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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Costa Rica in crisis as ex-president is arrested |
| 2004-10-24 |
| Costa Rica has plunged into its deepest political crisis in decades after two former presidents were arrested on corruption charges in the space of a week. Costa Rica has the strongest economy in the region, where its political stability has earned it the nickname of "the Switzerland of Central America". But a series of corruption scandals this year, mostly involving kickbacks from foreign companies negotiating contracts, has led to a collapse of confidence in the political class. The arrests followed a street demonstration in San José, the capital, in which masked demonstrators covered themselves with paper money and booed President Abel Pacheco, who made a brief appearance, with chants of "You're corrupt!" and "Sell the country!." Many analysts now think that constitutional reform is inevitable. There were dramatic scenes on Friday as Rafael Angel Calderón, president from 1990 to 1994, was sentenced to nine months in prison while investigations continued into allegations that he took a slice of a $39m loan he had brokered from the government of Finland, intended for investment in the Costa Rican health system. Mr Calderón, the son of another former president still revered for setting up the country's welfare state, is the first president ever to be imprisoned for corruption. The judge said he had "probably had functional dominance in negotiations, and the power to decide the precise form in which the money would be shared out, which placed him at a high decision-making level in this criminal organisation." Crowds lined the streets to boo and shake their fists as his prison vehicle passed by. A week earlier, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, president from 1998 to 2002, was arrested as soon as his aircraft landed in San José over allegations that he had taken a $550,000 (€433,600, £300,800) bribe from Alcatel, the French telecommunications company, which had been bidding for a concession of 400,000 GSM lines in Costa Rica. He will stay under house arrest for the next six months. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #2 Is there any proof that Kofis' kid was involved? I thought not, racists. You see bribe and think oily food, watch out for that rough cut 2 by 12 in the aural passage! Shame! /Lucky! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-10-24 8:08:17 PM |
| #1 "he had taken a $550,000 (€433,600, £300,800) bribe from Alcatel, the French telecommunications company". Oil, telecommunications, do I detect a pattern here? Is the US the only country with an anti-bribe law for international business? |
| Posted by: Don 2004-10-24 5:40:23 PM |