Costa Rica: Love beyond COVID-19

“I will get married in 2020”, Marco Castillo told me a year ago, sitting outside the blue building of the Legislative Assembly in San Jose, Costa Rica. And today he did, to his life partner Rodrigo Campos in a morning ceremony defying the pandemic and a long history of conservatism in the country. Costa Rica is now the first country in Central America to allow same sex marriage and the 30th in the world. And this despite a motion presented by 24 members of Congress on May 12th proposing to delay the entry of the new law a year and a half after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have been second class citizens and we have conquered a very important right that protect couples with patrimonial rights” Castillo told me on the phone. “Today I feel satisfied and prepared to keep fighting for social equity”.

When I spoke to him a year ago, Castillo already looked exhausted. The 75-year-old lawyer, and head of the LGBTI rights group Diversity Movement, has been one of the strongest voices in the legal battle for same sex marriage in Costa Rica. A year ago, he had been in the middle of three-year legal battle trying to marry two women. Due a to a mistake, one of them was registered as a male since birth which, in theory, offered a loophole allowing the marriage.

That gave Castillo the opportunity to write one of the lawsuits against the ex-prohibition for same-sex marriage. It sure has been a rocky road for his community in the “pura vida” country. Until 1971, being homosexual in Costa Rica was a crime.

It wasn’t until 2010 that San Jose, the capital, had its first Pride Parade organized by Javier Umaña Rivera. Surrounded by fear, the first march only had 50 attendants. In a country where the Constitution expressly identifies the religious belief as Catholic, the LGBTI community does not live in peace. One of the most violent episodes took place right after the 2017 parade.

“Around 15 ‘maes’ (dudes) started yelling at us. That happens sometimes, but they were quite aggressive, so I responded telling them to step back. Two of us ended in the hospital”, explains Isaac Lopez, a participant in the parade, in a YouTube clip on his social media.

But now the country is not only Catholic; the Central American country is increasingly turning to Evengelicals. TheCentro Cristiano de Restauración, for example, is a small church in the Pavas middle class neighborhood with around 300 parishioners every Sunday. Freddy Quintana, one of the pastors, refused to give a statement about the same sex marriage law being discussed. He felt offended I would even dare to ask about same sex marriage or reproductive rights.

“As an Evangelical Christian, the only thing I can tell you is that I abide by the rules of my religion. But I’m more interested on what you think and the nature of your visit to my Church”.

Although Evangelicals try to gather people, they also have to be in control. The pastor knew all the names of the congregation and kept scolding Alberto who was looking at his phone, and two teenagers who kept getting distracted. “I’m not going to let Satan steal this moment from you”, he kept yelling at them.

Catholics and Evangelicals have found a common enemy in many countries in Latin America and have created an effective frame for their conservatism: opposing gender ideology. For a while now, they have forged alliances and responded with the same forms of manifestation.

What triggered the battle in Costa Rica between conservatives and liberals started in December 2017 when the Episcopalian Conference gathered around 600,000 people dressed in white to oppose gender education, abortion, and same sex marriage. This was the second time they had organized a “Pro-life and family walk” but it was never this big.

And the presidential candidates of the 2018 elections didn’t miss the chance to show their beliefs; seven of the thirteen running attended the rally knowing that religion and politics aren’t exactly separated in Costa Rica. The collective effervescence gave both Alvarado’s the possibility to become presidents. Carlos Alvarado, coming from the endangered official party, came through in a second tour.

What gave Fabricio Alvarado, the Evangelical opponent of today’s president, the final push to earn his ticket to the second round was the debate that the Catholic Church organized to cover these controversial topics. Two months earlier, he only accounted for 3% of the populations’ vote intentions but after the debate and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruling, it skyrocketed by 17 points.

The debate continued in churches where apparently, pulpits were being used for political purposes; the Costa Rican Supreme Electoral Tribunal issued an injunction prohibiting priests and pastors from using ceremonies to induce the vote of their parishioners.

