The first female president of Costa Rica was sworn in last Saturday amid wide spread jubilation across the country.
Laura Chinchilla, 51, who was the country’s vice president between 2006 and 2008 won a landslide victory in the presidential elections last February, secured 47 per cent of the total votes for her centre-left National Liberation Party.
Speaking during the inauguration, President Chinchilla said her administration would be guided by the country’s constitution.
“I will work for a Costa Rica able to maintain moral leadership in the world thanks to defending peace, liberty and human rights,” she said.
Top of the new president’s agenda is the war against violent crime and drug trafficking which have been on the rise in the Central American nation.
She is also expected to build a strong relationship with US President Barack Obama, in order to continue the economic policies of her predecessor, Nobel Prize-winner Oscar Arias, which have secured better economic relations with both the US and China.
Holding a Master’s degree from the University of Georgetown, President Chinchilla is married with one child. As an arch social conservative, she is expected to continue her opposition to abortions and gay marriage in the country.
World leaders who attended her epoch making inauguration, in the country’s capital San Jose, included the presidents of Georgia, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia as well as and members of the foreign diplomatic circle.
