The unexpected victory of Carlos Alvarado

ON EASTER Sunday the streets of San José erupted with revelry and relief. A long and bitter presidential election campaign had pitted a fiercely fundamentalist former gospel singer against a liberal candidate of the centre left. The liberal won decisively. A jubilant crowd waved banners of country, party and the LGBT movement, which had good reason to cheer his victory. Dancing continued into the night.

Costa Rica’s election may have been the first national election anywhere to turn on the question of gay rights. That became the biggest issue in January, after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which is based in San José, issued a ruling obliging Costa Rica (and other Latin American countries) to legalise same-sex marriage. The judgment provoked an outcry in Costa Rica (most other countries barely noticed it), and propelled the two candidates with the strongest views on the issue into the run-off. Fabricio Alvarado, of the evangelical National Restoration party, vowed to disobey the order. Carlos Alvarado (pictured), of the Citizens’ Action Party, promised to carry it out with gusto.