Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia
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Rafael Ángel del Socorro Calderón Guardia was the president of Costa Rica from 1940 to 1944.
Early life
He was born on 10 March 1900 in San José. In his youth, Calderón studied in Costa Rica and Belgium, where he married Yvonne Clays Spoelders, who was later to be the first woman diplomat of Costa Rica. After finishing his studies, he became a practicing physician, which he would remain for most of his early career.Presidency
In 1940, he won elections and became President of Costa Rica. During his presidency he established the Work Code, which introduced the minimum wage, regulated the rights for the work meetings and the social insurances.As president, he brought Costa Rica into World War II on the Allied side and cooperated closely with the United States. During the war his government confiscated many German assets in the country including large coffee plantations and banking businesses, mostly belonging to German immigrants or Costa Ricans of German descent. This made him very unpopular with the strong German community in the country. This proved to be a mistake in the long run because these German families and their descedants would become backers of José Figueres Ferrer during the 1948 revolution and of his political party PLN.
He founded the CCSS (social security) and health administrations for Costa Rica. In education, he established the University of Costa Rica. He was supported by the poor but criticized by the rich. He allied himself with both the Roman Catholic Church and the Communist Party, which alienated him from the conservatives, a few self-proclaimed intellectuals and the upper classes.
After the Presidency
In 1944 was followed by Teodoro Picado Michalski. In 1948, Calderón ran again as a presidential candidate. The Electoral Board declared Otilio Ulate Blanco as the winner, but the Congress, in which Calderon had majority and attending his request, declared the votes for President to be null and void, while the votes for congressmen were not questioned. José Figueres Ferrer led a military campaign, and the government was overthrown.
Calderón fled to Nicaragua (where he launched a failed invasion of Costa Rica in 1955), then fled to Mexico. In 1958, Calderón Guardia returned to Costa Rica and was elected as congressman, but he didn't serve as such. He even ran for the presidency again in 1962 but lost. He was also named ambassador to Mexico (1966-1970). He died in 1970.
His son, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, was president from 1990 to 1994.
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