Author: Luis Diego Molina

In Costa Rica, the issue of same-sex relationships has been an active topic for the past several years, but little progress has been made in terms of establishing an official policy. In a country with Roman Catholicism as the official Constitutional religion and with a large majority conservative population, it has been a controversial topic with supporters and opponents on both sides of the issue.

After several attempts to bring the issue to the legislative level, the most recent proposal called Coexistence Societies, which can be read here in Spanish, does not seek to legalize same-sex marriage, but seeks to offer alternatives for these couples. The text is based on four basic points [es], which include hospital visitation rights, dividing of earned wealth, inheritance rights, and insurance options.

During the presidential campaign, Laura Chinchilla of the National Liberation Party (PLN), who was elected on February 7, 2010 promised to support same-sex unions as an alternative to marriage, as she expressed in this video [es]. However, shortly after she was elected and after meetings with Assembly deputies from the Christian-aligned parties and with Evangelical Christian leaders, she hardened her position towards the proposal of same-sex unions [es].

Reactions to this change in position by President-elect Chinchilla were quick. The blogger at Conejos Suicidas [es] writes:

Si le fue tan fácil cambiar de opinión en este tema, ¿qué tan firme y honesta resultará al tener que cumplir compromisos con fracciones y grupos de poder más fuertes?

Another strong critic on her change in position is the blogger known as El Chamuko, who writes on his blog Infierno en Costa Rica [es]:

Habló muy lindo Laurias, de que no hay que discriminar a los homosexuales y que hay que apoyar iniciativas diferentes al matrimonio para proteger los derechos de esta minoría. El proyecto de ley de uniones civiles entre homosexuales es una iniciativa DIFERENTE AL MATRIMONIO, pero ahora la marioneta cambia el discurso que se traía en campaña, solo por quedar bien con un par de fanáticos religiosos que no permiten pecadores en sus partidos, pero bien que apoyan a ex-convictos por pedofilia.

*Note: “Laurias” is a nickname that some bloggers gave to the elected president Laura Chinchilla, that combines her name with the surname of the outgoing president Oscar Arias, because she had his support during the campaign. She is also called Arias' puppet because she will continue with the actual government policies.

There are citizen groups that have proposed holding a referendum to let the people decide whether or not to approve the Law of Coexistence Societies. This proposal to hold the referendum has outraged some bloggers and social sectors of the country, and even some Assembly deputies like Ana Helena Chacón (PUSC), Jose Merino (FA) and Carlos Gutierrez (ML), who have called for the law to be convened in an extraordinary session of the Legislative Assembly. Many feel that a referendum should not be held on a matter of Human Rights, which is what many proponents of the law feel is what at stake.

Jorge of the blog Terrorista Tercermundista [es] (Third World Terrorist) writes:

Dejar que la mayoría tome la decisión de si aceptar o no derechos básicos de una minoría en pleno año 2010, es insultar y escupir todas aquellas luchas que han librado los grupos siempre discriminados históricamente, y no solo me refiero a los homosexuales.

In the blog Club Sodoma [es], LGBT rights activist Willop writes:

¿Por qué debemos evitar el referéndum? Los derechos humanos fueron concebidos para respetarse y otorgársele a tod@s l@s ciudadan@s. Nuestro país consultaría si se da o no un derecho humano, eso debería ser inconcebible. Los derechos humanos no se consultan, se dan.

One suggestion for resolving this matter in the best possible manner is made by Cristian Cambronero on his blog Fusil de Chispas [es], who proposes:

¿Cuál es la alternativa al referendo? Simple: que el proyecto sea discutido en la Asamblea Legislativa, como corresponde, donde tras múltiples modificaciones ya cuenta con un apoyo expreso significativo.

On Sunday, February 7, 2010 the people of Costa Rica went to the polls and elected the first woman president in its history, Laura Chinchilla, of the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN, for its initials in Spanish). According to official data provided by the Supreme Court Elections (TSE) won by a wide margin of cast votes. Chinchilla won 46.78% of the votes and defeated her main rival, Ottón Solis of the Citizens Action Party (PAC), who received 25.11%. The elections were conducted without incident, as the blog Elections 2014-2018 [es] (the dates were updated to reflect the next election) who writes:

Las elecciones se celebraron en un ambiente de fiesta, como lo marca la tradición en esta nación centroamericana en los últimos 50 años y que es considerada una de las democracias más sólidas y antiguas de América Latina.

The elections were held in a festive atmosphere, as is tradition in this Central American nation during the past 50 years and is considered to be one of the oldest and most solid democracies in Latin America.

The reactions of bloggers about Chinchilla’s victory did not wait. Some offered their analysis of the facts, others their opinions. An example analysis is provided by Cristian Cambronero in his blog Fusil de Chispas [es], who writes that Chinchilla's party also won the highest number of seats in the Assembly:

Según la proyecciones hasta la media noche del domingo, la próxima Asamblea, compuesta por 57 diputados, quería conformada por PLN 24 diputados del oficialista PLN (centro-derecha), 10 del opositor PAC (centro-izquierda), 10 del derechista Movimiento Libertario, 6 del PUSC (derecha), 4 del PASE, 1 del Frente Amplio (Izquierda), y 2 diputados de partidos de fuerte raíz religiosa-conservadora: 1 de Restauración Nacional y 1 de Renovación Costarricense.

According to the projections up to midnight Sunday, the next Assembly, composed of 57 deputies, would be composed of 24 deputies of the ruling PLN (center right), 10 from the opposition PAC (center left), 10 of the right Libertarian Movement, PUSC 6 (right), 4 of PASE, 1 of the Broad Front (Left) and 2 members of religious parties strong conservative roots: 1 of National Restoration and 1 of Costa Rican Renovation.

