Recent Publications From International Studies Professor Lucas Perelló

Costa Rica is currently in the midst of a presidential election – and Prof. Perelló has given us no shortage of analysis. In two articles, one published before the first vote and one published after, he emphasizes the “boring,” undramatic nature of the country’s elections.

In a piece for Foreign Policy, he writes, “Twenty-five candidates are running to replace incumbent President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, who is ineligible for reelection due to term limits, and no one yet dominates the polls. This makes an April 3 runoff vote all but guaranteed, as has been the case in the last two elections.”

Predictably, the February 6th vote did not result in a clear winner. On February 7th, Prof. Perelló published an article in Americas Quarterly where he summarized the results and impending second vote, writing, “As the dust settles, Figueres and Chaves will use the two-month long runoff campaign period to attract support among the 55% of voters who chose other options in the first-round vote.”

In the above article, he draws comparisons between Costa Rica and other Central American countries, several of which he has recently written about!

Contributing to a piece in the Inter-American Dialogue, Prof. Perelló wrote of Xiomara Castro’s Honduran presidency, “Honduras now has two legislatures claiming legitimacy. The political crisis that erupted before the inauguration put a sudden end to the optimism stemming from Castro’s historic triumph.”

In the world of academia, Prof. Perelló has been published in two journals this year. The first, a piece in International Area Studies Review, concerns Guatemalan voter turnout and its connection to the parties that voters have the option to align themselves with.

The second piece, published under the Political Studies Association, examines Nayib Bukele’s 2019 presidential election victory in El Salvador.

And on February 24, his Freedom House report on Nicaragua will be released!

Congratulations, Professor Perelló! 

Published: February 15, 2022