Claudia Vanessa Dobles Camargo
Claudia Vanessa Dobles Camargo was one of five women among the twenty candidates who contested Costa Rica’s presidential election on February 1, 2026. She ran as the candidate of the Citizen Agenda Coalition and entered the race as a non-incumbent with a professional background in architecture, urban planning, transportation, and sustainable development.
Born in Ciudad Quesada, San Carlos, in 1980, Dobles is the daughter of a Costa Rican father and a Mexican mother and spent part of her childhood in Mexico before returning to Costa Rica. She later studied architecture at the University of Costa Rica and developed a career focused on urban development, infrastructure, housing, mobility, and sustainability. Before entering national politics, she worked in the private sector on architectural and planning projects in Costa Rica and abroad.
Dobles served as First Lady of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022 during the presidency of Carlos Alvarado Quesada. In that role, she was closely involved in policy areas including public transportation, urban mobility, territorial planning, local government coordination, and implementation of Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan. She later continued her work in urban planning and sustainability through advanced study and professional fellowships, including a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and graduate study in city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the 2026 election, she ran simultaneously for president and for a seat in the Legislative Assembly representing San José.
Although she did not win the presidency, she was elected to the Assembly for the 2026–2030 term and became the legislative caucus leader for the Citizen Agenda Coalition. Her presidential campaign focused heavily on public security, economic opportunity, and themodernization of public services. Dobles argued for a security strategy that combined stronger action against organized crime with prevention policies aimed at reducing violence through education, community investment, and opportunities for young people. She also emphasized stronger criminal intelligence and improved coordination among police and judicial institutions.
A second major focus of her campaign was sustainable economic development. Dobles proposed strengthening the middle class, improving access to healthcare and education, modernizing transportation and infrastructure, and expanding housing opportunities. Drawing on her background in urban planning, she also promoted cleaner public transit, stronger territorial planning, climate resilience, and continued progress toward decarbonization while supporting economic growth.
