The Diplomat
The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, will make an official visit to Spain today, where he will be received by King Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
According to the Costa Rican Presidency, Alvarado arrives in Spain as part of a European tour that also includes France, where he will meet with leaders of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the French Development Agency (AFD). The President is accompanied by the First Lady, Claudia Dobles, and by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Foreign Trade, Communication and Environment and Energy.
During the visit to Spain, Alvarado will have a meeting at the Zarzuela Palace with Philip VI, after which the King and Queen of Spain will offer a lunch in honor of the Costa Rican President and the First Lady at the Royal Palace in Madrid. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will attend both meetings.
Subsequently, the Costa Rican president will be received at La Moncloa Palace by Pedro Sánchez, with whom he will discuss cooperation, strategic relations and political dialogue. Although it has not been officially reported, it is very likely that both presidents will address the situation in Nicaragua. Around half a million Nicaraguans reside in Costa Rica, where they represent more than 75% of the foreign population of this country, where one in ten inhabitants comes from abroad. Until 2018, most Nicaraguans had moved to Costa Rica for economic reasons, but since April of that year more than 100,000 Nicaraguans have entered in search of international protection because of the political crisis and repression in their country.
In addition, the Costa Rican president will hold several meetings on attracting tourism investment, business investment, decarbonization, recovery, green economy and post-pandemic. According to the Presidency of the Central American country, Spain has been the main donor of vaccines against COVID-19 to Costa Rica, with almost 1.6 million doses.
Carlos Alvarado will be back in his country on April 2, which will allow him to vote in the second round of the presidential elections, to be held the following day. In compliance with the Constitution, Alvarado – Costa Rica’s 48th president since 2018 – will not be eligible for re-election, so he will have to cede the presidency next May 8 to the winner of the elections. The second round will be settled between José María Figueres Olsen, of the Partido Liberación Nacional, and Rodrigo Chaves Robles, of the Partido Progreso Social Democrático. Alvarado’s party, the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), suffered a big defeat in the first presidential round, with less than 1% of the votes.
