Tag: Costa Rica

Top Costa Rican Court Attempts to Strip President of Immunity. 

(Disclaimer: This article is about events that occurred last summer.)

Back in July of last year, Costa Rica’s top court attempted to strip President Rodrigo Chaves of his presidential Immunity. According to a report in the AP, Chaves tried to induce a video producer who had won a contract awarded by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration to give $32,000 from that contract to former Chaves campaign advisor. According to a report by France 24, the culture minister, Jorge Rodriguez, may also be involved, and the attorney general has requested that his immunity be revoked as well. Chaves has accused the Costa Rican Supreme Court, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Congress of stifling the policy program. Subsequently, this became moot, as in September of last year, the congress, which needed a supermajority of 38 votes to revoke his immunity, received only 34.          

Former President of Panama implicated in the Odebrecht Scandal. 

On Monday, a Panamanian court opened criminal proceedings against the former president Ricardo Martinelli. According to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Martinelli is accused of accepting $59 million in bribes from the disgraced Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.  The Odebrecht scandal is far-reaching across Latin America, implicating hundreds of high-profile figures.  In 2023, Martinelli requested asylum in Colombia after being found guilty of embezzling state funds to purchase shares in the media company Editora Panama America. According to a report in the Costa Rican newspaper, the Tico Times, another former Panamanian president, Juan Carlos Varela, is also accused of bribery and money laundering. If previous history is anything to go by, Martinelli could well be spending an extended stretch behind bars.