HispanicBusiness

Laura Chinchilla today became Costa Rica's first female president, beating out two male candidates in a landslide election to assume leadership of Latin America's oldest democracy.

Chinchilla, 50, will succeed President Oscar Arias, who served as the country's president from not only 2006 to 2009, but also from 1986 to 1990.

Arias won a Nobel Peace prize in 1987 for his contribution to ending several Central American civil wars. Chinchilla, who attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C., served as one of his two vice presidents.

Chinchilla is a social conservative on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. But she vows to continue the Arias policy of liberalizing trade and utilities.

The married mother of a teenaged son, Chinchilla was born into a political family. She ran on a platform of boosting education funding and cracking down on crime. Drug smugglers have been using the country as a transit corridor, which is a major concern for a country with no army.

Chinchilla won 47 percent of the votes, with center-left candidate Otton Solis garnering 24 percent and right-wing lawyer Otto Guevara, 21 percent, according to the Times Online.