By Kamran Nayeri, October 22, 2025
In this essay, I will
first briefly describe the historical formation of Costa Rica. Then I will
compare the development process of Costa Rica. Finally, I will compare today’s
Costa Rica with two other Latin American countries, Cuba and Nicaragua, both of
which have undergone revolutions led by socialist leaderships.
I have written extensively about the Cuban revolution (Nayeri
2025, Part II, pp. 111-198). Many socialists, including me, gladly welcomed the
July 1979 Sandinista victory in Nicaragua. Socialists were hopeful that under
the leadership of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) Nicaraguans would
have a bright future that would set an example for working people around the
world. The northern neighbor of Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, shares much of the natural and social history of Central America.
It is beyond the scope of this essay to delve deeper into what happened to the
Nicaraguan revolution of 1979; I will suffice with a brief outline. The
interested reader would benefit from La Botz's valuable book (2016) for further
explanation and analysis. Costa Rica is a capitalist country, but it has a
history of significant reforms that have created a welfare state in Latin
America since 1948.
In the concluding section of this article, I will examine some
common indicators for comparing the quality of life of the working people in
these three countries. According to these indicators, Costa Ricans are living
in better conditions compared to Nicaraguans and Cubans. I invite the reader to
consider why that may be. I think a key factor is the institutionalization of
fundamental political, civil, and human rights in Costa Rica, which establishes
a bourgeois democracy. Regrettably, in Nicaragua, a bourgeois democracy has not
endured, and there is little tolerance for civil and democratic rights. Despite
Fidel Castro’s proclamation in 1961 that the Cuban revolution would pursue
socialism, socialist democracy never developed. Instead, Cuba became a
one-party state modeled after the Soviet Union, where the Communist Party has dominated
the economy and society. The economy and society have been in crisis since the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
How I became interested
in Costa Rica
In 1970-1971, when I was in my sophomore year at the
University of Texas at Austin, I became friends with Iraj Vojdani. An Iranian architecture
student and I were then attracted to classical music and art, both influenced
by the radical youth culture of the 1960s, and we sometimes smoked marijuana
and talked about our dreams. The hippies rebelled
against the conventional U.S. culture and dreamed of a simple life on a
cooperative farm. Iraj and I were attracted to this dream.
One day in the students’ newspaper, the Daily Texan, we saw
a tiny ad for the sale of 10 hectares of land in Costa Rica for $10,000. We had
no idea about Costa Rica, but when we inquired, we heard good things about it. We
discussed this for a while, and in the end, we gave up because of a lack of
willpower and financial resources. At
the time, $10,000 was not a small sum. In the summer of 1969, I worked in
Chicago and saved $2,000 working four months,16 hours a day in two jobs, and
living a frugal life (an occasional ice cream sundae was my reward). This is
how I first learned about the existence of Costa Rica.
At the same time, encouraged by another friend, Masoud
Avini, a sociology student, I read Marx’s Concept of Man by Eric Fromm (1961). Unlike the hippies, who
had no radical critique of capitalist society, Marx proposed a social theory of
problems in capitalist society and suggested a collective, rather than
individual, solution to transition to a better society, which he called
socialism. Marx argued that the root of the problems in capitalist societies is
alienation, and for that, he proposed a socialist revolution to eliminate all
forms of alienation.
Under the influence of that book, I considered Marx as my
teacher and socialism as my life's goal.
Simultaneously, I was drawn to the Cuban Revolution, which was an
attractive model for the peripheral countries like Iran. The Socialist Workers
Party of the United States was my teacher about the Cuban revolution.
At the first opportunity, I visited Cuba ten times between
1994 and 2006 to learn about the Cuban revolution up close. During those trips,
which were accompanied by reading about Cuba and the revolution, I became aware
of the problems of the revolution and its leadership. In June 2006, after an
unsuccessful research trip to study access to care in Cuba following the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Public Health officials who could have permitted
me to interview people denied permission. I became convinced that I couldn't
learn more deeply about Cuba. There was no need to return.
In October 2006, I took a new job in the Office of the
President of the University of California.
I traveled to Costa Rica for the first time for the two weeks between
the end of my UC Berkeley job and the start of a new one. During that trip, I
became so fascinated by Costa Rica’s nature and the life of its people that I
decided to migrate there. However, for various reasons, this has not yet been
possible. Still, I have been going to Costa Rica every year for vacation, and I
have Costa Rican friends and friends among Americans living in Costa Rica.
How
Costa Rica was created (see note 1)
Costa Rica is a small country in Central America, with an
area of approximately 19,730 square miles and 5.5 million people. It borders Nicaragua
to the north and Panama to the south, with the Pacific Ocean to the west and
the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica, together with Belize, Guatemala,
Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama, makes up Central America.
Central America was formed 150 million years ago, which
makes it young relative to the planet's age of 4.54 billion years. Initially,
it emerged due to volcanic activities that created islands in the sea,
separating North and South America. The collision of tectonic plates then
merged these islands into a narrow land mass, joining North and South America.
