Where Obama and Solis differ is that Obama was able to ascertain help from some billionaire and large corps to ensure a re-election.

Unfortunately, I do not think Solis has that same money behind him. For instance, Obama’s “Common Core” initiative in education is a directive of Bill Gates and some other major influencers from the Tech World.

But, I do think Solis is tightly aligned with the Obama agenda.

Ken, you always provide great insight on a variety of topics, while including concrete examples to really enforce a well guided opinion. Thanks, I really appreciate your honest and articulate analysis.

Where we may part ways is in our forecasts. You say that 4 years (actually 3 now) isn’t enough time for Solís to turn the boat around, while I’m starting to fear that it is too much time. Unless something dramatic happens to change the political dynamics (say Solís uncovering a major corruption scandal that seriously weakens the PLN) I forecast 3 more years of political gridlock in which nothing gets accomplished and the country’s problems worsen. Ironically, we may need to wait until the PLN regains the presidency (along with more legislative seats) before it will become politically possible to address the country’s problems, although counting on the PLN to do that then is surely foolish.

But I don’t know whether the country has 3 more years of time left. The only remaining arrows in the government’s quivver to avert disaster are to start selling off mineral and oil exploration rights, distinctly unpopular moves; to manipulate the exchange rate to the point where a black market emerges; to simply confiscate assets, rather than even pretend that it’s tax collection; and to just print money to pay its bills, highly inflationary. At this point the government has already turned to the loan sharks, namely China, and is dispatching its president to beg for investments from multinational corporations. It has also already instituted mild hiring freezes, which is realistically the only thing governments can do to control their employee expenses, and has already cut its longterm investments in things like infrastructure.

I don’t know how long it will take for the shit to really hit the fan, and maybe the country has more than 3 years, but I’m pretty sure that time is running out. My crystal ball is telling me that if we wait until the next election, Ticos might as well vote in the IMF and austerity measures, since that’s what’s going to happen anyway, although it’s not going to be a pleasant ride while waiting for the IMF to take control or very pleasant after it does.

The annoyance is that this disaster scenario can be avoided if the PLN puts selfish politics aside now and decides to work with the PAC to hammer out compromise solutions. As another post put it, this is probably only a 2-year window of opportunity, since the last year of a president’s term is dominated by political wrangling over the next election. Unfortunately, at this point it appears that the next 2 years are going to be squandered.

And ironically, the crusade against corruption by Solís may be part of the problem. Unless he can quickly come up with some hard evidence of the kind that leads to convictions, all he’s doing is pissing off the PLN with his high-minded accusations. This is not the way to encourage collaboration. Maybe Solís needs to wink at suspected corruption in order to get the political job done. The alternative is for him to be regarded as a good man who nevertheless was captain of the ship when it sank.

The lawmaker who was the target of the investigation is Karla Prendas Matarrita, who is one of the 57 elected legislative deputies.

She is a member of the Partido Liberación Nacional.

The fiscal general said in a prepared statement that the lawmaker enjoys immunity and that a directive he issued a year ago requires local prosecutors to submit to him any cases against individuals having immunity. That was just as newly elected members of the legislature and the central government were taking office.

In addition to lawmakers, ministers and the president enjoy immunity, according to the Costa Rican Constitution.

Having immunity does not mean a criminal case will not proceed. There is a provision for the legislature, the president or the courts to lift immunity to allow prosecution. But the last
time that happened, the process took so long that the lawmaker left office, and the case was remitted to the local courts.

The fiscal general said that the investigation against the lawmakers was on an allegation of embezzlement. It was the lawmaker herself who complained to Celso Gamboa Sánchez., the deputy fiscal general. The prosecutor and the judicial agent sought by letter confirmation from the Concejo Municipal of the central canton of Puntarenas of the lawmaker’s service as aregidora or council member, said the statement from the fiscal general.

The case of the two judicial workers will be handled by the Fiscalía Adjunta de Probidad, Transparencia y Anticorrupción, said the statement. The allegation against them is what amounts to a misdemeanor punishable by a fine. Specifically, the allegation is not following the rules.

Immunity is provided highly placed officials to protect them from harassment by multiple legal actions. In the United States members of Congress have a form of immunity that forbids their arrest while they are headed to a session.

The fiscal general’s statement said that his action did not mean that the investigations against the lawmaker would not continue.