The Mayor of San José is the general administrator and legal representative of the Municipality of San José, the

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

of the

Republic of Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and the largest and most populated municipality in the country. The position officially exists since the municipal reform of 1998 as part of the bipartisan agreements of the Figueres-Calderón Pact. Before this the municipalities were administered by a figure similar to a general manager appointed by the

Municipal Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

and called Municipal Executive, but after the reform this figure disappears replaced by the

popularly elected Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they want to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are chosen ...

mayor. The longest serving person in the office has been

Johnny Araya Monge Johnny Francisco Araya Monge (born 29 April 1957) is a Costa Rican politician. He was the mayor of the country's capital San José from 1998 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2024. He was also the co-president of the United Cities and Local G ...

of the National Liberation Party, who was previously municipal executive for several consecutive periods and who has served for more than 22 years (if the time he was a municipal executive) is included.

List

Municipal Executives

Mayors

See also

References