Thus, Central America has many volcanoes, some of which are
still active, and it is prone to earthquakes. The ash from volcanic activity
has made the soil very fertile. Seeds of plants, spread by the wind over long
distances, along with abundant rain and sunshine, have formed many forests on
the slopes of the mountains and along lakes and rivers, creating a suitable
environment for rich ecosystems. The abundance of different types of plants has
led to the evolution of many animals, insects, and other creatures. Central
America was originally home to these creatures.
The high mountain range, which stretches from northwest to
southeast in Costa Rica, is named Cordillera Volcánica. It affects the climate because
it is effective in the environment. Less rainfall in the northwest has created
dry forests, and more rain in the southeast and west has created rainforest. Forests.
By the sea, the weather is humid and hot, and at high altitudes, it is
so cold that the water freezes and people wear heavy clothes.
Costa Rica is known for its diversity of species, with
500,000 species, which is approximately 5 percent of all species in the world. Roughly
8 percent of the world's bird species, 10 percent of butterfly species, 10
percent of bats, and 20 percent of the world's hummingbirds live in Costa Rica.
Plant species are even more extensive. There are about 11,840 species of plants
in Costa Rica, which is 3% of the world's plant species. There are 9,000
varieties of flowering plants and 800 types of ferns in Costa Rica. There are
still 2,130 types of plants in Costa Rica that botanists have not classified. Biologists
think that, as pollinators, hummingbirds have been critical for the development
of very diverse plant species in Costa Rica and elsewhere in Central and South
America. Hemmings feed on the nectar of the flowers, and as a result, the beak
of the subspecies has formed in a way to suit reaching nectar in all species of
flowering plants. If nectar is deeper
inside the flower, hummingbirds developed longer beaks, straight or curved, to
get to the nectar. If they have a shorter reach, their nectar hummingbirds with
shorter beaks have evolved. And so on.
Indigenous Cultures
in Costa Rica
About 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, our ancestors came to the
Americas from Bering land mass from Asia during the last Ice Age. A group of
them gradually moved south, and some settled in present-day Central America and
Costa Rica.
The indigenous population is estimated to be around half a
million when Christopher Columbus arrived on the east coast of Costa Rica in
1502. Because of their captivity by
Europeans and, worse, the spread of European contagious diseases such as
smallpox, measles, influenza, mumps, chickenpox, typhoid, and cholera, to which
the natives were not immune, the vast majority of them died. In 1700, there
were only 1,300 natives left in 14 tribes. Today, there are approximately
100,000 indigenous people in Costa Rica, making up 2.5% of the population. The Beriberi are the largest group, numbering
18,000, and they live mainly in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. Cabecar,
numbering 17,000, inhabit the Talamanca mountains. Both are related in language
and culture to the Indians of South America. Guayama, with a population of
3,000, is located in Palmar Norte in southern Costa Rica, but they also has a
population of 100,000 across the border in Panama.
Christopher Columbus called it Costa Rica (Rich Coast) because
of the gold he plundered from the natives and the natural beauty of the region.
In 1723, Cartago, which was the largest town in Costa Rica,
had no more than 70 houses. In 1801, Costa Rica had a population of about
50,000 people, 83 percent of whom lived in the Central Valley. The colonists established
plantations of cocoa, tobacco, and sugarcane.
After independence from Spain, there was a dispute among the
inhabitants of the Central Valley. The people of Cartago and Heredia wanted to
join the "Mexican Empire", while the inhabitants of San Jose and
Alajuela were opposed. A clash broke out between the two groups on April 5,
1823, and 20 people were killed. As a result, the capital of Costa Rica was
moved from Cartago to San José. Costa Rica remained independent and neutral,
Civil strife was more intense in other Central American
countries. In 1824, the people of Guanacaste in southwestern Nicaragua voted to
join Costa Rica. Costa Rica briefly
joined the Federal Republic of Central America, which had a constitution supporting
freedom of thought and the abolition of slavery. In 1824, Costa Rica elected
its first president, Juan Mora Fernández. However, ten years later, Braulio
Carrillo, a dictator, came to power. Carrillo declared Costa Rica independent
from the rulers of Central America, abolished the cumbersome Spanish laws, and
instituted new laws after the French model.
Carrillo's most important action was to establish coffee as
a cash crop in Costa Rica. The coffee plant, which had existed wild in Ethiopia,
was domesticated in the 6th century AD. Drinking coffee became popular in Yemen
in the 15th century. From the mid-18th century, coffee drinking became common
in Europe. As it happened, the climate of the Central Valley in Costa Rica was
perfect for growing coffee: mild weather, volcanic soil, rain, and warm
sunshine—eventually, thousands of small and medium-sized coffee farms were
established.
