More Costa Rican Ambassadors Resign

PRESIDENT Abel Pacheco onTuesday announced the resignation of twomore Costa Rican ambassadors – RicardoSequeira (Japan) and Walter Neihaus(Organization of American States).The announcements came a week afterPacheco announced the resignations ofambassadors Jaime Daremblum (UnitedStates), Annie Ramos (France) andRodolfo Gutiérrez (United Kingdom,Iceland and Portugal).Neihaus, who served as TourismMinister during the administration offormer President Miguel AngelRodríguez (1998-2002), is resigning toserve as an aid for Rodríguez, recentlyelected secretary general of the OAS(TT, June 11). Daremblum resigned forthe same reason.Sequeira is resigning after six years asCosta Rica’s ambassador to the land ofrising sun. The reasons for his resignationwere not disclosed.No replacement ambassadors havebeen named. However, Pacheco andForeign Minister Roberto Tovar said theywere considering appointing PresidencyMinister Rina Contreras to the OAS.Pacheco and Tovar said they were notat liberty to announce the name of theperson nominated to replace Daremblumas Costa Rica’s ambassador to the UnitedStates. Although the replacement has beennominated, U.S. diplomats must firstapprove the nominee, Tovar said, addingthat this is expected to happen sometimenext month.Daremblum’s replacement is expectedto be Tómas Dueñas, former ForeignTrade Minister and current president ofthe Costa Rican Investment Board(CINDE), according to sources in CasaPresidencial and the Foreign Ministry(TT, July 16).