Shake-up in Costa Rican presidential campaign

According to Zach Dyer writing for Reuters, Rodolfo Hernandez of the center-right Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) is leaving the race to be the next president of Costa Rica. He made the unexpected announcement on Thursday.

Hernandez blamed "backstabbing" by his own party and alleged that some dissatisfied PUSC members passed information to the centrist PLN's candidate, Johnny Araya. The PLN has held power since 2006.

Here's more from Zach this time with the Tico Times

The former-PUSC candidate said he never imaged that he would face so much “intrigue, envy, egoism, betrayal and disloyalty.”

“This is not the democracy I dreamed of, this is not the party I always defended. This is not what I wanted for Costa Rica,” Hernández wrote in his jeremiad.

Not much to say except those seem like weak excuses to back out of a presidential race. On the other hand, it just reinforces my impression that Costa Rican democracy has severely weakened over the last decade. It is still one of the shining stars in Central and South America with a very good quality of life, but it seems to have been heading in the wrong direction for some time now.

The ruling National Liberation Party's (PLN) and its candidate, Johnny Araya, are now in an even better position to hold on to the presidency. It looks like the PUSC has two weeks to name a replacement candidate for February 2nd's elections.

Update: Hernandez jumped back into the race Saturday afternoon, twenty-four hours after quitting it. Not quite the story of Brazil's Jânio Quadros but we'll have to see what happens.