Still, coffee cultivation faced serious challenges. It takes
five years for coffee seedlings to bear fruit. The government gave poor
peasants land, tax breaks, and free coffee seedlings. Another problem was the
transportation of the coffee crop to Europe. On Christmas Day 1843, an English
ship was in the Pacific port of Puntarenas to take coffee to Europe. Within two
years, 29 ships took Costa Rican coffee to European markets. England had become
the most critical buyer of Costa Rican coffee. In 1853, Costa Rica exported 7
million pounds of coffee a year, accounting for 90 percent of the country's
exports by value. Apart from the natives, other Costa Ricans benefited from the
coffee trade in some way. However, the capitalists who managed the process of picking
coffee beans and preparing them for consumption became very wealthy, creating a
small oligarchy that controlled the country. They became known as the
Cafetaleros.
By the late 1800s, the name Costa Rica had become synonymous
with coffee.
The Caribbean was a better route to export coffee to
European markets. But coffee was still transported from the Central Valley ports
in the west of the country by a caravan of freight animals, a slow and costly
process. Ships carrying coffee to Europe had to circumnavigate the Americas. If
Costa Rica could transport coffee products by train to a port in the Caribbean
in the west of the country, the revenue from exporting coffee would be greater,
but the mountains were on the way.
The railroad that eventually stretched between the Central
Valley and the Caribbean Sea became known as the Jungle Train, transforming the
history of Costa Rica and Central America.
William Walker
Although William Walker is unknown in the United States, he
is a pariah in Costa Rica and is known as the "Mad Gringo." Walker
was born in Mississippi in 1824 to a well-to-do family. He graduated from the
University of Nashville at the age of 14 with an excellent GPA. After earning
high degrees in medicine and law, Walker worked as a journalist. He became the
editor of a liberal newspaper in New Orleans that opposed slavery and married a
woman who was deaf and dumb. And with Walker's man, he suffered a severe mental
crisis. During the time of the gold rush in California, Walker became famous
for exposing the corruption of officials. When a biased judge sentenced him to
prison, 4,000 people gathered for his release.
The U.S. government had purchased California from Mexico in
1848. U.S. expansion fever affected Walker, leading him to plan the occupation
of Sonora, a state in northwestern Mexico. In 1853, Walker and 44 mercenaries
attempted to occupy Sonora. The adventure failed, and most of the mercenaries
were killed or fled. Walker himself narrowly survived the battle and fled to
San Francisco. Walker was tried for his illegal act but was acquitted due to
the prevalence of the idea of American expansion and the presence of other
adventurers like him.
When the Nicaraguan Civil War broke out in 1854, Walker
joined the townspeople of León who were fighting the Granada urbanists and had
a share in their victory. In this way, Walker became a military commander, and
in the following year, he became president.
He designated English as Nicaragua's other official language alongside
Spanish and wanted to enforce "American values and democracy" in
Nicaragua.
The people of Costa Rica were unhappy with the situation in
Nicaragua. Costa Rican President Juan Rafael Mora publicly condemned Walker's
actions. And he claimed that Walker intended to occupy all of Central America.
Mora passed a bill of war with Nicaragua in the legislature, and on March 1,
1856, Costa Rica declared war on Nicaragua. More than 900 fighters, one out of
every 12 citizens, were mobilized to the border.
Walker attacked northern Costa Rica in a pre-emptive
military action. But he was met with resistance from Costa Rica and was forced
to retreat to Nicaragua. Costa Rican fighters pursued him, and on 11 April, a
battle broke out outside the city of Rivas. While Walker's forces were
surrounded in a building, a boy named Juan Santa María, who was the drummer for
the Costa Rican troops, ran into the building and set it on fire while being shot
down. Walker's men fled to Granada. Costa Rican fighters threw the carcasses of
the dead Nicaraguans into a water well. This was probably the reason for the
cholera epidemic that forced the Costa Rican military to return to Costa Rica
carrying the disease with them.
Walker was met with a popular revolt in Nicaragua. He fraudulently
became president and tried to gain the support of abolitionists in the United
States by abolishing slavery. He was repulsed by a coalition of Central
American armed forces and took refuge in the United States. A few years later,
Walker returned to Central America to try to occupy Roatan in Honduras. But he
failed. He was executed by a firing squad in 1860.
Independence of
Costa Rica
A few decades later,
Costa Rica, which had become practically independent, officially declared victory
in the Rivas War, marking the beginning of the country's independence through
the sacrifice of Juan Santa Maria. This event celebrated its 200th anniversary
this year.
In 1870, Costa Rica signed a contract with an English
company to build a railway between the Central Valley and the Caribbean coast.
But the project was halted due to the difficulty of the work. In 1884, an American named Minor Keith agreed
to carry out the project in exchange for a 99-year franchise of proceeds from
transportation by train, complete control of the port of Limón on the Caribbean
coast, and ownership of 800,000 acres of land along the railroad. Keith faced
many problems. The mountain ranges the railroad tracks should go through, and
malaria and yellow fever were among them. Initially, he employed a few hundred Costa
Rican workers, but almost all of them perished in these harsh conditions. He
then brought in 700 prisoners from New Orleans. All but 25 of them perished.
Keith then hired 2,000 workers, most of whom were Italians. Most left after a
short time. Eventually, Keith hired black Jamaican workers, and although 500 of
them died, the others finished building the railroad.
