Pérez Zeledón is the 19th canton of the province of San José in Costa Rica, located in the Brunca region. The canton covers an area of 1,905.51 square kilometres (735.72 sq mi), making it the seventh largest of the 81 cantons in the country. It has a population of 134,534 as of the 2011 Costa Rican census. The capital city of the canton is San Isidro.

The canton's boundaries are established by the Río Savegre on the northwest, the Río Guabo and a series of coastal mountain ranges on the southwest and south, and the peaks of the highest mountains of the Cordillera de Talamanca (Talamanca Mountain Range) on the east. In the middle of the canton, the Río General, from which the canton's capital city takes its name, runs north to south.

The canton of Pérez Zeledón is subdivided into 11 districts (distritos):

The canton of Pérez Zeledón was established the 9 October 1931. And was granted 4 initial districts: Ureña, El General, Daniel Flores, and Rivas. Of which Ureña was the capital.

Near the end of the 19th century, between 1870 and 1899, there were quite a few families living in the El General valley. The hamlets (Spanish: Caseríos) of El General, Palmares, Rivas, and Ureña were further populated from 1900 onward.

The Caserío of Ureña grew significantly, and by 1911, during Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno's administration the Refuges of Ojo de Agua, El Cerro de la Muerte, and División were established. These refuges would further advance the growth of the region known today as Pérez Zeledón and El General Valley.

San Isidro de El General, Pérez Zeledón's capital, was awarded the recognition of Ciudad Mártir, regarding the civil war of 1948, as established by Decree Nº274.

This decree established official legal recognition of the city's participation in the civil war of 1948. A section of the decree states (in Spanish):

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