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Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, October 15, 2004

NO COMMENT: A gloomy ex-President Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-94), shown here at his appearance yesterday before the Legislative Assembly's Commission on Public Expenditures, didn't respond to legislators' questions about allegations of bribery and corruption against him, though the questioning became progressively more difficult and personal.
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas

Ex-President Declined to
Answer Legislative
Commission's Questions
Former President Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-94) appeared yesterday before the Legislative Assembly's Commission on Public Expenditures, but declined to answer the legislators' questions.
(Click for more)

Political Party Founder
Takes His Own Life
Mario Quintana, one of the founding members of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), which is now in the spotlight for corruption investigations into some of its most prominent members, took his own life Wednesday around 5 p.m. with a .357 Magnum, according to the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).
(Click for more)

Ex-President Rodríguez Expected
To Return to Costa Rica Today Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, former President of Costa Rica (1998-2002) who steps down from his new position as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) today, said he will return to Costa Rica today to face accusations of corruption.
(Click for more)

ICE Will Deny New Contracts to
Alcatel, Ericsson and Inabensa
As alleged bribery and payoff scandals erupt among two state institutions, the state telecommunications monopoly has announced it will remove the names of the telecommunications companies Alcatel, based in France, and Ericsson, based in Sweden, as well as the Spanish electricity company Inabensa, from its list of providers.
(Click for more)

October 15

Theater for Kids
A play about a black boy's adventures, presented at the National Auditorium in the Children's Museum, San José, Friday at 9 and 11 a.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Info: 222-7647.

The Cemetery Club
A comedy by Ivan Menchell, performed in English by the Little Theatre Group at the Blanche Brown Theatre in Escazú, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. through Oct. 24. Info: 355-1623.

Groups to Protest Shark Finning
The Sea Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA) invited everyone to march in protest against shark finning, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday. More than a dozen non-governmental organizations have said they will participate in the march, which starts at the Plaza de la Cultura in downtown San José. PRETOMA will also circulate a petition – which already has 50,000 signatures – asking government officials to put an end to shark finning, the brutal practice of slicing the fins off a shark and discarding the carcasses in the ocean.

Thank-You Concert by the Youth Symphony:
Playing selections from the concert it performed in the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, Italy, the Youth Symphony will play the Festive Overture, by D. Shostakovich; Huapango, by Pablo Moncayo; Costa Rican Inspirations, by Carlos Guzman; and pieces by Tchaikovsky and Ginastera, 8 p.m. Saturday in the National Theater, 221-5341.

Team Aventura Mudman 2004
Sports and lots of fun, starting at 8 a.m. Sunday in Fossil Land, Patarrá, Desamparados, 276-6060, 276-8103.

Edited By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

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Ex-President Declined to Answer
Legislative Commission's Questions
By Steven J. Barry
Tico Times Staff
sbarry@ticotimes.net

Former President Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-94) appeared yesterday before the Legislative Assembly's Commission on Public Expenditures, but declined to answer the legislators' questions.

Members of the commission, headed by Luis Gerardo Villanueva of the National Liberation Party (PLN), asked Calderón numerous questions about payments of more than $500,000 he allegedly received from a $9.2 million “commission” that was paid to government officials in connection with a $39.5 government contract with a Finnish medical supply company, whose products are distributed in Costa Rica by Corporación Fischel. The plan, called the Finland Project, aimed to modernize the hospitals of the country's Social Security System (Caja), which provides cradle-to-grave health care to most Costa Ricans.

Calderón, who has been prohibited from leaving the country during the Caja investigation, was also asked whether he had any involvement in the alleged payment of a “prize” to former President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) and members of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) in connection with a government contract for 400,000 cellular phone lines awarded to the French telecommunications firm Alcatel.

Legislators asked several questions implying a direct link between Calderón and Rodríguez, who today will step down from his post as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) amid allegations of accepting the payments.

Several lawmakers made reference to a “ring of corruption” allegedly involving Calderón, Rodríguez and other members of the ruling Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC).

Calderón's lawyer, Gonzalo Castellón, called the inquiry the beginning of a “long, arduous” process that could take two to three years to complete, and after each legislator's questions said that Calderón, in keeping with his professional advice, would abstain from answering.

The legislators vocally expressed their disappointment with Calderón's decision not to testify, using remarks that at some points became almost scolding.

Heredia legislator José Francisco Salas asked Calderón, who played a leading role in founding PUSC, whether he also founded the “ring.”

Humberto Arce, of the Patriotic Bloc, said that if Calderón were to end up in jail because of the alleged payments, he would have “time to reflect.”

Other deputies urged Calderón to testify because he owed it to the citizens of Costa Rica.

Mario Redondo of the PUSC party, said Calderón owed an explanation to the women “who stay up late at night making sandwiches” for family members, while Peter Guevara, a Libertarian Movement Party legislator, said the ex-President owed an explanation to the children of the country.

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Political Party Founder
Takes His Own Life
By Steven J. Barry
Tico Times Staff
sbarry@ticotimes.net

Mario Quintana, one of the founding members of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), which is now in the spotlight for corruption investigations into some of its most prominent members, took his own life Wednesday around 5 p.m. with a .357 Magnum, according to the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).

OIJ spokeswoman Margarita Morales said Quintana, 58, wrote a note before firing a round into his right temple, but the note was “ambiguous” and did not outline the exact reasons for his suicide.

She said Quintana's family members described him as “sad” and “depressed” in recent days, but never thought him to be suicidal.

Morales said Quintana was not being investigated in connection with the corruption scandals linked to former Presidents Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) and Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-94), both members of the ruling PUSC party.

Quintana, though he never served in public office, was the political party's president from 1990-92.

Neither PUSC president Lorena Vásquez nor party secretary Jorge Eduardo Sánchez could be reached for comment by press time.

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Ex-President Rodríguez Expected
To Return to Costa Rica Today

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, former President of Costa Rica (1998-2002) who steps down from his new position as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) today, said he will return to Costa Rica today to face accusations of corruption.

“As I've always said, and in accordance with my respect for the rule of law, tomorrow (Friday) I go to my country to answer to the courts of Costa Rica,” Rodríguez wrote in a good-bye letter to officials of the OAS.

Rodríguez could face charges related to money he allegedly accepted from a French telecommunications firm, Alcatel, that obtained a $149 million contract with the country's state-run telecommunications monopoly. He is accused of accepting 60% of a $2.4 million “prize” allegedly paid by Alcatel for the government contract.

Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese announced an international arrest order for Rodríguez last week, which takes effect today as soon as he officially leaves the OAS.

“When he is no longer Secretary General… he will be accused of the crimes of bribery, corruption and illicit enrichment,” Dall'Anese said.

Rodríguez has denied the accusations of corruption and said he has “the highest concept of the justice” of his country.

–AFP

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ICE Will Deny New Contracts to
Alcatel, Ericsson and Inabensa

As alleged bribery and payoff scandals erupt among two state institutions, the state telecommunications monopoly has announced it will remove the names of the telecommunications companies Alcatel, based in France, and Ericsson, based in Sweden, as well as the Spanish electricity company Inabensa, from its list of providers.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) announced yesterday it is taking this action in response to accusations that the three companies may have been involved in the bribery of public officials.

“We want to continue the search for all of the guilty parties in this unacceptable situation,” said ICE president Pablo Cob.

–AFP

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