Libertarian Movement Party Partido Movimiento Libertario | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | May 1994 |
| Ideology | Libertarian conservatism Social conservatism[1][2] Catholic social teaching[dubious –discuss] Economic liberalism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Colours | Red |
| Legislative Assembly | 0 / 57 |
TheLibertarian Movement Party (Spanish:Partido Movimiento Libertario;PML) is a political party based onlibertarian conservatism inCosta Rica. It was founded in May 1994. After an important protagonism during early 2000s with itsperennial nomineeOtto Guevara among the main candidates and reaching third place in2006 and2010, it was affected by several corruption scandals and lack of funds, the party gradually suffered a debacle in2014 ending in fourth on the presidential ticket, and fifth in Parliament. Later losing all its mayors in themid-term local election of 2016, to finally having bad results in2018 with Guevara's candidacy reaching only 1% of support and losing all seats in Congress.
Founded by non-partisan liberals from the Academy and liberal defectors ofSocial Christian Unity Party, contested the1998 election with Federico Malavassi as candidate receiving only 0.4% of the vote but succeeding in getting attorneyOtto Guevara elected as member of theLegislative Assembly.[3] In this time the party was stronglylibertarian and was in favor of minimal government (something quite polemic in awelfare state like Costa Rica when even the right-wing parties as the Social Christians tend to acceptsocial programs andgovernment intervention[3]), legalization ofrecreational drugs,same-sex marriage,abortion and the like.[3]
In 2002, Guevara unsuccessfully ran forpresident (winning 1.7% of the vote); at thelegislative elections, the party won 9.3% of the popular vote and six out of 57 seats. A few weeks after taking office, one Congressman left the party and became independent, leaving PML with five seats. In 2006, Guevara again unsuccessfullyran for president (winning 8.4% of the vote); at the legislative elections, the party won 9.1% of the popular vote and six out of 57 seats.[3] Evangelical pastor Fernando Alexis Castillo Villanueva endorsed the party in this period.[4] In the2010 general election, Guevara was again the PML's presidential candidate and received 20% of the popular vote; it also increased its number of deputies to nine (even so three of these deputies defects from the party before the end of the legislative period). At the municipal level the party obtain one mayor in2006 and two in2010.[3]
In its2014 electoral campaign, the party took a moresocially conservative position, totally opposing the legalisation ofabortion[2] and rejectinghomosexual couples' right to a marriage license.[5]
The party suffered a debacle in the 2014 election, as was relegated to fourth place afterPAC,PLN andFA parties.[6] It also reduced its congressional representation to less than half (four seats),[7] It was aldo unable to elect any mayor in the 2016 mid-termmunicipal election. This electoral debacle was also costly, as the party was unable to pay some of its campaign debts to both workers,Social Security, loaners and Banks. As previously, in 2015 another deputy defects;Carmen Quesada, who declares herself independent.
Also in 2015, several party members went to trial after being accused of fraud by the State, apparently trying to trick theElectoral Tribunal in paying for trainings that were already cover by theFriedrich Naumann Foundation.[8] Judges sentenced party's vice president, treasurer and accountant to eight years in prison.
For the2018 general election, the party held the first primary election in their history, due to there being more than one members aspiring for the party's nomination for the presidency. The two pre-candidates were Otto Guevara, running for the fifth time, this time under aright-wing populist tone, inspired by the campaigns ofDonald Trump.[9] The other candidate was Natalia Díaz, a young, first-time deputy, who promised, if elected, she'll bring a new face to the party and renew its structure and administration. Guevara won with 59.49% of the votes.
Due to previous fraud allegations against the party, Otto Guevara's campaign had difficulty finding a bank willing to give the party a loan for campaigning. This changed on January 20, when Promérica Bank loaned the party 500 million colones for the purpose of financing their electoral campaign.[10] In November 2019 Guevara announced the foundation of a new political party named Liberal Union[11][12] as the Libertarian Movement is unable to pay its debts.[13][14][15]
In 2019, Guevara announced that the party would not take part in elections anymore and that a new formation would be founded named Liberal Union.[13][14][15]
The party's candidacy was taken originally by credit tycoon Carlos Valenciano Kamer, however he resign soon after arguing health issues. The candidacy was then taken by former president of the Arias Foundation Luis Alberto Cordero Arias receiving only a little more than 3,000 votes and being the least voted candidate of all 25 in that election.
The political party generally has a moderately libertarian perspective on policy issues, although sometimes policy proposals on social issues are more conservative, than libertarian, i.e. a legislator introduced legislation that would have banned same-sex couples from adopting or having custody of children.
During the 2014 campaign, the party expressed opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, although congressman and presidential candidateOtto Guevara has since said that his major concern about legalizing gay marriage is that the debate over such libertarian legislation would distract the nation from more important matters.[16]
On most policy issues, the party favors moderate libertarian reforms such as:[17]
| Election | Candidate | First round | Second round | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Position | Result | Votes | % | Position | Result | ||
| 1998 | Federico Malavassi | 5,874 | 0.42% | 7th | Lost | — | |||
| 2002 | Otto Guevara | 25,815 | 1.69% |  4th | Lost | — | |||
| 2006 | 137,710 | 8.48% | 3rd | Lost | — | ||||
| 2010 | 384,540 | 20.83% | 3rd | Lost | — | ||||
| 2014 | 233,064 | 11.34% |  4th | Lost | — | ||||
| 2018 | 21,890 | 1.02% | 7th | Lost | — | ||||
| 2022 | Luis Alberto Cordero Arias | 1,406 | 0.07% | 26th | Lost | — | |||
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Federico Malavassi | 42,640 | 3.1% | 1 / 57 | New | 4th | Opposition |
| 2002 | Otto Guevara | 142,152 | 9.3% | 6 / 57 | 5 | 4th | Opposition |
| 2006 | 147,934 | 9.2% | 6 / 57 |  0 | 3rd | Opposition | |
| 2010 | 275,518 | 14.5% | 9 / 57 | 3 | 3rd | Opposition | |
| 2014 | 162,559 | 7.9% | 4 / 57 | 5 | 5th | Opposition | |
| 2018 | 49,659 | 2.3% | 0 / 57 | 4 | 9th | Extra-parliamentary | |
| 2022 | Luis Alberto Cordero Arias | 13,473 | 0.7% | 0 / 57 | 0 | 19th | Extra-parliamentary |
| Parliamentary fractions in the Legislative Assembly | |
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| Extra-parliamentary parties |
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| Cantonal and provincial parties | |