To feed his workers, Keith planted banana trees along the
railroad tracks. After the project was
completed, Keith exported bananas to the United States and made a significant
income. Within two decades, exporting bananas became more profitable for Costa
Rica than exporting coffee. In 1899, Keith founded the United Fruit Company, which
today operates as a transnational corporation. The company has a long history
of economic and political interference in the development of Latin America.
Although Keith was married to the daughter of a large coffee
exporter to gain influence among Costa Rican people, hostilities between the
workers of the United Fruit Company and Keith escalated, and the first major
strike against the company took place in 1910. The central issue in the strike
was that Keith was giving out coupons as wages that could only be used in his
company's stores. It did not contribute to the development of the local
economy, and its workers had to buy goods at a monopolistic price. The conflict
continued in 1934 when a strike of ten thousand banana workers led by the Union of Workers and Farmers. This organization was led by the Communist
Party, which had been created in 1931 by Manuel Mora Volverde and others. The labor movement had taken shape in the
large banana plantations and in the railroad industry. The United Fruit Company
destroyed forests in Costa Rica and other countries to establish banana
plantations. Its sheer influence on the Costa Rica government and others
resulted in the use of the term "Banana Republic."
The 1948 Civil War
In the first two decades of the 20th century, Costa Rica's
economy relied on the export of coffee and bananas and was largely dependent on
the global market. The Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s and
the onset of World War II in 1939 led to a collapse in demand for Costa Rica's
exports. Sharp cuts in government revenues led to reductions in funding for
social projects. Several governments tried to impose progressive taxes, but the
oligarchy of the coffee industry prevented them. At the same time, urbanization
expanded, and the population of the Costa Rican capital city reached 50,000. Greed,
addiction, and crime took root in society.
In 1940, Rafael Calderón was elected president. He came from
a privileged family but was politically committed to social reform. He founded
the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS or CAJA) and the University of Costa
Rica. He also increased funding for the construction of public housing for the
poor. As a result, Calderón became a favorite of the working people and hated
by the coffee oligarchy, which led him to collaborate with the Communist Party.
At the time, Moscow’s policy favored the Popular Front, collaborating with
“progressive” bourgeois parties. Calderón, in cooperation with the Communist
Party, passed a labor law that recognized workplace safety and the right to
form unions.
However, the coalition of Calderón and the Communist Party
was accompanied by some undesirable tactics and abuse of power, which caused
dissatisfaction among some voters. In the 1948 presidential election, Otilio
Ulate, a newspaper publisher, was elected president. But Calderón refused to accept
the results, and the parliamentarians who supported him declared the election
invalid. The country plunged into crisis.
José Figueres, a coffee farmer and longtime critic of
Calderón, was an intellectual, energetic, and shrewd politician. He called
Calderón a dictator and asked his supporters to arm themselves in defense of
democracy. Calderón's supporters also armed themselves and, along with the
country's 300-strong army, pledged to defend his reforms. These events
coincided with the beginning of the Cold War and the anti-communism campaign. Figueres
used it to their advantage. The U.S. stopped selling arms to Costa Rica. Figueres
called on other countries to do the same. In this way, Calderón and the Costa
Rican army were placed in a bad position.
On March 11, 1948, the first skirmishes took place in San
Isadoro del General. Figueres took control of the city and immediately sent
several planes to Guatemala to get arms from the Caribbean Legion, a group of
progressive Latin American exiles and revolutionaries in the 1940s who aimed to
overthrow dictatorships in Central America and the Caribbean. They sent 19
flights of arms and ammunition. Thus, Figueres was able to overcome his
opponent. On April 19, a peace treaty was signed between the two sides. 2,000
Costa Ricans died in the civil war.
To create calm for the holding of new presidential
elections, Figueres temporarily took power at the head of a junta. In Latin America, the junta, a group usually
of military personnel taking power in their own hand, has a long history dating
back to the wars of independence from Spain. Although juntas played a
progressive role in the wars of independence from Spanish colonialism, most of
them gradually became dictatorial regimes. However, in Costa Rica, the junta
held power for for 18 months and played a progressive role.
Figueres not only retained Calderón's reforms but also
carried out a series of fundamental reforms: he granted citizenship to blacks
who were born in Costa Rica and the right to vote to women. To prevent
authoritarianism, Figueres reduced the power of the executive branch, disbanded
the army, and turned the Bela Vista barracks in San Jose into a museum.
Figueres nationalized the banks, electricity, and water services, and guaranteed
public education to all.
However, Figueres also outlawed the pro-Moscow Communist
Party, although it continued to operate in secret. In the 1970s, the party
renamed itself Popular Vanguard and began to operate legally. With the collapse
of the Soviet Union, it became a small electoral party overshadowed by the big
bourgeois parties.
By the end of its 18-month term, the junta had enacted 800
new laws, thus transforming the Costa Rican society. Costa Rica had become the
first welfare state in Latin America.
A Period of
Prosperity
The 1950s and 1960s were a period of prosperity in Costa
Rica. The reforms of Calderón and Figueres produced brilliant results.
