Former Costa Rican President Rafael Ángel Calderón Jr. (1990-1994) is in prison. Former President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is in house arrest (1998-2002). And former President José María Figueres (1994-1998) is now under the watchful eye of the Prosecutor’s Office. All three – who headed the country in consecutive four-year terms, from 1990 to 2002 – have been linked to the two largest corruption scandals the country has seen in recent memory, which some have begun to refer to collectively as a “ring of corruption.”
Both Calderón, 55, and Rodríguez, 64, have been ousted from their party, the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), because of the allegations. This week, former President Oscar Arias (1986-1990) and 17 legislators asked their party, the opposition National Liberation Party (PLN), to separate Figueres, 49. A San José judge ordered ex-President Calderón to nine months of preventive detention on Oct. 22, following his declaration before the Prosecutor’s Office the day before. The former head of state is now in a private cell in La Reforma maximum-security prison in Alajuela, northwest of San José. His defense team has appealed the decision.
Calderón has been accused of masterminding the distribution of a $9.2 million “commission” connected to a $39.5 million contract with a Finnish medical supply company to update the nation’s public hospital equipment. The week before, Rodríguez was ordered to six months of house arrest for allegedly accepting 60% of a $2.4 million “prize” from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel, in connection with a $149 million government contract the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) awarded Alcatel in 2001.
The accusations led Rodríguez to resign from the position of Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) – a post he held only one month. He was arrested just after landing in Costa Rica Oct. 15 and has been accused of the crimes of illicit enrichment and aggravated corruption.
In connection with the investigations of Calderón’s and Rodríguez’s alleged illicit enrichment, the Government Attorney’s Office this week asked the Judicial Branch to freeze the assets of the former heads of state.
Also this week, Channel 7 TV News reported that between 2000-2003, Figueres allegedly received more than $900,000 (¢405 million) in consulting fees from Alcatel. Figueres provided external consulting services to Alcatel through H.F. Desarrollos Interdisciplinarios S.A., a company controlled by Roberto Hidalgo Araya, Figueres’ advisor during his term in office here.
Figueres admitted to having received the payments, Channel 7 reported Wednesday, but said they were the result of “an agreement between two private citizens.” He said he would place his “bank accounts at the disposition of competent authorities.” The Prosecutor’s Office has begun “analyzing” information about the alleged payments made to the former President, the Judicial Branch announced Wednesday. He is the son of former President José “Pepe” Figueres, who served three different terms (1948-1949, 1953-1958 and 1970-1974). “Pepe” Figueres is perhaps best remembered for abolishing Costa Rica’s army in 1948.
Figueres Jr. currently resides in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is executive director of the World Economic Forum. The forum is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the world’s 1,000 leading companies and 200 smaller businesses, according to its Web site.
It was not clear at press time whether the position affords Figueres diplomatic immunity, although the organization’s spokesman Mark Adams said it is “most unlikely.” According to Swiss Ambassador to Costa Rica Gabriela Nutzi, a treaty between Switzerland and Costa Rica allows for Figueres’ extradition upon formal request.
The accusations against ex-President Calderón came after Eliseo Vargas, former president of the Social Security System (Caja), testified before prosecutors Oct. 19 that Calderón masterminded the “commissions” connected to the Finland Project.
Calderón is the son of former Costa Rican President Rafael Ángel Calderón, Sr. (1940-1944), the man credited with the institutionalization of many of Costa Rica’s social guarantees, including national health care.
The day Calderón was admitted to La Reforma, President Abel Pacheco said he was “hurt” by the fact Calderón was sent to prison, but that it will serve as an example “to those who want to get their hands into the money of the poor,” AFP wire service reported.
“It’s also a message for many people who, in suffering Latin America, have done similar things. I believe that the example of Costa Rica will be followed by many countries,” Pacheco said.
Prosecutors this week asked a judge for the second time to put former President Rodríguez behind bars as well. Representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office were in court yesterday appealing the decision to assign Rodríguez to house arrest, arguing he also should be assigned nine months of preventive detention in jail instead. Rodríguez’s legal team, led by attorney Rafael Gairaud, requested he be allowed to post bail.
Calderón remains in La Reforma in an individual cell, 6.5 meters squared. “He is totally isolated from the other prisoners and at no time will he have any contact with any (of them),” Justice Minister Patricia Vega told The Tico Times.
The prison system has provided individual cells in the past when a detainee’s life is believed to be in danger, as is the case with Calderón, according to a statement from the Justice Ministry. Calderón eats separately and has one hour of outdoor time each day, during which the prison’s courtyards are cleared of other prisoners.
The daily newspapers reported Calderón suffers from digestive problems and tachycardia – a condition causing an irregular or accelerated heartbeat – and has experienced heart palpitations while in prison.
The issue of the former President’s health has been repeatedly brought up by his defense team. While Castellón said last week that he and his client had been prepared for the Prosecutor’s Office to ask for preventive detention, he also said he hoped the judge would order house arrest rather than jail time, in part because Calderón suffers from health problems.
La Nación reported Sunday that its continuing investigation into Calderón’s finances revealed his assets include a luxury apartment in Boston, Massachusetts, investments in a Florida hotel chain and an automotive company in Costa Rica, although La Nación has not found any information that suggests these and other assets were purchased with illicitly obtained funds.
In a letter to La Nación published Tuesday, Calderón’s wife, Gloria Bejarano, questioned the purpose of the report, since no links to corruption were found, and called it “inhumane and degrading treatment.”
The Government Attorney’s Office asked the Judicial Branch Monday to freeze the bank accounts and assets of Rodríguez, Calderón, Bejarano, Corporación Fischel S.A. (implicated in the Finland Project scandal), former Fischel head Walter Reiche, and Édgar Valverde, Alcatel’s former manager for Costa Rica. Reiche and Valverde are also in preventive detention.
President Pacheco this week said the nation’s actions against corruption show Costa Rica is a model of democracy. At the Sunday inauguration of a new Caja hospital in Alajuela, northwest of San José, Pacheco said, “Despite everything that has happened, beyond the pain it has caused us to see the failures of people in whom we had faith, we should realize that Costa Rica is an institution where democracy works.”
