Costa Rica’s New Right Governs With Chaves Still Inside
Fernández takes office on a hardline crime platform, but Rodrigo Chaves keeps the real leverage from inside the cabinet.
Laura Fernández was inaugurated on Friday at San José’s National Stadium, telling supporters she would confront organised crime, according to 
Al Jazeera. The more important fact is who stood behind her: outgoing president Rodrigo Chaves has been pulled into the new government as a “super-minister,” giving him direct control over the political and economic agenda, AFP reported in 
France 24.
Power transfer, not turnover
This is less a handover than a continuation of the same governing project. Fernández is Chaves’s political heir and won the presidency in February on his back; the official message is continuity, not renewal, according to 
EL PAÍS and 
CNN. That matters because it preserves the main source of leverage in Costa Rican politics: Chaves can no longer run immediately, but he can still shape the cabinet, the budget, and the security agenda from inside the administration, EL PAÍS reported.
Why crime gave the right a mandate
Fernández is governing in a country that used to market itself as Central America’s stability exception, but now faces a surge in drug-linked violence, France 24 and CNN said. That security panic made her Bukele-style message politically potent: tougher penalties, emergency powers in selected areas, and a prison inspired by El Salvador’s mega-prison have all become part of the governing platform, according to CNN, 
Teletica, and 
ABC Color. For the wider regional pattern, see 
Global Politics.
The beneficiary is obvious: the governing right gets a broad mandate for coercive security policy. The loser is also clear: the judiciary and the press, both of which Chaves has attacked and both of which would absorb the first blow from any institutional overhaul, Teletica and EL PAÍS reported.
What to watch next
The next test is not the inauguration speech. It is whether Fernández uses her opening months to force through security legislation, judicial changes, and the prison project before crime numbers or institutional pushback erode her mandate. Watch the first cabinet decisions, the congressional agenda, and any move to expand emergency powers over the coming weeks, CNN and Teletica reported.
