elect” in a televised call with Chaves shortly after the results came in. Within hours, Bukele himself phoned in his congratulations—a not-so-subtle passing of the torch between strong-willed leaders with little patience for institutional roadblocks.
A Power Play Against the Judiciary
Fernandez has made it clear: her next battle is the Costa Rican judicial system, which President Chaves has long blamed for paralyzing anti-narcotics enforcement. To push her agenda, Fernandez is aiming for a parliamentary majority—not just to pass laws, but to restructure key state institutions.
Opponents accuse her of opportunism and authoritarian leanings. But such criticisms increasingly ring hollow in a region where citizens have lost faith in the rule of law and crave executive strength. In that sense, Fernandez’s success is not an aberration, but a reflection of a broader political realignment toward order and national pride.
A Regional Shift to the Right
With this election, Costa Rica joins a growing list of Central American nations shifting to the right, tired of neoliberal platitudes and hollow democratic rituals. The imagery of Fernandez standing tall among cheering crowds in San José, flanked by security personnel and advisors, projects the image of a state ready to reassert itself.
For years, Costa Rica was portrayed as the exception—a stable, peaceful democracy amid regional instability. That narrative has collapsed. The demands of sovereignty, safety, and state authority are now at the forefront.
Costa Rica’s Post-Naïveté Era
Costa Rica, long celebrated as the gentle democracy of Central America, has cast off its illusions. As violence spirals and institutions falter, voters have opted for confrontation over caution.
Laura Fernandez has not just won an election—she has ushered in a new era, one where national sovereignty and executive power are once again central to the political project. Her victory speaks to a broader regional pattern: the return of forceful leadership in a world where order, not ideology, is the new political currency.
This is the end of innocence for Costa Rica. And perhaps the beginning of something far more serious.
