Background and career
Laura Chinchilla Miranda (Spanish: [ˈlawɾa tʃinˈtʃiʝa miˈɾanda]; born 28 March 1959) is a Costa Rican political scientist and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was the governing PLN candidate for president in the 2010 general election, where she won with 46.76% of the vote on 7 February. She was the eighth woman president of a Latin American country and the first woman to become President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in as President of Costa Rica on 8 May 2010.
After leaving office, she taught at Georgetown University in 2016. Chinchilla is co-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue, previously served as a Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service.
Since January 2026, she has been president of the Club of Madrid, an organization of which she was previously vice president, and since June 2026 she has been co-chair of the South-North Commission on Development alongside former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

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