Now the next step is the two named oij investigators need to go in front of Inspeccion Judicial. Specifically I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with this type of action.

I like your conjecture that Baldi is being framed, but if so it would seem an odd sort of framing. If DIS wanted to frame him, why did it apparently leak the accusation instead of build the case and prosecute him? The framing would seem intended to embarrass rather than convict him. Maybe, who knows, DIS didn’t have or expect to have the evidence for prosecution, so had to settle for embarrassing him.

An alternative conjecture is that there is a division within DIS such that some wanted to squelch the case, so someone else leaked the report to make an end run around that.

Your conjecture that it’s hard to believe that “someone who was doing something
so shady (as alleged) would also be so outspoken against government
corruption in the first place” rings plausible, but it may minimize the role that ego and stupidiy often play in these things. El Chapo was after all captured because of his ego (he couldn’t resist having a movie made about him) and Baldi’s accusations against Chinchilla were so half-baked that she sued him for defamation. Being rich isn’t much protection against egotism or stupidity.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this thing shakes out–at least if it does and we live long enough to see it.

It’s not only plausible that Baldi is innocent, and is either being intentionally framed or merely the victim of a routine preliminary investigation that went nowhere and shouldn’t have even been made public, but also plausible that he’s guilty. In either scenario, however, it sure looks like there are other political actors and agendas involved.

Good chance Baldi was posturing himself for a Presidential run this next term, and that is why he has been so vocal about government corruption over the last couple years. There is also a good chance that the current PLN leader, who was once President, and who was ousted to Switzerland for a corruption case for a decade– will also be running next election.

It literally pays to have good connections in DIS.

I have witnessed this government completely falsify a case. Jail a person for 27 months. Extort the shit out of them along the way while looking for them to buy their freedom. And this action was directly done by OIJ Santa Cruz Jefe Victor Chavez Chavarria and his underlings. The OIJ Santa Cruz underlings are caught in numerous inconsistencies. Now lets see if they turn on their higher ups?

I would not be surprised at all if they were purposely framing Mr Baldi because of him being so out-spoken about the corruption of the political class over the last few years. He has specifically named names! He has repeatedly called out the top Fiscal, Jorge Chavarria in regards to immunity of the government class.

The ironic thing of all this is that the same person I mentioned who was framed by corrupt government employees in Santa Cruz….coincidentally was in “talks” with Mr. Baldi on obtaining legal representation in going after the State of Costa Rica with the irrefutable evidence of his particular case.

I for one, am very interested to see how this plays out. I agree the money of Baldi can easily be investigated. He even seems to be willing to open the books.

I have a very hard time believing that someone who was doing something so shady (as alleged) would also be so outspoken against government corruption in the first place. That just does not make sense to me. And the principles of law are based on logic. Now let’s see where the facts lie. Or will this end up being another buried case? That is what I foresee…

Like you mentioned, the Tico way is to let it fade away. After all, this seems to be the policy of the Attorney General, Jorge Chavarria. It was true for him at the beginning of his career with investigating “La Penca” and it is true with him all throughout. He will essentially retire, with nothing accomplished in regards to combating government corruption. That is truly shameful!!! If your not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Welcome to Costa Corrupcion!!

Pura Vida!

Your theory though would seem to depend upon assuming that DIS leaked the report intentionally. That could be the case, and since both it and La Nación tend to be in the PLN camp, an intentional leak without an arrest does smell like some infighting is going on in the center-right. If the intent was to unravel a drug and money laundering operation, you’d think that DIS would have remained tight lipped until it made the bust. However, if the intent was merely to embarrass a guy as kind of political payback and a way to control him, a leak makes perfect sense.

However, what if it was a genuine leak? A Good Samaritan (or clueless staffer) might have given an enterprising reporter the document. And as for Figueres blabbing to La Nación and then denying it, that sounds to me like it could have resulted from a confusion between what is “deep background” and what the paper can run with. Figueres is after all probably buddies with the news people and often blabs informally to them. In fact, it could be that the press wanted to blow the lid off of the DIS investigation in order to derail it for some reason.

So there are various possible combinations of machinations to consider, as well as the possibility that this was all just a leak and case is above board.

As for whether or not the fellow is guilty, I would want first to know how much money he was born to or earned early on. Anybody with a helicopter and a “number of high-end vehicles for his personal use” surely isn’t living off earnings from a hotel. I don’t care how little he pays the maids, that business doesn’t buy helicopters. I’m pretty sure that if we knew the source of his money we’d have a darn good idea whether or not he’s guilty.

This said, while Ticos may not be very good at chess, they are experts at delaying their moves for years–and then if they make a bad one spending years in court hoping to be able to take it back. It’s not the astuteness of the moves that wins the game here, but how long the game can be prolonged without a winner or loser emerging.

Speaking of which, do you happen to play chess? I do a bit and am half looking for an opponent, though the search is complicated by the difficulty of finding one at about my level. I’m not very good, but tend to beat amateurs. I played a Tico for years and won every game. He’s now in the foreign service assigned abroad.