Abel Pacheco

Abel Pacheco studied at National Autonomous University of Mexico and Louisiana State University. The recorded working language is Spanish. Employment is recorded with University of Costa Rica. Positions recorded include President of Costa Rica. Distinctions recorded are Grand Cross, Special Class of the Order of the Sun of Peru, Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles and Order of Juan Mora Fernández.

• Name — Abel Pacheco de La Espriella • Honorific Suffix — OSC OSP • Order — 44th President of Costa Rica • Term Start — 8 May 2002 • Term End — 8 May 2006 • Vice President — Lineth Saborío Chaverri Luis Fishman Zonzinski • Predecessor — Miguel Ángel Rodríguez • Successor — Óscar Arias • Office1 — Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica • Term Start1 — 1 May 1998 • Term End1 — 30 April 2002 • Predecessor1 — Alberto Cañas Escalante • Successor1 — Édgar Mohs Villalta • Constituency1 — San José (1st Office) • Birth Name — Abel Pacheco de la Espriella • Born — 22 December 1933 • Birthplace — San José, Costa Rica • Party — PUSC • Spouse — Elsa María Muñoz Batha (?–?) • Children — 6 • Education — National Autonomous University of Mexico Louisiana State University • Occupation — * Psychiatrist • businessman • media personality • politician • writer

Abel Pacheco and his first wife, Elsa María Muñoz Batha, had five children: Abel, Elsa, Yolanda, Sergio and Valeria. Pacheco married his second wife, Leila Rodríguez Stahl, a former Miss Costa Rica winner, on 20 November 1975. He and Rodríguez had one son, Fabian.

Pacheco is a medical doctor who graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with a degree in psychiatry from Louisiana State University. During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s Pacheco was a popular presenter of short programmes on Costa Rican television. During this time he continued to teach at the University of Costa Rica and personally attended to customers at the gentleman's outfitters, El Palacio del Pantalón, that he had established in downtown San José in the mid-1980s. He also wrote a series of novels and a number of popular songs. On 1 February 1998 he was elected to serve as a party-list deputy in Costa Rica's unicameral Legislative Assembly, representing the province of San José for the PUSC. In the run-up to the 2002 presidential election, the PUSC party convention selected him to be its candidate by an overwhelming 76% of the delegates' votes on 10 June 2001. His candidacy was seen as a victory for the rank-and-file members over the party's entrenched hierarchy. In the first round of the election Pacheco received 38.6% of the vote: just short of the 40% needed to avoid a run-off. On 7 April 2002, in the second round – the first time the mechanism had been used since the rules were introduced – Pacheco got 58% of the vote, beating Rolando Araya of the social democratic PLN by a narrow margin.

Abel Pacheco is recorded as having received Grand Cross, Special Class of the Order of the Sun of Peru, Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles and Order of Juan Mora Fernández.