Manuel Aguilar Chacón was head of state of Costa Rica from April 1837 to March 1838.
José María Alfaro Zamora was the Costa Rican Head of State between the periods of 1842 and 1844 as well as 1846 and 1847 and President of Costa Rica between May 1 and May 8, 1847.
Antonio Saldaña was a Bribri cacique and the last king of Talamanca in Costa Rica.
José Bruno Carranza Ramírez was briefly President of Costa Rica in 1870. Bruno Carranza came to power in the coup d'état of 27 April 1870 that deposed President Jesús Jiménez. He resigned three months later.

Pancha Carrasco, born Francisca Carrasco Jiménez, was Costa Rica's first woman in the military. Carrasco is most famous for joining the defending forces at the Battle of Rivas in 1856 with a rifle and a pocketful of bullets. The strength and determination she showed there made her a symbol of national pride and she was later honored with a Costa Rican postage stamp, a Coast Guard vessel, and the creation of the "Pancha Carrasco Police Women's Excellence Award".

Braulio Evaristo Carrillo Colina was the Head of State of Costa Rica during two periods: the first between 1835 and 1837, and the de facto between 1838 and 1842.

José María Castro Madriz was a Costa Rican lawyer, academic, diplomat, and politician. He served twice as President of Costa Rica, from 1847 to 1849, and from 1866 to 1868. On both occasions he was prevented from completing his term of office by military coups. During his first administration, on 31 August 1848, he formally declared Costa Rica an independent republic, definitively severing Costa Rica's ties to the moribund Federal Republic of Central America.
Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra was a Nicaraguan-born President of Costa Rica from 1902 to 1906. Esquivel became a naturalized Costa Rican in 1869.

Aniceto del Carmen Esquivel Sáenz was President of Costa Rica for a brief period of three months in 1876 before being deposed in a coup d'état.
Juan Primitivo Próspero Fernández Oreamuno was President of Costa Rica from 1882 to 1885.

Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno was the inaugural First Lady of Costa Rica and wife of President José María Castro Madriz. She was born in San José, Costa Rica on August 23, 1828 to her parents former Head of State Manuel Fernández Chacón and Dolores Oreamuno Muñoz de la Trinidad, and was sister of President Próspero Fernández Oreamuno.
José Rafael de Gallegos y Alvarado was president of Costa Rica's Junta Superior Gubernativa from October 1822 to January 1823 and head of state of Costa Rica from March 1833 until March 1835 and again from May 1845 to June 1846.
General Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez was President of Costa Rica on two occasions: from 1870 to 1876, and from 1877 to 1882.
Vicente de las Mercedes Herrera Zeledón was President of Costa Rica from 30 July 1876 to 11 September 1877. He came to power in the coup d'état that deposed President Aniceto Esquivel and resigned in favor of Gen. Tomás Guardia the following year.
Jesús María Ciriaco Jiménez Zamora was President of Costa Rica on two occasions: 1863 to 1866, and 1868 to 1870.

Saturnino Lizano Gutiérrez was President of Costa Rica from 6 July to 10 August 1882.
José María Montealegre Fernández was President of Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863.
Juan Mora Fernández was Costa Rica's first elected head of state. He was considered a liberal and decided to move the capital from Cartago to Puntarenas. Juan Mora was elected as the first head of state in 1825. He is remembered for instituting land reform, and he followed a progressive course. As a consequence of his land reform structure, he inadvertently created an elite class of powerful coffee barons. The barons eventually overthrew one of his later successors, José María Alfaro Zamora.

José Miguel Mora Porras was interim President of Costa Rica from 15 November to 26 November 1849, when he turned over power to his older brother Juan Rafael Mora Porras.

Juan Rafael Mora Porras was President of Costa Rica from 1849 to 1859.
Francisco Morazán was a Central American politician who was president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1830 to 1839. Before he was president of Central America he was the head of state of Honduras. He rose to prominence at the battle of La Trinidad on November 11, 1827. Morazán then dominated the political and military scene of Central America until his execution in 1842.
Francisco María Oreamuno Bonilla was head of state of Costa Rica from November to December 1844.
António Pinto Soares was Head of State of Costa Rica from September 11 to September 27, 1842.
José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón was President of Costa Rica from 1890 to 1894.
Ramón Bernardo Soto Alfaro was President of Costa Rica from 1885 to 1889.

José Maria Soto Alfaro (1860-1931) was a surgeon and Costa Rican politician, brother of President Bernardo Soto Alfaro. Soto studied medicine at the University of Paris in 1885, practiced the first gastrostomy, thyroidectomy and cesarean section in Costa Rica. He practiced medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Costa Rica and at the San Juan de Dios Hospital. sometimes deputy in the Constitutional Congress. Convinced tinoquista, he strongly supported the brief regime of two years imposed by the brothers Tinoco after the coup d'etat of 1917 and founded the "January 27 Club" in commemoration of the date of overthrow of Alfredo González Flores. After Federico Tinoco was overthrown and his brother José Joaquín was assassinated, Soto accepted to run as a presidential candidate against the opposition leader Don Julio Acosta García, although the nomination was merely symbolic since Acosta had the triumph assured it was important to avoid a single candidate election, something that it is recognized as a patriotic service.

Rafael Anselmo José Yglesias Castro was a Costa Rican politician who served as President of Costa Rica for two consecutive periods from 1894 to 1902.