Monge Alvárez, Luis Alberto (1925– )

Costa Rican social-democratic politician, president 1982–86. He concentrated on making economies in government spending and maintaining good relations with the USA, but refused to join it in an anti-Sandinista alliance to overthrow Nicaragua's new Marxist government.

In 1951 he helped found the social-democratic National Liberation Party (PLN) and was elected to the legislative assembly in 1958, but briefly withdrew from politics in the mid-1960s as a result of concern over the PLN's rightward shift. He became PLN secretary general in 1966 and was president of the legislative assembly 1970–74, and became Costa Rica's president (at the second attempt) in 1982.

Educated at the universities of Costa Rica and Geneva, Monge began his career as a trade-union activist during the 1940s and supported José Figueres Ferrer during the 1948 civil war.