The Republic of Costa Rica under President Rodrigues (May 1999 to April 2002)

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New Costa Rican President Takes Office
Cent-Am News, week of 24-30 May 1998. 58-year-old lawyer and economist Miguel Angel Rodriguez assumed the presidency of Costa Rica. He will serve through 2002.
New Costa Rican President Promises Privatization
Weekly News Update on the Americas, 17 May 1998. On May 8, lawyer and economist Miguel Angel Rodriguez Echeverria of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) was sworn in as president, replacing Jose Maria Figueres Olsen of the National Liberation Party (PLN). Rodriguez plans to open the country up to more trade and privatize many state-run institutions.
US Invited to Install Regional Police Academy
By Nefer Munoz, IPS, 9 June 1999. U.S. experts would provide drug enforcement training here to police officers, judges and prosecutors from throughout the Americas. Costa Rican Ambassador to Washington underlined that the anti-drugs academy would be civilian rather than military in nature.
All of Costa Rica in 5th Day of Strikes Against Privatization of Utilities
A-Infos News Service, 23 March 2000. Thousands of demonstrators in a fourth day of protests against the privatization of the state-run telecommunications and electricity company, the Costa Rican Institute of Electicity (ICE). The parliament approved a controversial bill on 20 March that will allow private capital to buy the state monopoly.
Blow to Costa Rica government plans
BBC News Online, 19 April 2000. A court in Costa Rica has thrown out controversial government proposals to partially privatise the country's telecommunications and electricity industry. The plans led to the worst unrest in Costa Rica for decades.
Large Landholdings to Return, Warn Unions
By Néfer Muñoz, IPS, 3 May 2000. Costa Rica is on the verge of serious agrarian conflict as unions and peasants fight reform measures they say would return rural lands to the hands of the wealthy few.