Costa Rica's Presidenta Fights Invasions, Drug Cartels

Last year, Costa Rica elected its first female president, Laura Chinchilla, 52, adding another leader to the growing ranks of female heads of state in Latin America, including Brazil President Dilma Rousseff, Argentina President Cristina Fernandez and former Chile President Michelle Bachelet. In August, FORBES named her the No. 86 most powerful woman in the world.

Chinchilla, who served as vice president in the Oscar Arias administration, has faced outsized challenges in her first year: a cabinet reshuffling, growing budget deficit, border war with neighbor Nicaragua, increased threat of drug trafficking and sinking approval rates.

Mired in these controversies, Chinchilla also carries a burden of responsibility based on her gender—feeling her success is crucial for her nation’s health as well as its perception of female leaders.

The Presidenta spoke with Jenna Goudreau of Forbes magazine about her struggles, concerns and plans for the future.

Jenna Goudreau: You’re the first female president of Costa Rica. What does that mean to you and the women of your country?

Presidenta Laura Chinchilla: It is an honor. At the same time, this is not a normal obligation. You don’t only have the need to do it well because leading a country is something quite important, but also because I am the first woman I have the obligation to do it the best possible way so my country can continue voting for women in the future. It is a big responsibility.

You’ve been in office for over a year now. You’ve had several ministers come and go, including your chief of staff. How have you tried to create a unified team?

When it comes to your team, you have to take time to adjust every person to the vision you want to implement. That is why we needed to make some adjustments during the first year, but I will say that in most cases it was for good. We have improved the way we are working. At the same time, we faced many things that we were not expecting.

We suffered an invasion from Nicaragua, something very unusual. We also inherited a very complex fiscal deficit. So the combination of all of those special situations made it necessary to make some adjustments in the cabinet. But the team is wonderful. The people who are serving this government are very, very responsible, and they are doing a good job.

Clearly you had some major challenges in your first year. How did you approach them?

When you face unexpected events, you have to try to overcome those problems, but at the same time, you have to continue working according to the plan that you defined since the beginning. So that’s what we have tried to do—not to avoid the urgent responses but to continue the route that we had defined.

What are your top priorities for the rest of the term?
We have very important issues in the coming years. Probably the most important one is trying to continue bringing prosperity to Costa Rica. [If we have] economic growth, we can be able to offer good employment to lots of our people, which is why I am very active in trying to attract more investment to Costa Rica.

At the same time, we have other challenges. Costa Rica is part of Latin America, which is one of the most violent regions in the world. And now we are having problems with drug trafficking in the whole Central American region. So we are working very hard to avoid the influence in Costa Rica of the drug cartels. Now, Costa Rica is still one of the safest countries in the region, but we are working very hard to keep it this way.

Why have the drug cartels become such a problem for Costa Rica?
The most important factor is location. We are in the middle of the most important drug producers in the South and the most important drug consumers in the North. Since we are in the middle, what you find is a lot of activities in transporting and exporting through Central America. But we cannot move. [laughs] We have to raise the barrier so we can be able to protect our country.

You’re called socially conservative and pro-business—opposed to same-sex marriage, abortion and the morning-after pill. Like U.S. female politicians Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, some have argued that despite being  woman you are against the “women’s agenda.”

Well, not everything that has been said is true. When it comes to the use of the pills as birth control, I support this idea. What happens is that my country is a very pro-life country, so abortion is legal in Costa Rica but in very qualified situations; for example, when it comes to the health of the mother. However, in this society sometimes [people] want change. Of course they will have the instruments to implement that change. Costa Rica is a country that values democracy. We have a very open debate on all of those issues. What is important is for the people to have the right to decide what is best for each one.

How would you assess the status of women and equality in Costa Rica and in Latin America more broadly?

When you compare Latin America with other regions in the world, we have achieved many improvements in terms of women’s representation in both public and private life. We’ve had many women in Congress, in the judiciary, in politics–women as presidents. However, when you analyze social and economic agenda, we still have many challenges ahead.

Women continue receiving less salary for the same kind of job. Women have a higher unemployment rate in our country. When you analyze the composition of poverty, you will find that most of the families in poverty are being run by a woman. Also, a big issue is violence against women.

FORBES has featured you on its list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women for the last two years. How would you define power?

Power is an amazing instrument that you can use to bring progress to a nation. It is a privilege to have access to power, but it is understood to be a tool to serve others and not serve yourself.

What is your least favorite stereotype about powerful women?

There are [stereotypes] still, and it is because we are just starting to have this kind of [decision-making power]. One is that we are weak. That is probably because we are more in favor of bringing consensus with different groups. We understand success not as the result of just one person but as the result of a team. So that kind of different way of dealing with power I think is misunderstood as a kind of weakness.

What is your best advice for the next generation of female leaders?

More and more women are able to face very complex tasks without any kind of limitations. What is important is to understand first if you are able to overcome your internal limitations, you will be able to conquer any kind of goals you want to.