President Laura Chinchilla on Tuesday appointed Edgar Ayales as the administration’s new finance minister. Ayales replaces Fernando Herrero, who resigned April 2 after the daily La Nación reported he had underpaid his property taxes.
Chinchilla said Ayales, an economist, “guarantees strength, [and] sends a message of experience and security because of his track record.”
Ayales’ experience includes serving as executive director of the Inter-American Development Bank, alternate executive director of the World Bank and the bank’s manager of macroeconomic projects in Brazil, Suriname and Angola.
President Chinchilla also announced that Carlos Vargas, a Finance Ministry official, will take the helm of the Tax Administration, after former director Francisco Villalobos resigned April 3 when it was discovered that he had failed to pay ₡1.8 million ($3,600) in income taxes from 2008.
