Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado congratulated Guillermo Lasso Mendoza on his victory in Ecuador’s presidential elections held this past Sunday and expressed his confidence that bilateral relations will be deepened.
The Costa Rican Foreign Ministry reported in a statement that Alvarado telephoned Lasso to congratulate him and express Costa Rica’s willingness to continue working together and strengthen bilateral relations.
“The Costa Rican government expresses its conviction that Ecuador and Costa Rica will continue to deepen their traditional relations of friendship and cooperation, as well as a common agenda of shared values and purposes at the regional and global level,” an official statement indicates.
Shared maritime border
Costa Rica and Ecuador share a maritime border in the Pacific and in recent years they have made progress in matters of marine protection and the fight against illegal fishing in the Marine Corridor of the Eastern Tropical Pacific, an area of great natural wealth between the Costa Rican Isla del Coco and the Ecuadorian Galapagos Islands. These countries have also jointly advanced in the search for the expansion of their respective maritime platforms in the Pacific.
Surprise victory
Guillermo Lasso, candidate of the conservative CREO-PSC alliance, surprised Ecuador by proclaiming himself the winner of the elections this Sunday, when with 98.50% of the tally sheets he obtained 52.50% of the votes, five points above his rival Andrés Arauz.
Arauz, the political heir of former President Rafael Correa who had won in the first round on February 7 by a difference of almost 13 points, has already recognized Lasso’s triumph, while the President of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, has also recognized it, congratulated and wished “the greatest of successes” in his constitutional term.
