Former President Rodriguez on National Television To Make His Case of "Injustice"
Former Costa Rican president, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez , who is being accused and investigated for accepting bribes from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel, spent 10 minutes on national television last night, telling Costa Ricans how his "rights" have been violated and asking for a "just trial".

The message was carried on five national television channels - Repretel's 4, 6, and 11, Teletica's channel 7, and Grupo Extra's channel 42 - at a cost of at least ¢15 million colones (us$29.100 dollars). Teletica alone charges around ¢1 million colones per minute.

Rodríguez, who was president from 1998 to 2002, restated his message that his rights have been violated and that he is being railroaded by the Fiscales (prosecutors) in the investigation against him for receiving the "premio" (prize) in the bidding process of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) awarding the contract to Alcatel to construct a cellular telephone network in the country.

The message is not new. The former president has been making headlines in the past year following his book on the same subject and using the media to get out the message, not of his innocence, but rather of the injust way he has been treated.

In last night's message, like in all the other messages, his subject is the way the Fiscalia (prosecution) has rushed the case since 2004, the way it has carried out the judicial investigation and the manner it handed information to the press.