Either way, the results were promising. With an estimated $0.80 USD invested per vote, Fabricio Alvarado, the candidate of National Restoration, back in the day, got over 860 thousand ballots in the February 2018 presidential elections in Costa Rica giving the party 14 legislators, adding Costa Rica to the list of countries turning to conservatism in politics like Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and Peru.

The 2018 Pride Parade was a demonstration of “how close a call it was”, explains Castillo. According to Umaña’s numbers around 250,000 people gathered to celebrate not only Gay Pride but also Carlos Alvarado’s new presidency, after going head to head in the second round of the elections with Fabricio Alvarado, the former evangelical preacher from the lower-middle class neighborhood.

Same sex marriage became the bone of contention between LGBTI communities and conservatism in Costa Rica. But it was a major commitment president Carlos Alvarado Quesada made since he came to power in May 2018 appealing to diversity and inclusion. By November one of his legislators in the political race was Enrique Sánchez, advertised as the first openly gay candidate in the history of the country.

“This country recognizes the rights they’ve always deserved and gives them back a bit of the freedom that was often limited for them,” said president Alvarado on social media.

The decriminalization of homosexuality

Costa Rica is seen as a liberal country, with high education and health standards above average in the region as the numbers have shown during the COVID-19 crisis. A decade ago, the ex-president and now controversial Nobel laureate, Oscar Arias, declared May 17th as the day against homophobia. But, as some polls have shown, it remains a conservative country.

Near 60% of the population said to be against same-sex marriage, according to a survey by the Center of Research and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica (CIEP) released in January 2018.

A woman was key to today’s events. Alejandra Calderón Fournier, who ran for Congress in 1978 in the Trotskyan party she created. She pushed for diversity in the country as well as more rights for women, indigenous people and LGBTI communities since the mid 70’s. Her figure was very controversial, especially since her brother later became president of the conservative party.

La Avispa, an emblematic bar owned by Ana Vega, was a refuge for the community in the 80s. But Castillo’s generation recalls that the police used to carry out raids in the bar during the AIDS epidemic spread making them take the test.

The bar, which turned 41 this May, also became a meeting point for the community to organize themselves. At some point, they decided to send a letter to the Health Minister asking them to stop the raids against the “gay cancer” and it worked. The result was the creation of the Combating Aids Association in Costa Rica.

Castillo was part of the board, and discreetly gay, like many others trying to create a safe space for their community where they could find cultural activities, workshops about safe sex, closed doors congresses and work on propositions of laws to protect them from discrimination.

“When I first came out, we accused the archbishop Arrieta of San Jose of discriminating people who were HIV positive in 1998. Working as an openly gay litigant lawyer I lost a lot of clients, because many didn’t want people to know or think they were gay”.

Costa Rica, a religious country

Some talk of 5,000 Evangelical churches in the 5 million people country. There is practically one or two in every neighborhood. Iglesia del Espiritu Santo, located on one of the busiest streets in downtown San José, is one the nine main evangelical groups all over the country.

It is part of the Brazilian Iglesia Universal, founded by Edir Macedo who has faced several charges of money laundering but has never been indicted. In Costa Rica, where the church has been for almost 20 years, pastor Wagner Alves started the so-called “Auto Oración”, a drive-thru lane where you can pray, or pay for favors.

Fabricio Alvarado, was the candidate of National Restoration, a political party created in 2005 by pastor and legislator Carlos Avendaño. Avendaño has always been a very strong evangelical politician, already having a seat during the 2002 legislative period.

“I think people are voting for candidates that love and respect life, family and real human rights. Last elections were about that in Costa Rica, the same happened as in the US with Trump, people voted for the content of our proposal. It had nothing to do with religion, it had to do with consistency, we have never changed the way we think”, explained Avendaño who’s still the head of the party.

And he’s probably right. A Pew Research Center report found that 75% of people in Costa Rica consider religion very important in their lives, and that 78% pray every day. And like in many countries in Latin America, Evangelicals are on the rise.

According to the latest poll from the CIEP in February 2018, although Catholics are still the most important religion in the country, they are at their lowest point historically; only 52% of the population declare themselves Catholics whereas Evangelicals now account for 22%. Fabricio Alvarado himself was baptized in a Catholic church and converted.

