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José María Figueres Olsen served as President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998.
He is the son of three-time president José Figueres Ferrer.
Bearing the Figueres last name, son to the most influential Costa Rican of the twentieth century, he became president in his first attempt. Not many things can be remembered of his presidency, but two events stand-out. First, his government decided to shut down the maintenance of the railroad network, which has proven a quite backward move. Second, and this is probably the most significant achievement by his government, he convinced international mega corporation Intel to setup a factory in Costa Rica, winning the bid over several more prestigious hi-tech craddles. The impact of that triumph changed many economic indicators of the country in an irreversible fashion. After retiring from government, he moved to Switzerland, to take-up a position realted to the United Nations unit for the technocratization of societies. Currently, he is being requested to return to his country to clarify some corruption scandals, but he refused to come back and lives in Switzerland.