Four months after the government issued an emergency decree to finance the reconstruction of Hospital Calderón Guardia, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) has collected only $1.5 million of the $50 million needed to rebuild the sections of the hospital that burned in July, the daily La República reported.
Faced with the shortage of resources, President Abel Pacheco proposed using a $15 million donation from the Taiwanese government, originally earmarked for the construction of an international convention center, to help rebuild Calderón Guardia, according to the daily La Nación. Pacheco said that while he is enthusiastic about building the convention center, health remains one of the country’s top priorities.
The government of Taiwan had already developed construction plans for the convention center, to be built in San Antonio de Belén near the highway from San José to Alajuela. However, Taiwanese authorities announced last week that they would evaluate Costa Rica’s request to redirect the funds. The Taiwanese Embassy in San José told La Nación that the request for the change had already been submitted to the Taiwanese government and is under review.
The tragic fire that raged at Calderón Guardia in the pre-dawn hours of July 12 (TT, July 15) claimed 21 lives, including two victims who died after the incident, and destroyed the hospital’s fourth and fifth floors. A total of 147 beds were lost in the blaze, La Nación reported last week. While the hospital originally had a capacity of 514 beds, only 367 are currently in use.
Although the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) did not find material evidence to prove arson initially, authorities suspected the fire was started with matches in a storeroom on the third floor of the hospital’s oldest wing (TT, Oct. 14). Last month, authorities arrested a man identified by the last name Ledezma for allegedly starting the fire, according to a statement from the Judicial Branch. Ledezma, 24, worked as a nursing assistant at the hospital, La Nación reported.
Four people saw him leaving the storeroom where the fire began, Jorge Rojas, chief of the OIJ, told Channel 7 News in October. Rojas said the suspect had “a large number of false degrees,” allegedly claiming to have studied medicine and other fields, including firefighting. Ledezma is being held under a six-month preventive prison order. According to Rojas, there are no suspects other than Ledezma, who was arrested Oct. 28.
If found guilty, Ledezma could become the person responsible for the highest number of induced deaths in the country, according to Channel 7 News. For his alleged crime, he could face up to 20 years in prison. Police speculate that Ledezma may have started the fire in a desperate attempt to gain attention from his coworkers. Rojas told La Nación that the suspect’s intention was not to kill anyone. “He had the idea of starting a fire he could control, but it got out of hand,” Rojas said.