Government investment in education, social insurance, health care, and
infrastructure projects contributed to economic development. By building
several dams, cheap electricity was made available to remote villages. Nationalized
banks invested in small enterprises rather than in the coffee and banana
industries, extending the reach of economic development. Finding jobs became
easier, and the standard of living improved. By imposing progressive taxes and
tariffs on imports, the government tried to pave the way for the development of
domestic production. This model, which became known as mixed economy, attempted
to benefit from the ability of the state to direct investment as in the
“socialist” countries while maintaining entrepreneurial motivation to invest.
In "socialist" countries, the same idea was pursued as market
socialism. Average Costa
Ricans were able to improve their lives. The population of the country exceeded
one million in 1956. In 1960, almost 30 percent of the state budget was spent
on education.
Of course, this period was part of prosperity in Costa Rica
coincided with the golden age of capitalism, especially in Japan, Europe, and
North America. Thus, a stable basis for Costa Rican export of coffee and banana
was provided.
By the mid-1970s, unemployment was low, living standards had
improved, infant mortality had fallen, and life expectancy had increased. Life
in Costa Rica was better than in other Central American countries.
However, the direct involvement of the government in the
economy was accompanied by political influence peddling, hence a degree of
corruption. State-owned companies that were not bound by profitability became
burden with debt. The government borrowed money from international banks to
repay these loans. In the 1970s, government spending increased tenfold, while
income from taxes remained constant. In 1979, one-fifth of the employees worked
for the government, and government debt was constantly growing
In 1981, Costa Rica defaulted on its debt. Inflation hit 100
percent. Costa Rica's currency, the colon lost 70 percent of its value, and 54
percent of the population fell below the poverty line.
Of course, other Latin American countries suffered from a
similar crisis. Hence, the 1980s became known as the Lost Decade in Latin
America.
Revolution in
Nicaragua
In 1979, in Nicaragua, the Sandinista National Liberation
Front, which considered itself socialist, came to power by overthrowing the
dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. Costa Rica supported the Sandinistas in their
struggle against Somoza. However, when the Sandinistas aligned with the Soviet
Union and Cuba and adopted policies that Costa Ricans considered
anti-democratic, they lost support among many politicians and people of Costa
Rica. At the same time, a group that supported Somoza proposed that the
Sandinistas form the Contras and begin an armed rebellion against the
Sandinistas. In 1981, the CIA and the Argentine spy agency organized the Contra
groups into a front called the Democratic Forces of Nicaragua. In 1986, because
of the Contras' terrorist acts, the U.S. Congress passed the Boland Amendment to
end U.S. aid to the Contras. But the Reagan administration continued to support
the Contras illegally. One of the illegal ways was the Iran-Contra affair.
During the years 1981-1986, the United States secretly sold arms to the Islamic
Republic of Iran and sent its proceeds to the Contras.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica had distanced itself from its pacifist
policy. In 1986, Oscar Arias was elected president on the promise of
establishing Costa Rica's neutrality in Nicaragua and returning to a policy of
pacifism. The exposure of the Iran-Contra Affair allowed him to play a
prominent role in countering Reagan's policy toward the civil war in Nicaragua.
He called for democratic elections in Nicaragua. Daniel Ortega, who was speaking
for the Sandinista leadership, accepted Arias’s proposal. The leaders of other
Central American countries opposed it because they feared that the Sandinistas
would win the election. However, Arias stood firm. In August 1987, the leaders
of the Central American countries signed the Treaty of Esquipulas, which formalized
Arias’s proposal.
That same year, Arias was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
the role he had played to end in the civil war in Nicaragua. In 1990,
democratic and free elections were held in Nicaragua, and contrary to the
expectations, the Sandinistas lost power.
The establishment of peace in Nicaragua also ended the war
between the leftist guerrillas and the governments in El Salvador and
Guatemala.
In these wars, 250,000 people lost their lives.
Costa Rica on the
threshold of the 2000 millennium
In 2000, Costa Rica was a country with a new economic structure.
An example of this was the signing of a contract with the microchip maker Intel
by President Jose Maria Figueres, the son of Jose Figueres. In 2006, Costa Rica
exported $1 billion in microchips, which was roughly 7 percent of its GDP.
Several dozen technology companies and other modern industries established regional
offices in Costa Rica to benefit from its highly educated workforce. Employment
in technology increased.
One of the characteristics of Costa Rica is the influence of
citizens in the country's politics. The establishment of the National Park
System in 1970, aimed at preserving ecosystems and ensuring the health of
biodiversity, is an example of this. It
began with a bottom-up movement started by Nicholas Weisberg and Karen Mogsen,
who were foreign residents in Costa Rica, and others that attracted biologists
and environmental conservationists, resulting in an effort to preserve the
environment, and led to Costa Rica placing 28 percent of the country under the
national park system (Jones 2022).
