The first victory of liberalism in the country was during the country's first civil war, the Ochomogo War in 1823 when the liberal-dominated cities of San José and Alajuela fought against the conservative-dominated cities of Heredia and Cartago due to the former's wish to split from the First Mexican Empire and becoming a Republic, whilst the Heredian and Cartaginese creole aristocracy favored to remain in the Empire as a way to protect their interests, and also as a clash of economic visions between the more liberal bourgeoisie and the agrarian aristocracy.
Costa rica is a full democratic country as it is famous for its stable and well-functioning democracy, with periodic, accessible, and honest elections, a competitive party system, and a robust civil society.
[3][4][5] The amount of important liberals in Costa Rica's history would be too large to list, but to mention a few this may include presidents like Juan Mora Fernández, Braulio Carrillo, José María Castro Madriz, Tomás Guardia, Juan Rafael Mora Porras (hero of the Filibuster War), Bruno Carranza Ramírez, Próspero Fernández Oreamuno, Bernardo Soto Alfaro, Cleto González Víquez, Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno, Alfredo González Flores, Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra, Carlos Durán Cartín and Julio Acosta García, among others.
[1][2] As for example the authoritarian governments of Carrillo, Guardia and Tinoco who led coups against other liberals Manuel Aguilar Chacón, Castro Madriz and Alfredo González Flores respectively.
King of Talamanca Antonio Saldaña is murdered because of his opposition to the United Fruit Company[8] and President Gonzalez Flores’ attempt to tax the capital causes the 1917 Costa Rican coup d'état led by Tinoco.
Calderón's alliance with the Communists and the more progressive factions of the Catholic Church allowed some of the more important social reforms in Costa Rica but also sprang protests and opposition that sparked the 1948 Civil War.
As the name implies the party was originally libertarian with some very radical ideas for the time, including demolishing completely the Welfare State, eliminating all public monopolies, legalizing same-sex marriage and recreational drugs,[10] among other controversial positions in the Costa Rican society that was (and continues to be) very left-wing politically but very conservative socially.
[12] However, despite having important roles in both the 2006 and 2010 general election becoming the main right-wing opposition and the biggest party on the right[1] and during the 2007 Costa Rican Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement referendum endorsing the option for Yes, the party suffered from several corruption scandals including a sentence for fraud involving the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation[13] (causing its departure from the Liberal International and Guevara's resignation as president of the regional), a critical financial situation[14] and a drastic drop in electoral support.