Costa Rican parties in crisis
a year away from elections
By Juan Ramon Rojas.
EFE News Service

A year away from the nation's general elections, Costa Rica 's parties, especially the two big-hitters – National Liberation Party (PLN), and Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) – are in the throes of an unprecedented crisis.

Shocking corruption cases and ideological rifts have triggered desertions and weakened what up to four years ago were solid parties that shared power for more than half a century with no threat from emergent groups.

Political analysts say uncertainty is the norm as far as voter behavior is concerned, as splinter groups are multiplying with a view to elections scheduled for Feb. 5, 2006.

On that date, Costa Rica ns are scheduled to elect, all to four-year terms, a President, two vice Presidents, 57 representatives to the Legislative Assembly and the governments of 81 municipalities.

PUSC, which won the last two presidential elections, is rocked by the indictments of its two top leaders, both of them in jail without bond on serious corruption charges.

Top PUSC leader and ex-President Rafael Angel Calderón (1990-94), who founded the party in 1984, and ex-President Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-02), are both in disgrace, the latter after being forced to resign from his job as secretary-general of the Organization of Ame rica n States (OAS) on Oct. 15, after only weeks in office, to face trial at home.

Calderón is linked to hefty "commissions" paid in 2001 following the disbursement of a $39.5 million loan from the Finnish government to Costa Rica 's Social Security Fund.

Rodríguez is charged with accepting a kickback from French telecommunications giant Alcatel, to which the government awarded a $149 million contract to provide 400,000 cellular phone lines.

Founded in 1951, the PLN has been hit with a noisy corruption case and sustained numerous ideologically motivated desertions from its ranks, as well as differences with former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias.

PLN member and former President José María Figueres Olsen resigned as director-general of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum after it came out that he had received $906,000 from Alcatel after leaving office.

Despite a legislative committee's numerous requests to come home and explain the reasons for the compensation, Figueres refused to comply, and in a note to Congress insisted the payments were remuneration for the legal consultation he provided the French company.

A surprising defection took place Wednesday, when former President Luis Alberto Monge (1982-86) said he was leaving the PLN because Arias had turned it over to powerful financial interests and pressured the Constitutional Court into overturning, two years ago, a provision in the constitution that barred former Presidents from seeking re-election.

Though he has suffered a dramatic loss in popularity among Costa Rica ns in recent months, two weeks ago Arias announced his intention to run for President, and so far appears to have the best chance to win.

Monge charges that Arias' movement is a "political hybrid" that has "hijacked" the PLN's name and banner.

Prior to Monge, other notable figures had left the party, including José Miguel Corrales, a historic party member, current legislator and presidential candidate in the 1998 elections, and Mariano Figueres Olsen, son of three-times Costa Rica n President José (Pepe) Figueres and brother of Jose María.

Other defectors are former PLN Secretary-General Luis Guillermo Solis and a group that calls itself the "social-democratic organization," made up of professional PLN members and former officials in PLN governments.