Costa Rican presidential referendum, 1870

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A referendum on appointing Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez as President with special powers was held in Costa Rica on 8 August 1870. [1] It was approved, [1] and Gutiérrez assumed the presidency on 11 September.

Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez President of Costa Rica

General Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez was President of Costa Rica on two occasions: from 1870 to 1876, and from 1877 to 1882.

Costa Rica country in Central America

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 5 million in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers. An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José with around 2 million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.

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Background

On 27 April 1870 Gutiérrez had been one of a group of army officers who had deposed President Jesús Jiménez Zamora. [1] Bruno Carranza had become president, but Gutiérrez had held real power. After three months, he replaced Carranza. [1]

Jesús Jiménez Zamora former president of Costa Rica

Jesús María Ciriaco Jiménez Zamora was President of Costa Rica on two occasions: 1863 to 1866, and 1868 to 1870.

Bruno Carranza Head of state

José Bruno Carranza Ramírez was briefly President of Costa Rica in 1870. Bruno Carranza came to power in the coup d'état of 27 April 1870 that deposed President Jesús Jiménez. He resigned three months later.

Aftermath

On 15 October 1871 Gutiérrez convened a Constitutional Council, which adopted a new constitution on 7 December. [1] It allowed for the election of a military person as President. [1] Gutiérrez subsequently remained in office until his death in 1882. [1]

Constitution of Costa Rica

The Constitution of Costa Rica is the supreme law of Costa Rica. At the end of the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War, José Figueres Ferrer oversaw the Costa Rican Constitutional Assembly, which drafted the document. It was approved on 1949 November 7. Several older constitutions had been in effect starting from 1812, with the most recent former constitution ratified in 1871. The Costa Rican Constitution is remarkable in that it abolished the Costa Rican military, making it the first nation to do so by law. Another unusual clause include an amendment asserting the right to live in a healthy natural environment.

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After the coup against dictator Jesús Jiménez Zamora on April 27, 1870, and after the brief government of Bruno Carranza Ramírez, Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez succeeded on August 8 and elections were called by the then provisional president Guardia on 8 of May 1872. It was the first time that the presidency was exercised by a military.

The 1876 Costa Rican general election was held on April 2, 1876. Aniceto Esquivel Sáenz was elected president unanimously thanks to the influence of the acting president Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez who practically hand picked him. At that time and according to the Constitution, there were two electoral rounds; first all citizens legally allowed to vote chose electors and then the voters voted for the president.

The 1882 presidential election of Costa Rica in 1882 was the first after a long line of successive de facto governments following the coup against Aniceto Esquivel Sáenz by his former ally Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez. Vicente Herrera Zeledón, Costa Rica's first conservative president, was placed in Esquivel's place, but in practice he was a puppet of Guardia's authoritarian regime. After the brief presidency of Herrera who resigned using health reasons as excuse, the political elite appoints Guardia to replace him. However Guardia died in 1882 and elections were called, which were won by Freemason and liberal Próspero Fernández Oreamuno member of the Olympus Generation, an elite group of liberal intellectuals nicknamed as such due to their arrogance.

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