Laura Fernandez was sworn in as Costa Rica's president on Friday, vowing to wage a "war without quarter" against organised crime in a country that has seen surging violence as it has become a key drug-smuggling transit route to the United States. The 39-year-old, whose right-wing Sovereign People's Party holds an absolute majority in the country's single-chamber legislature, also pledged close ties with Washington — underscored by the attendance of US special envoy Kristi Noem at the inauguration ceremony held at the national stadium. Fernandez's administration is modelling a new maximum-security prison on El Salvador's CECOT detention centre and has signed an agreement to accept non-citizen deportees from the US, a policy human rights groups have condemned for stranding migrants in countries where they have no ties.