President Willing To
Renounce Immunity
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net

President Abel Pacheco, the subject of a recently reopened Prosecutor's Office investigation involving allegedly illegal donations his 2002 presidential campaign received from foreign companies, said yesterday he would renounce his diplomatic immunity if the Legislative Assembly makes the request.

“Why not, if it were to happen? But it requires a process,” he said at his weekly Cabinet meeting, adding that the assembly would need to make a formal request that he renounce his immunity before he would take that step.

The Prosecutor's Office announced Dec. 24 that it has reopened an investigation originally begun in 2002, when the national press reported Pacheco's campaign had received $500,000 from Taiwanese firms.

It was later revealed his campaign received $100,000 from Paris-based telecommunications firm Alcatel. The company is currently embroiled in an alleged corruption case involving the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). The company is accused of making illegal payments in connection with a multimillion-dollar telecommunications contract it obtained from ICE in 2001, to former ICE officials and to ex-President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002). Rodríguez is currently serving a preventive detention order while prosecutors investigate the case.

The investigation of Pacheco's campaign donations was stalled shortly after it began in 2002 when then-Chief Prosecutor Fernando Arias filed an appeal before the Penal Branch of the Supreme Court (Sala III), arguing there were insufficient grounds for the investigation, according to wire service EFE. Sala III justices rejected the appeal Nov. 26, 2004, which allowed the Prosecutor's Office to reopen the case.

At his Cabinet meeting, President Pacheco reiterated the stance he has maintained since the beginning of the controversy: he was aware of the donations but not of their size or how they were spent, and the foreign companies did not receive any special treatment as a result of their support.

“I don't say more (than that) because I don't know more,” he said.

Yesterday's announcement was not the first Pacheco has made regarding his immunity. Shortly after the campaign finance allegations first surfaced in 2002, he said he had renounced the privilege, a move some analysts said helped his popularity climb higher than 80% later that year.

When consulted in 2004 by The Tico Times, however, Casa Presidencial spokeswoman Ivannia Arias said Pacheco had never officially given up his immunity, but had opened his bank accounts to prosecutors (TT, Oct. 22, 2004).

Political analyst Rodolfo Cerdas told The Tico Times in 2002 that the issue of Pacheco's immunity is irrelevant, since the Electoral Code allows only parties, not candidates, to be held accountable for accepting illegal donations (TT, Sept. 27, 2002).

Foreigners Use Marriage to
Try for Costa Rican Residency
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

Immigration authorities uncovered 123 cases of marriages by foreigners to Costa Rica ns last year allegedly staged to gain resident status here – a practice that has become increasingly common in recent years, the daily La Nación reported.

Cubans, Colombians and Asians are the most common participants in the practice, although U.S. citizens have been known in a few cases to use marriage to acquire legal residency, the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR) told The Tico Times.

One extremely poor Costa Rican woman told La Nación she never even met the Cuban man she agreed to marry for ¢20,000 ($44) – a price and a practice typical of these marriages.

The marriages include those between foreign professionals and Costa Rica indigents and drug-addicts and between older foreigners and 20-year-old Costa Ricans.

While the spouses receive less than $100 to say “I do,” the lawyers who process the marriages and residency requests charge between $1,000-3,000.

The marriages are done through a legal process in which the foreigner is still outside the country. A visa is later requested to allow their entrance into Costa Rica . The requests also often include the foreigner's children, the daily reported.

Last year alone, the immigration department received 130 requests for marriage visas, although 95% were denied.

Immigration officials told La Nación they frequently become aware the marriages are false during interviews when spouses have inconsistent or unlikely stories.

Immigration chief Marco Badilla told EFE wire service that authorities had been aware of these marriages of convenience for many years but gaps in the law prevent them from taking action.

Badilla said that ideally these marriages would not occur, but said he is aware that in some cases people desired to leave their home countries and citizens had a right to enter into these types of arrangements.

“I believe these types of marriages should be approached with extreme caution. That's why we are doing interviews with the people involved to determine the true reason” for the marriages, Badilla said.

Inflation in 2004
Highest in Five Years

Inflation of the colón in 2004 totaled 13.13%, the highest yearly total in the past five years, the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) reported yesterday.

According to the state institute, oil products were most affected by high inflation, the price of which rose 35.89% compared to the year before.

Other factors that influenced the high inflation rate were electricity (16.9%), urban transport (10.3%), water bills (30.5%), and the prices of some basic products such as rice (8.9%).

Since 2000, inflation has maintained a range from 9.68%-10.96%, but the rise in prices of oil products on an international level affected inflation in 2004.

--AFP