On Friday, after the former president of Costa Rica was forced to resign amid allegations of corruption back home, his career seemed shattered instead of basking in the prestige he sought so diligently.

Rodríguez, 64, surprised many by openly and relentlessly campaigning for the OAS post in the two years between leaving the presidency in Costa Rica in 2002 and his election as Secretary General of the OAS in June.

Traditionally, the race for the OAS post is a low-key affair marked by back-door diplomacy.

The job is one that carries only marginal power -- the 34-nation hemispheric body packs much political weight but little real authority -- but it is one that many former Costa Rican presidents have unsuccessfully tried to win in the past.

Before eventually winning the Bush administration's endorsement, Rodríguez began positioning himself for the job even before he left the Costa Rican presidency.

He took advantage of his official trips abroad to make his ambitions known around the region, particularly among smaller Caribbean states, and arranged a guest professorship at George Washington University in the U.S. capital.

Rodríguez Studied in the U.S.
Born into a middle-class family, Rodríguez excelled as a student, forming part of a small but influential generation of Costa Ricans educated in the United States in the 1960s.

He earned a master's and Ph.D. in economics at the University of California, where he developed his free-market orientation. He is widely regarded as a brilliant economist.

Using his degree and marriage to high school sweetheart Lorena Claire, a member of one of the country's leading old-money families, Rodríguez quickly began to alternate between business and political ambitions.

He built family landholdings into a major beef-exporting firm and helped found the country's first private bank since the banking system had been nationalized in 1948.

Following a broad national economic collapse in 1981, Rodríguez made himself a figure in the resurgent Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) - which grouped many free-market ideologues.

In 1990 he won a seat in the Legislative Assembly and was its president in 1991 and 1992. That, in turn, served as the launching pad for his close loss in the 1994 presidential elections and his narrow victory four years later.

Not His First Accusation of Corruption
While president of the legislature, he recovered $600,000 owed to his cattle company by a failing bank the night before the Central Bank - at the time headed by a friend - closed it and left depositors unable to collect more than 20 percent of their money.

Rodríguez denied using inside information and refused to accept any blame for the depositors' plight.

Pension Reform
While president, Rodríguez pushed a reform that allowed private companies a greater share of the pension market and signed a law strengthening child support collection.

But by the end of his term his political agenda had come to a standstill and he was spending lots of time on his campaign for the OAS post.

The Alcatel Payback
Rodríguez has said he accepted the $140,000 at the heart of the scandal as a loan from a government official and close friend and didn't know that the friend may have obtained the money from a French company's kickback.

However, José Antonio Lobo, the close friend who had been Housing Minister in the Rodríguez administation, as well as a Legislative Deputy and a director of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) when the Alcatel contract was awarded, says that the money paid to Rodríguez was not a loan.

Lobo's wife is said to have received us$2.400.000 from the French telecommunications firm for having received the "prize", a multimillion dollar contract to install 400.000 GSM cellular lines in Costa Rica.

Lobo told prosecutors last week that Rodríguez demanded a 60% cut of the payback, which led prosecutors to begin an investigation against Rodríguez which led to yesterday's resignation.

Chiif prosecutor, Franciso Dall'Anese, who has been relentless in the Fischel-Caja scandal that saw another former president, Rafael Angel Calderón, being implicated, went at Rodríguez with full force.

Dall'Anese was clear that he wanted Rodríguez back in Costa Rica for questioning and the full support of President Abel Pacheco and his administration.

Rodríguez decided to resign following the statements made by Dall'Anese and other Costa Rican authorities that the OAS immunity did not protect him from his action in Costa Rica and that an international warrant would be issued.

Costa Rican authorities, headed by Dall'Anese, were firm in their position that Rodríguez should return to Costa Rica and explain his actions. And that they would use all the 'force' necessary to get to the truth.

What will happen to Rodríguez now?
There is much speculation of this issue. Once Rodríguez is back in Costa Rica, he will face prosecutors to tell his side of the story.

Following his statement, the Fiscalía will then need to make a decision on their course of action. It is probable that they will ask a court to place some type of restriction on Rodríguez's movements while they carry out their investigation.

Rodríguez could face house arrest and/or be impeded from leaving Costa Rica. It is doubtful that a judge will order preventive detention that includes time in jail.