Caribbean & Central America - December 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

As the Costa Rican legislative assembly (AL) and the supreme court of justice clashed in a public institutional crisis (see below), Johnny Araya, the incumbent mayor of San José and leading hopeful for the ruling Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) 2014 presidential nomination, interjected in the dispute. He said that while he agreed that the court needs to renew some of its members, the AL’s actions constituted “an attack against the independence of judges”. The comment was undoubtedly calculated: with the first half he played to the party in congress – lack of renewal was the reason the PLN bloc cited for voting against the re-election of a judge – and with the second he played to the electoral gallery.

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