Video by YouTube user manrikecr with scenes from around San Carlos, Costa Rica:

Returning to the election of the president, views are mixed. For some bloggers, the idea of political continuity of National Liberation Party (PLN) is not encouraging, as expressed in the blog Conoche San Jose de Noche [es], who writes:

En mi humilde criterio se vienen cuatro años más de lo mismo de los últimos 25 años, donde el pobre se hace cada vez más pobre y el rico continua llenando sus bolsillos a costa del sudor de sus “colaboradores”, además claro el pueblo con su voto dio permiso a que los diputados sigan paseando en avioneta y escribiendo memorándums de terror para el pueblo.

In my humble view, four more years of the same is on its way and which have been happening over the past 25 years, where the poor are becoming poorer and the rich continue to fill their pockets at the expense of the sweat of his “friends,” of course the people with their vote gave the deputies permission to continue riding in airplane and writing terror memos for the people.

The victory of the PLN is seen as a blow to the leftist supporters, as described by the author of the blog El Mae del Bajo [es] who writes:

Ha llegado la hora para que la izquierda se una, esta elección ha manifestado la necesidad de una gran coalición de partidos de izquierda, solo así se formara un gran frente de lucha en contra de los neoliberales, pero si los mezquinos dirigente de estos partidos se niegan a unirse el único camino que les queda es la disolución, abran los ojos ante esta realidad…

The time has come for the left to unite, this election has shown the necessity of a broad coalition of leftist parties, and only in that manner will a broad front be created to fight against neo-liberals, but if the petty leaders of these parties refuse to join, the only path that remains is to dissolve, they need to open up their eyes to this reality…

Although there are abundant feelings of disappointment over the election in the blogosphere, such as from Julia Ardón, who writes about Chinchilla's victory [es]:

No me siento representada por ella. Es raro. Lloré cuando Michelle llegó a la presidencia en Chile. Pero ahorita, cuando ella dió su discurso de aceptación la escuché con atención y no sentí nada. No sé si eran los jingles que la interrumpían, no sé si era la redacción de su discurso. No sé si es que me siento muy lejos de sus ideas y de quienes la colocaron como candidata. No sé. Pero no me conecté con su corazón. No pude.

However, there are other bloggers calling for respect of the choice of the majority, which is what the blogger known as Wolverine wrote:

Ya es nuestra presidente, démosle oportunidad de demostrar su independencia y probar que ella es bastante capaz como mujer de llevar a cabo y ejercer satisfactoriamente su cargo como Presidenta de Costa Rica y superar las expectativas del pueblo, al fin y al cabo Costa Rica somos todos los ticos, no solo el Presidente y su comitiva

She is now our president, give her a chance to demonstrate her independence and prove that she is quite capable as a woman to go forward and to exercise in a satisfactory manner the office as President of Costa Rica and exceed the expectations of the people, after all, in Costa Rica we are all “ticos” (Costa Ricans), not only the President and her party.

On February 7 of 2010, the general election for 2010-2014 period [es] will take place across Costa Rica. The leading presidential candidates are Laura Chinchilla of the official party National Liberation Party (PLN), followed by Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement Party (ML), and with less popular support are the candidates Ottón Solís of Citizens' Action Party (PAC), and Luis Fisman of Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC). There are another five parties that are considered to have a remote chance during the campaign. In referring to the presidential candidates this week, the word plagiarism has gained prominence in the Costa Rican blogosphere.

Several bloggers, including Conejitos Suicidas [es] was informed by the Twitter user @masala777, who denounced the advertisement from the Libertarian Movement candidate Guevara. Currently in second place in terms of voting intention, Guevara's ad consists of an open hand and the slogan “Change now,” which looks very similar to an image from a Guatemalan Christian Church, named Word in Action. The image from this activity called Generation of Change can be seen here. In reference to this subject, Conejitos said:

El caso no solo remite a lo referente al plagio, sino también a un tema de propiedad intelectual, misma que todos los que trabajan en este sector saben que se trata de uno de los sectores más desprotegidos por nuestras leyes y autoridades, y como no? si hasta alguien que puede llegar a ser presidente los plagia? ¿Será culpa directa de los encargados de la publicidad del ML, o de una mala jugada de un colega? ¿Ustedes que opinan?

Guevara is also accused of plagiarizing the idea of providing computers to students and student centers from a document (.pdf) from the Fondo Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (National Telecommunications Fund), according to the blog Manda Güevo [es], which states:

los planes de gobierno en este país son una verdadera cochinada que al final no sirve de nada, esto es conocido hasta por los propios partidos políticos los cuales ya no se desgastan pensando en propuestas innovadores y recurren al plagio dentro de ellos.

The candidate of the PUSC, Fishman was also accused of plagiarism by the the blog Infierno en Costa Rica [es] (Hell in Costa Rica), for its latest advertising spot “El menos malo es el mejor (video),” which means “The lesser evil is the best” and the idea was based on a scene from the Whoopi Goldberg film Sister Act. Faced with this complaint the Costa Rican newspaper La Nación, asked Fishman if this was true [es], and he replied, “Yes, and I don't care… if they say that it is a copy, then I don't care. The idea was taken from ‘Sister Act,' but they were nuns.”

Photo of candidate Luis Fishman, courtesy of Habla Costa Rica

These are the most recent cases of plagiarism in political campaigns, however, last year it was discovered that the candidate for the Citizens Action Party, Otton Solis took 19 paragraphs from the strategic plan of the Costa Rican Social Security Administration [es] for his own government health plan the health area, which the candidate acknowledged as an error.

These examples can be frightening to the bloggers who wonder how those who seek to rule the country can be capable of such actions.

This post is also available at Habla Costa Rica.