Gonzalo Montero, a 40-year old businessman, explained he voted for Fabricio because he follows God and the Bible. “I don’t follow a church or an organization, but if you have God in your heart, you’ll be a good president. Some people say religion and politics shouldn’t be together, but I think that if there is no spiritual guidance, we are lost”, he explained. Even though he didn’t believe in the prosperity theology.

The rise of Evangelicals in Costa Rica hasn’t been as significant as in other countries in the region; 40% in Guatemala and 35% in Nicaragua and El Salvador are now Christian Evangelicals. However, the contribution of Costa Rican Evangelicals has been enormous. The TV chain Enlace, which now belongs to the US based Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN), was born in San Jose in the 80’s. Pastor Jonás Gonzáles created an empire of the evangelical TV network that today broadcasts in 110 countries, 24 hours a day.

Rony Chaves, Fabricio Alvarado’s pastor, has proclaimed himself as an apostle and the ex-candidate is his ministerial son. But beyond the fraternal and spiritual guidance, Chaves has shaped Alvarado’s political career. He’s president and founder of the Ministerio Avance Misionero Mundial and pastor of Centro Mundial de Adoración (CMA) where he met Fabricio and his wife 10 years ago. He’s also member of the board of the TV network Enlace, where he appears, mostly, to encourage fellow evangelical to donate to their cause of “saving souls”.

Evangelicals have been in power for some time using churches as their political offices and vice versa. In a secret meeting which was recorded before the 2018 elections, Fabricio Alvarado asked several pastors to convince their followers to give donations and vote for him for the second round. In the audio revealed by the University of Costa Rica radio station he said “I ask you to pray for us, but also to talk to your people. Not only at church, talk to your neighbors, to your family, to everybody. Let’s make this happen, we’re making history, but it will be consolidated on April 1st.”

Two years for the law to come through

The 9th of January 2018 the IACHR ruled that same-sex marriages should be recognized in all their State members. By November the national court explained they were giving 18 months to the Legislative branch to implement the new law.

The Supreme Court’s idea of giving lawmakers 18 months to discuss the new law only created confusion. The action was highly criticized by everyone. Carlos Avendaño, for example, said that the “Supreme Court should not tell them when and how to legislate, they’re exceeding their legal authority”.

And from the other side of the table, legislator Sánchez, while standing in front of a Harvey Milk’s portrait in his office explained, “I think the Supreme Court’s resolution was strange. People can go and get married, but on their certificates, there is a note clarifying the marriage will have retroactive effect on the day the law goes into force”.

The law was going to be approved, it was just a matter of time. But the 18 months made the discussion go on and on which gave Fabricio Alvarado and other conservative groups time rethink their strategies. Since 2017, the evangelical singer who was still a legislator attended the Congreso Hemisférico de Parlamentarios in Mexico City. Based in Washington D.C., this organization has gathered over 700 politicians from the region fighting for independence and Self-Determination on Life, Family and Religious Freedom. One of their main interest is to fight organizations like the IACHR or the Organization of American States.

The Congreso Hemisférico de Parlamentarios website introduces personalities such as Peruvian congressmen, Julio Rosas, who has been organizing the movement #conmishijosnotemetas, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, or U.S. Senator Mike Lee.

Congresswomen Alexandra Loría, one of Fabricio Alvarado’s supporters, collected 150,000 signatures in early 2019 to reform the 52nd article of the Constitution and specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Fabricio Alvarado has created a new political party “Nueva Republica” and has continued his coalition with governments from other countries in Latin America. Before COVID 19 hit the nation he had been touring the region “spreading Jesus’ word”, and showing it off on social media. He has been creating alliances with other countries while President Carlos Alvarado went through one of the deepest fiscal recessions in the country and his right hand, Epsy Campbell, was investigated for embezzlement.

But it seems the pandemia has helped President Alvarado Quesada. People in Costa Rica took serious precautions, followed government orders and now their president has reached 65% approval. The implementation of this new law is definitely a cause for celebration for Castillo and many others who have reached a steppingstone towards equality. With Evangelicals still on the rise, will love prevail after the lockdown?