SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves on Tuesday celebrated the failure of an effort by lawmakers in congress to strip his immunity so that he could be prosecuted for alleged corruption.

Chaves’ opposition needed a 38-vote supermajority, but only managed to obtain 34 votes in favor of lifting the president’s immunity. Twenty-one lawmakers voted against the effort and two more were absent.

It was the first time such a vote had occurred about a sitting president in Costa Rica’s history.

Prosecutors allege that Chaves pressured a video producer who had been awarded a contract by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration to give a portion of that money to a former campaign adviser.

Speaking at the opening of a health center in Carrillo in the northwestern pro

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