Tourism also grew rapidly. In 1994, the income from tourism
exceeded the income from coffee and bananas. Costa Rica's rich nature, along
with the creation of the national park system, fueled ecotourism. In 2024, more than 2.2 million eco-tourists
visited Costa Rica. Costa Ricans realized that forests destroyed in the past to
create coffee or banana fields represented a natural wealth for the income of
present and future generations. The Costa Rican government has also worked with
some success to restore forests that had been cut down for agriculture and
livestock over the past decades.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica was under pressure from neoliberalism,
which was dominant in the world economy.
Some in the legislature tried to privatize ICE, the state-owned
electricity and telecommunications company; they faced widespread public skepticism
as they saw it as a remnant of post-Civil War reforms.
In 2005, the U.S proposed the Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA) initiative for the Central American countries to waive
customs duties in trade. At the time, Central American goods exported to the
U.S. were exempt, except this status had to be extended from time to time. Most
Central American countries imposed high tariffs on imports from the United
States. Although other Central American countries quickly signed the agreement,
Costa Rica was hesitant because of the public opposition to the privatization
of ICE. Eventually, after Arias was re-elected president in 2006, CAFA was put
it to a referendum and was adopted by 51.6 percent of the vote. However,
opposition to it continued until 2008 when it finally became law.
Present-day Costa
Rica
Today, Costa Rica is more intertwined with the global
economy than ever before. In 1988, only 29 percent of the population had a
mobile phone; in 2017, more than 90 percent had a cell phone, and 85 percent
used the Internet. In 2024, there were 8.4 million active mobile phones in
Costa Rica, which was 5.5 million people; 95.5 percent of Costa Ricans used the
Internet.
Although Costa Ricans still adhere to their culture, it is
also changing. In the 1960s, the Central Valley, home to most Costa Ricans, was
covered with family coffee plantations, and there was an average of seven
children per family. Now the Central Valley has many large shopping malls and
Costa Rican families have an average of two children.
Costa Rica's standard of living is among the highest in
Latin America. In 2021, 98.04 percent of people were literate. The estimate of
per capita income (purchasing power parity) in Costa Rica in 2025 is $ 31,461.
Costa Ricans have social insurance (CAJA). The system is funded by income taxes on
employees, their employers, and the government. The government pays for the share
of the unemployed, low-income, and no-income people. Costa Rica's healthcare
system enjoys global repute, and citizens and permanent residents use medical
services, including specialist doctors, hospitals, and services related to
pregnancy and childbirth. Pharmaceuticals (drugs), laboratory orders, and
preventive measures (like vaccinations are provided at no cost. People aged 65
and older may use all of these services at home if needed
Education in Costa Rica is compulsory and at no cost to the individual.
With 97% of the population who can read and write, Costa Rica is exemplary in
Latin America. In addition to public
schools and universities, Costa Rica also has private schools and universities.
Costa Rica is facing a housing problem. On the one hand,
there is a shortage of about 145,000 houses, and on the other hand, there is the
problem of poor quality of housing, especially for low-income families and
low-income areas.
One reason for the housing crisis in Costa Rica is that the
country is desirable to Americans, Canadians, and Western Europeans, especially
for the retirees. Easy immigration policy
and high purchasing power for those whose income is in dollars or euros have
led immigrants to bid up the prices of land and housing, especially in desirable
locations like along the Pacific coast. In
such an area, land and housing are owned mainly by immigrants.
In recent years, Costa Rica has faced an increase in crime.
Smuggling gangs that transport Colombian-made cocaine to the U.S. markets have
taken advantage of the remote jungles of Costa Rica, the lack of a strong
government police force, and corruption in the government. This has increased
the crime rate in Costa Rica.
Of course, Costa Rica has faced similar challenges at other
times and has overcome them. These issues are currently being discussed in the
communities and among officials and government institutions.
Nicaraguan
Revolution
Before I move to comparing the Costa Rica development model
with that of Cuba and Nicaragua, I need to offer a brief outline of the
Nicaraguan revolution. The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was organized
in 1961, inspired by Nicaraguan national hero Augusto César Sandino, who had
fought against US imperialism in the early 20th century. In June 1979, the
Sandinistas launched a new wave of attacks, and on July 17, Somoza resigned and
fled the country. On July 19, the Sandinistas entered Managua, the Nicaraguan
capital.
An examination of the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979 is
beyond the scope of this article. Interested readers may consult La Botz's (2016)
book. What is certain is that the FSLN leadership, unlike Fidel Castro's July
26 Movement, did not aim to create a coalition of working people to overthrow
the capitalist system in favor of socialism. One reason was the lack of
homogeneity of the Sandinista leadership. In the mid-1970s, the Sandinistas
split while debating strategy. A group led by Tomás Borge and Henry Ruiz called
for a "people's war." under the influence of Maoism. They wanted to
establish a base among the peasants and villagers to take over the cities.
Another group, the "Proletarian Tendency", led by Jaime Weelock,
wanted political work among the urban and agricultural workers. The third group, led by Daniel Ortega, called
the "Rebels" or "Third Way," called for the creation of a multi-class
alliance including the bourgeoisie to fight Somoza. Ortega's modus operandi was
eclectic and pragmatic.
