Weekly Report - 05 February 2026 (WR-26-05)

Laura Fernández won Costa Rica’s presidential elections at a canter on 1 February. The only real doubt surrounded whether she would obtain the 40% of the vote required to win in the first round and avoid the need for a run-off. In the event, she won close to 50% of the vote. Fernández’s Partido Pueblo Soberano (PPSO) also won a simple majority in the legislative assembly, which will put her in a stronger position than her mentor President Rodrigo Chaves, although it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to carry out constitutional reform. From a regional perspective, her victory marks another triumph for a right-winger, with Fernández promising to forge close security ties with the US and El Salvador, whose President Nayib Bukele was the first to congratulate her.