Juan Diego Castro Fernández
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Juan Diego Castro Fernández (born 9 June 1955 in Cartago, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican
lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
and politician, former Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Costa Rica. Castro is a Defense lawyer who studied Law and
Criminal science Crime science is the study of crime in order to find ways to prevent it. Three features distinguish crime science from criminology: it is single-minded about cutting crime, rather than studying it for its own sake; accordingly it focuses on crime ...
at the University of Costa Rica and has a Doctorate degree in
Mediation Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...
from Universidad La Salle. Castro was Minister of Public Safety between 1994 and 1997 during the presidency of José María Figueres ( PLN). He became the first cabinet member to receive a Motion of no confidence by the Legislative Assembly when he summoned police forces to fence off Parliament as a means to press for the reform of the Penal Code. Subsequently, Castro resigned as Minister of Safety and was named Minister of Justice. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency as the nominee of the conservative-leaning National Integration Party in the 2018 Costa Rican general election. Castro has been compared unfavorably to US President Donald Trump and other
right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
antiestablishment and right-wing populist figures.


Costa Rican general election, 2018

Castro launched his unexpected presidential campaign presenting himself as a political outsider and with a strong anti-establishment and anti-corruption speech. Promising to "rule by decree" and with a very loud " hard hand" rhetoric (uncommon in Costa Rican politics as the country is famous for its political centrism), Castro has been compared with figures like Donald Trump, Marine LePen and
Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...
, and accused of
right-wing populism Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...
and
far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
positions, albeit he rejects the comparisons. Despite his unexpected lead in the polls throughout most of the campaign, his support plummeted in the final days. Castro came in fifth place, garnering only 9.56% of the votes in the February 4th Presidential Election. His poor performance did not qualify him for the runoff election scheduled for April 1, 2018. After an unfriendly separation from the National Integration Party, Castro tried unsuccessfully to create a new political party, but he abandoned the process due to "logistical difficulties".


Controversies


Antisemitism

In the July 30, 2019 editorial of the newspaper ''La Nación'', Castro was accused of
anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
for comments made in one of his official videos against the owner of the media CRHoy Leonel Baruch who is Jewish, making allusions and jokes about the Holocaust and also calling him an "evil banker." Castro's words were condemned by the Costa Rican Jewish community with an official statement from the Zionist Israelite Center. Castro's statements were also condemned by Israel's ambassador to Costa Rica
Amir Ofek Amir Ofek is the Israeli Ambassador to Costa Rica and El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the north ...
, who described them as "miserable expressions". The heads of most of the benches in the Legislative Assembly, including National Liberation,
Citizen Action Citizen Action was a national liberal consumer and public activist group that was active in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. State-level affiliates have continued on in Connecticut, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The affiliates of Citi ...
, Social Christian Unity, Broad Front and Castro's former party
National Integration The Ministry of Integration and Regional Development ( pt, Ministério da Integração e Desenvolvimento Regional, abbreviated MIDR) is a cabinet-level federal ministry in Brazil, established in 1999. On January 1, 2019, the Ministry of Nationa ...
repudiated the expressions, the two Evangelical Christian parties' benches
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and National Restoration refused to comment, whilst the independent deputy Erick Rodríguez Steller, who is close to Castro, defended him arguing that his comments were taken out of context.


Homophobic statement

Castro described the government of President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado (who is a known supporter of LGBT rights) as '' maricón'', a derogative Spanish term for homosexuals, after Alvarado's participation in that year's Gay Parade.


Conflict with reporters and the media

On November 24, journalist Arlene Raventós, who works in the Repretel network, showed that Castro's accusations against her that she was behind an alleged campaign to discredit him, were false. "It is unfortunate to have to go out to clarify false information without real content, published in the heat of a political campaign, which should be devoted to raising ideas about the real solution to the country's problems; but when it comes to muddying a name under and without foundation, the need to clarify with the truth prevails and that is what I request". On December 1, 2017, journalist David Delgado, who worked at ''La Nación'' and the Ministry of Justice and Peace, publicly denounced him for "persecution, mockery and harassment" in relation to coverage of a drug trafficking case. On December 11, 2017, he announced that he would sue the University of Costa Rica because a Facebook program of several young students reported the assault on his mother, his past as a politician and criticized what qualified his " right-wing populist" tendencies.


Panama Papers

Castro was mentioned as part of the
Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...
case by the news reports ''Amelia Rueda'' and ''Semanario Universidad'' for being lawyer for a Mossack Fonseca law firm related company, which led him to attack Rueda and her son Antonio Jiménez, as well as the media ''Semanario''.


Trial

In 2020 Castro went to trial against University of Costa Rica student Claudia Campos as anchorwoman of the web program "Suave un Toque" (Costa Rican slang for "Wait a Minute") on accusations of slander. During trial, Castro yelled to Campos "I do not shoot you because I believe in God" causing the Judge to warn Castro for his behavior. The case was dismissed by the Judges.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro Fernandez, Juan Diego 1955 births Government ministers of Costa Rica Living people National Liberation Party (Costa Rica) politicians People from Cartago Province Costa Rican Freemasons Right-wing populism in North America 20th-century Costa Rican politicians