Second Vice-President Kevin Casas yesterday stepped down as Planning Minister during an investigation into whether the government misused public funds in its campaign for the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
Casas suggested campaign tactics that would constitute an abuse of state money in a recently leaked memo to President Oscar Arias and his brother, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias. The letter was co-written by National Liberation Party (PLN) legislator Fernando Sánchez, who has not resigned any of his positions in the assembly.
Rodrigo Arias, who announced the news at a press conference yesterday after the President's weekly Cabinet meeting, said Casas “wanted to leave the ministry so that (the investigation) could be carried out in the broadest, clearest, and surest form,” adding that “the President and I have thanked don Kevin for his decision.”
The Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) asked the Planning Ministry's Internal Auditing Office to open the investigation Monday, a few days after the weekly University of Costa Rica (UCR) newspaper published the contents of the memo.
Vice-Minister of Planning Vega Barrantes yesterday took over as Interim Planning Minister. Rodrigo Arias and Tribunal President Luis Antonio Sobrado said they did not know how long the investigation would last or when Casas would return to his post. |
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