The strategy of the third group was more successful in
practice than the other two groups. They were able to attract capitalists,
scientific and technical professionals, and clergy who organized "The
Twelve ", well-known people who supported the Sandinistas, giving them
legitimacy in the public eye.
When the Sandinistas came to power, they formed the “Junta
of Reconstruction,” which included well-known leftists Sergio Ramírez and
Hassan Morales, along with right-wing personalities Alfonso Robelo and Victoria
Barrio de Chamorro, as well as Daniel Ortega, who served as the coordinator of
the junta. But the real power was in the hands of the nine-member leadership of
the Sandinistas: Thomas Boge, Minister of the Interior, Bayardo Arce, Minister
of Propaganda, Henry Ruiz, Jaime Weelock, Minister of Agriculture, Luis Carrión,
Deputy Minister of Defense, and Carlos Nuñez,
Head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Humberto Ortega (brother of Daniel
Ortega), Minister of Defense, and Victor Tirado, Minister without Portfolio in
charge auditing the work of the cabinet. Daniel Ortega was the co-coordinator of the Junta
and leader of the Sandinistas.
In 1984, Daniel Ortega was elected with 78.66 percent of the
votes in a democratic presidential election involving seven parties from right
to left, including the Communist Party, a Maoist party, and a Socialist
Party.
In 1986, U.S. President Reagan claimed that if the U.S. did
not stop the Sandinista, terrorists would come to the country's border. Thus began the U.S. government's systematic
effort to destroy the Nicaraguan revolution with economic sanctions and active
support of the Contras. The Sandinista government made mistakes, including in
its treatment of the natives, especially the Mestizo and Maranga peasants,
which created a social base for the Contras among the working people. By 1989,
the government of Nicaragua had gone bankrupt, and the economy was collapsing. People’s
diet was reduced to rice, beans, and tortillas. Tens of thousands had been
killed and wounded during the revolution and the civil war. Most of the people
had become disillusioned with the revolution and the Sandinista leadership.
The presidential election of 1990 resulted in Ortega's
defeat and the victory of Violeta Chamorro, the leader of the bourgeois
National Opposition Union.
At the international level, there was a wide adaptation of neoliberalism
and globalization. The Sandinistas adopted neoliberal policies. In 1991, the
Soviet Union and then the "Actually Existing Socialism" in Eastern
Europe collapsed. After Mao’s death, China has been trying to industrialize through
what was later called “market socialism,” combining the one-party state
economic policy with market mechanisms and opening China to foreign investment.
Cuba plunged into a deep and long-lasting economic depression. The Sandinistas
became disillusioned with socialism. Ortega and the Sandinistas lost the 1996
and 2001 elections
However, in the 2006 election, Ortega was elected
president. In 2014, Ortega, with his
influence on the Supreme Court, was able to lift the term limit for
presidential candidates. He then used the Sandinista parliamentary majority to
repeal term limits for presidential elections altogether.
Ortega has tried to change the rules to support his own
authoritarian rule. At the same time, by adopting capitalist policies, he tried
to establish a base for himself in the wealthy and powerful classes of
Nicaragua. Internationally, Ortega has been on the same side with leftist
regimes (China and Cuba) and authoritarian “anti-imperialist” regimes.
Thus, Ortega has been the president of Nicaragua since 2007.
Ortega's dominance of politics in Nicaragua is to such that he has appointed
his wife, Rosario Morio, as his co-president, giving her power of a president
without being elected to hold such powers.
In fact, Morio is now in charge of government affairs and Ortega is
officially the head of the government.
Comparison of Costa
Rica with Nicaragua and Cuba
Both Cuba and Nicaragua had revolutions that overthrew a U.S.-supported
dictatorship, which were led by socialist leaderships. In contrast, Costa Rica has been a capitalist
economy, never had a revolution, but in 1948, it underwent reforms that created
a welfare state. Let’s look at some generally accepted matrices to compare
their success in terms of the well-being of the people.
Life expectancy at birth is a good indicator of a country's
population health. Costa Rica stood at 81.12 years (2024 est.), and Cuba at 78
years (2024 est.) and Nicaragua 75.43 years (2024 est.).
Another indicator is premature infant mortality in the first
year after birth per 1,000 births, which was lowest in Cuba at 6.6 ; in Costa
Rica at 9.2; and in Nicaragua at 10.3 in 2023.
Contributing factors to the improvement in these cases in
Costa Rica have been the Caja system, high-level financial support from the
government, and economic stability. In Cuba, a centralized health care system
and many high-quality health care personnel have been important. At the same
time, economic instability and shortages of medicines and medical devices have
been negative factors. In Nicaragua, lower levels of health care budgets and
unequal access to health services have been among the negative factors. In the
2024 Happiness Index, Costa Rica was
ranked 12th in the world, following some of the developed countries of
Western Europe. Nicaragua was ranked 43rd, and Cuba did not participate in the
index.
In the index of social security in the countries of the
Americas, Costa Rica is in eighth place after Cuba (7th place), while Nicaragua
is ranked 20th (Ramirez Villa, 2024).
