Costa Rica has a new president. Here’s a quick guide to Laura Fernández, her background, and what foreigners should know about her presidency.
Today, Laura Fernández Delgado was sworn in as Costa Rica’s 50th president, replacing Rodrigo Chaves Robles after winning the general election earlier this year.
If you’re a foreigner living in or visiting Costa Rica, you may recognize her name from recent headlines but know little else about her. Here’s a quick look at who she is and why her presidency is drawing attention.
Traspaso de poderes 2026-2030: Laura Fernández es la presidenta número 50 de Costa Rica. pic.twitter.com/iBdvUpHiak
— La Nación (@nacion) May 8, 2026
She’s Costa Rica’s Second Female President
Laura Fernández is only the second woman to serve as president of Costa Rica after Laura Chinchilla Miranda, who led the country between 2010 and 2014.
But Costa Rica is far from alone in the region. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro made history in 1990 as both Nicaragua’s first female president and the first woman elected president in Latin America. Mireya Moscoso served as Panama’s president between 1999 and 2004, while Xiomara Castro became Honduras’ first female president in 2022.
That means four of Central America’s seven countries have now had female presidents. Guatemala and El Salvador have never elected a woman president, while Belize has never had a female prime minister (although, as a parliamentary democracy in the British Commonwealth, Elizabeth II was Belize’s head of state from independence in 1981 until her death in 2022).
She’s One of Costa Rica’s (and Central America’s) Youngest Ever Presidents
At 39, Laura Fernández is one of the youngest people ever to hold Costa Rica’s highest office, though she’s not the country’s youngest president.
Carlos Alvarado Quesada was 38 when he took office in 2018, making him the youngest directly elected president in modern Costa Rican history. José María Figueres Ferrer was 39 when he assumed power in 1948, while Alfredo González Flores was just 36 when he took office back in 1914.
Across Central America, only Nayib Bukele took office at a younger age in recent years, becoming president of El Salvador at 37 in 2019.
Elsewhere in the region, leaders have typically entered office much later in life, making Fernández one of the younger heads of government Central America has seen in recent decades.
She Spent Most of Her Career Deep Inside Costa Rica’s Bureaucracy
Laura Fernández spent much of her career working behind the scenes in government. A political scientist with a master’s degree in public policy and democratic governance from the University of Costa Rica, she spent years working in Costa Rica’s Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN), focusing on state modernization, public-sector reform, and government efficiency.
She also worked on reform projects with German Agency for International Cooperation, advised lawmakers in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica on public spending and budget issues, and later served as director of strategic planning for the municipality of Cartago.
Her biggest break came under her predecessor Rodrigo Chaves, who appointed her as planning minister in 2022 before later naming her minister of the presidency; one of the most powerful positions in government.
For many foreigners who only recently started hearing her name, she may seem like a sudden political rise. In reality, she spent nearly two decades working on budgets, planning, and state reform before reaching Costa Rica’s highest office.
She’s Widely Seen as Rodrigo Chaves Robles’s Political Heir
As mentioned, Laura Fernández built much of her national profile working under former president Rodrigo Chaves, and she openly campaigned as the continuation candidate for voters who supported his anti-establishment style and promises of reform. That alone is not unusual. What is unusual is how involved Chaves remains after leaving office.
Rather than stepping back from day-to-day politics, Chaves was named both Costa Rica’s new finance minister and minister of the presidency in Fernández’s new administration. The finance minister oversees the country’s economic policy, budget pressures, and debt challenges. Chaves knows this position well, as he was finance minister for a while during the administration of his predecessor, Carlos Alvarado. Call it a second bite of the cherry for him here. The minister of the presidency (as already mentioned, Fernández’s former role under Chaves) acts as the government’s chief political coordinator, managing relations with the Legislative Assembly and helping drive the administration’s agenda.
In short, Costa Rica may have a new president, but one of the biggest questions now is how independent Fernández’s presidency will be with her predecessor still holding so much power behind the scenes.
Wrapping Up
So that’s your cut-out-and-keep quick guide to Laura Fernández. For many foreigners living in or regularly visiting Costa Rica, local politics can be easy to ignore, especially for non-Spanish speakers. But with a new president now in office (and her predecessor still playing a major role behind the scenes), this is a political transition worth paying attention to.
