Costa Rica, a tourist’s paradise and a country without a military, has historically been one of Central America’s strongest democracies, but times are changing. Last year, Costa Ricans elected Rodrigo Chaves, a man fashioned in the mold of Donald Trump, as their new president. In office, Chaves has attacked his political opponents, focusing particularly on the media and universities, and he has harnessed the power of social media to push conspiracy theories and fake news. And, as of late June, Chaves had the fourth highest approval rating—71%—of any public official in the world. Chaves’s popularity is second in Latin America only to President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, another Trumpian outsider who has ruled with an iron fist under a state of exception for the past year and a half. While Bukele’s government has consolidated power and jailed tens of thousands of alleged gang members, including many innocent citizens who have been caught in the dragnet, crime has plummeted in El Salvador, Bukele’s approval rating is sky high, and his model of authoritarian governance is spreading, worryingly, to other countries in the region, from Costa Rica to Honduras. From Costa Rica, TRNN contributor and Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox reports.
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Michael Fox
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