Even before former presidential candidate Johnny Araya surprised the political sphere in Costa Rica by dropping out of the race that elected President Luis Guillermo Solis in a landslide runoff victory, analysts sensed uncertainty among the ranks of the powerful National Liberation Party (Spanish initials: PLN). Such observations are now being confirmed by a report by Gianluca Boncompagni of online news daily CRHoy.com, who explained that the PLN is planning a series of meeting with former Presidents of Costa Rica who may hopefully inspire the party to get back on the right track.

 

PLN Chief Juan Luis Jimenez has lined up meetings with Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias as well as former Presidents Laura Chinchilla, Luis Alberto Monge and José María Figueres. Although the PLN Chief did not directly address concerns over the future of the party, he mention concern over the direction that the Executive Branch is taking with regard to governance. As the main opposition party in the National Assembly, the PLN has not been able to do much to clash with President Solis and his Citizen Action Party (Spanish initials: PAC) loyalists, mostly because the current administration has not done much and PAC leadership is actually at odds with the Executive Branch.

 

The leadership weaknesses in the PLN are not easy to pinpoint. Former President Chinchilla was able to strengthen the PLN’s ideological ties with the Social Democratic international movement, and she did not mind her party’s collaboration with former legislator and presidential candidate Jose María Villalta of Frente Amplio (Broad Front), which is another political party that is finding it difficult to keep it together despite having made strong gains in the previous election. Even the Libertarian Movement is facing criticism from libertarians who feel that their Ayn Randian ideology is being sullied in Costa Rica by inaction and ineptitude.

 

Political commentary in Costa Rica has turned cynical as the Social Christian Unity Party (Spanish initials: PUSC) is in a self-destructive mode with an exodus of supporters who are planning a sort of political splinter cell. The motive for this upheaval, according to some dissidents, is that the current PUSC legislators have done nothing but submit budget cuts in the National Assembly. Of all the political parties in Costa Rica, the only one that seems to be going into emergency damage control mode at this time is the PLN.