Carlos Denton, executive director at CID/Gallup in Costa Rica: “After 100 days as Costa Rica’s president, Rodrigo Chaves, who was unknown to the general public a year ago, is more popular than when he was sworn in. He has achieved this by challenging and even taking on entrenched groups and institutions, which he perceives as holding back progress and impinging on people’s needs. Within a month of taking office, he issued a decree eliminating a 35 percent import duty on rice, a major part of the national diet and particularly important for the poor. Prices have declined. Since then, there have been almost weekly announcements including everything from eliminating mask mandates in schools, to the combing of institutions and the streamlining of functions in ministries. Chaves also recently announced the sale of two state-owned banks and 49 percent of the government-owned insurance company, INS, to raise money to lower the large foreign-owed national debt by roughly 4 percent—a small percentage but a…”