Facing a chorus of negative chants during Thursday’s Guanacaste Day speech in Nicoya, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado found a way to make himself heard.
As chants of “Fuera! Fuera!” (“Get out!”) increased, President Alvarado improvised. Raising his voice and gesticulating with every word, the 39-year-old shouted the end of his holiday address.
“I am proud of a people who, though they may be silent, are not afraid to move forward when we have to move forward,” he said. “Those who stop us — we are not going to let them stop us.
“Long live the Annexation, long live Guanacaste, and long live Costa Rica!”
Check out the speech below, as broadcast by SINART for Channel 5 Guanacaste. The excitement starts at 4:40:
Many of the protesters wore shirts identifying themselves with the Asociación de Profesores de Segunda Enseñanza, a union of Costa Rican educators.
At a press conference, President Alvarado said he found it “wonderful” that organized protests had been peaceful.
“I feel joy, in fact, of this particular kind of democracy,” he said, according to the daily La Nación.