In terms of democratic rights and democracy, Costa Rica has
a stable bourgeois democracy where the rights to free expression, association,
freedom of the press, and the ability to strike and protest are upheld. Cuba
has a one-party state system, and the economy and society are controlled by the
government, which the Communist Party controls. Although there are mass
organizations in Cuba, including trade unions and civil organizations like the Federation
of Cuban, etc., they are all controlled by the Communist Party. Daniel Ortega and his wife govern Nicaragua
and has become an authoritarian government. In Cuba and Nicaragua, there is
occasional unrest from dissidents that is suppressed. The reason for this
unrest is the lack of institutional paths for people to participate effectively
in the country's destiny. There is no socialist democracy in Cuba. In
Nicaragua, democracy is non-existent, mainly, and what there is is under
constant threat. In Cuba, the media is almost exclusively in the hands of the
Communist Party, which, constitutionally, is empowered to run the affairs of
the country. In Nicaragua, the press is under attack and is being gradually
suppressed (see note 2). Thus, in the face of inevitable crises in every country,
there is no meaningful institutional way open for independent citizens'
participation.
A more reliable indicator of people's satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with the current situation in these countries can be found in
the efforts of their citizens to emigrate, mainly to the United States. In 2024, there were about 100,000 Nicaraguans
seeking asylum in the United States.
The number of Cuban asylum seekers has been even higher in recent years
due to the severe economic crisis. In
fiscal year 2024, about 208,000 Cubans applied for asylum in the United States.
There are no statistics on asylum applications from Costa Rica because there is
no economic or political reason for them.
In fact, in recent decades, many Nicaragua and others from Central
American countries have moved to Costa Rica for economic and political reasons.
In the last few decades, a significant number of immigrants
from Western Europe and North America have immigrated to Costa Rica. The four
main reasons for this is lower cost of a comfortable life, coverage by state health
insurance with services in line with the global standard, a beautiful nature
and good weather, and a more relaxed life (see note 3)[1] than in the West. On the
contrary, we do not see Americans and Europeans migrating to Nicaragua and
Cuba.
Conclusion
The revolutions of the twentieth century, often led by
Stalinist parties and mistakenly labeled as socialist, were actually
revolutions for independence from colonial or imperialist domination, against
pre-capitalist socioeconomic relations, and for economic development and
industrialization (Nayeri, October 17, 2024).
Thus, from their beginning, these revolutions confronted hostility from
imperialism, especially the United States, the most obvious of which is the
inhumane blockade of Cuba by US imperialism. The Stalinist leadership has
justified the creation of one-party systems with the reality of imperialist hostility
to preserve "socialism". The collapse of the Stalinist Soviet Union
and similar regimes in Eastern Europe showed that these societies and regimes
were not socialist, and the working people of these countries were well glad to
get rid of their repressive regime, which ruled in the name of “socialism.” Moreover,
these regimes were not successful in economic development and
industrialization. Thus, they eventually succumbed to the Western capitalist
model. The case of China is an exceptional combination of prudent one-party
state investment and planning, along with the allowance for market forces and
foreign investment.
Socialist leaderships in Latin America, such as the
Sandinistas and the Chávez movement in Venezuela, have established
authoritarian governments that have faced crises.
Costa Rica has followed the
pattern of creating a capitalist welfare state that has achieved better,
people-friendly results. Of course, the Costa Rican model is due to the
specific situation of this country and cannot be copied in every country. However,
Costa Rica has been able to provide a better life for its people at a lower
human cost. He has also treated the ecosystems in this country better than other
governments have done elsewhere. Investing in the people of the country and fostering
an open political environment for their economic and social development is the
main lesson of this experience, which could be gainfully applied in other
countries.
Of course, in today's world, which is
facing existential ecological crises, atmospheric warming and climate crisis,
the Sixth Extinction, recurrent pandemics, and the threat of human nuclear
annihilation, the future of Costa Rica depends on the future of the world.
There are also contradictions in the human-centered industrial capitalist
civilization in Costa Rica. Only an Ecocentric Socialist revolution can move
from the present to a better future for humanity and for life on the planet.
Notes:
1. This part of this essay is taken
from James Kaiser, Costa Rica: The Complete Guide, 2004, and Monica A. Rankin,
The History of Costa Rica, 2012.
2. The Costa Ricans themselves call
their way of life the Pura Vida, which literally translates to "a life
without a strain."
Sources:
Nayeri,
Kamran. The Cuban Revolution of 1959. In Between Dreams and Reality: Essay on
Revolution and Socialism. Pp. 111-198. 2025.
Jones, Sarah. A Brief
History of Costa Rica’s National Park System.” Tico Times. July 19, 2022.
La Botz, Dan. The Nicaraguan
Revolution: What Went Wrong? A Marxist Analysis. 2016.
Ramírez Villela, Miguel Ángel.
Comparative Analysis of Social Security Systems in the Americas: The Social
Security Universalization Index. 2024.
Reporters Without Borders 2024.
World Happiness Report
2024.
No comments:
Post a Comment