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Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

Costa Rica businessman linked to ‘El Chapo’ in intel reports was suspected of orchestrating triple murder of rival hotelier: report

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Editor’s note: It should be noted that Alberto Rodriguez Baldi has never been charged with any crime in relation to the leaked intelligence reports, which date back three years, though Costa Rica’s Attorney General did indicate this week that there remains an “open investigation” – though no charges – of possible money laundering by the businessman.  We believe it is important to understand that these are leaked intelligence documents, not formal accusations.  

January 15th, 2016 (ICR News) Well-known Costa Rican businessman and hotelier Alberto Rodriguez Baldi, who made headlines this week after a confidential report by the Costa Rican intelligence agency, DIS, alleging that the businessman hosted a party for the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, El Chapo’s ex-wife, and Sinaloa cartel members at his flagship hotel, the Baldi Hot Springs Resort Hotel & Spa located in La Fortuna de San Carlos was leaked to the press, was also named by the DIS as being the orchestrator of the brutal triple murder of a rival La Fortuna hotelier and his two sons, according to another leaked report published by tabloid daily Diario Extra on Friday.

 

On February 9th, 2013, Geovanny Soto Ruiz, 52 and his sons Emmanuel, 18, and Juan Mauricio Soto Soto, 27 were found dead in various areas of La Fortuna, showing signs of torture.  Soto was the owner of the Mountain Paradise Hotel.

 

The bodies of Mr. Soto Ruiz and one of his sons were found near the Arenal River on the old road between La Fortuna and Monterrey with their throats cut, and showing signs of torture.

 

The youngest of the three men was found shot to death in a family-owned microbus on the way to the Fortuna River waterfalls.

 

Days after the discoveries, two Nicaraguan men, both who worked for Soto, were arrested on suspicion of having been hired to commit the crime.  Authorities said they were able to collect evidence against the men during raids on their homes, including a bloody knife.

 

However, both were eventually acquitted for lack of evidence, allegedly due to mishandling by detectives, and no further arrests were ever made for the murders.

 

The leaked DIS report published by Diaro Extra on Friday is dated March 12th, 2013 and names Baldi as the architect and financier of the crime.  While the report cites only “intelligence sources,” the report is dated one month to the day after the first of the two suspects were taken into custody.

 

The report goes on to state that Baldi left the country for the United States during the days the murders are believed to have occurred, and returned to Costa Rica the same day that the men’s bodies were discovered.

 

Despite the DIS report, Baldi was never charged with any crime in relation to the killings.

 

DIS director Mariano Figueres said Thursday morning before the country’s Legislative Assembly that the agency plans to investigate how reporters managed to obtain the secret intelligence reports.

 

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  • prdatki

    I guess you limp Liberals still do not believe in the Death Penalty.

  • SDPUS

    This case is screaming with uncertainty. How could a man with these accusations still be walking free? If he was laundering money for a cartel, why would he be so vocal about other members government being corrupt? I follow him on Facebook and for the last few years he has been a blow hard, railing on a daily basis about government corruption. In a defamation suit with President Chinchilla. And now he is tied to the triple murder, according to DIS. And the document was supposedly written a month after the release of the Nica suspects? Come on, this is all very circumstantial and suspect. People in government obviously have reason to dislike Baldi. There needs to be some real credible evidence before stories like this can be written. The only concrete thing I can say for sure, is that people in government have good reason to dislike Baldi. The onus has to be put on government. This is shameful work by DIS. Either the guy belongs in jail or this bs should not be published. There is no middle ground.

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      Stay tuned. We are working on the other side of the coin ourselves right now..

      • Ken Morris

        “Irregardless”? Shameful for an editor.

        • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

          I blame it on my mother. Never could get that non-word out of my head thanks to her. :)

      • SDPUS

        That is where you are absolutely wrong, Tim. And where you don’t have the facts to the case. If you were to listen to the taping of the preliminary hearing or the sham trial, you would see that I absolutely would never accept those charges. It is very clear on the official recording of the proceeding. You will hear where I repeatedly say, “I will sign a plea bargain for cultivation right now and accept that guilt. But I will NEVER accept charges for something I did not do. The quantities listed, the photos, and the complete write up of the raid was all fraudulant and complete lies. They faked and manipulated everything. It is very clear that over an hour of testimony was mysteriously deleted from the preliminary hearing official cd, just 20 minutes after the completion of the hearing. It is time stamped right on the cd itself when it was edited. There is corresponding proof to show what was edited. The Judges involved were of complete negligence for denying my viewing of the forensics. Just as my lawyers were for not getting all this manufactured evidence. Things that no one ever could have been convicted by. But the judges allowed all that nonsense to be overlooked in the case file. Since when can official recordings be deleted? Especially portions so very critical to the case? Those judges completely failed the system, and it should be properly investigated why. Same with the lawyers.

        You didn’t do any of your homework on this case. You haven’t seen or heard any of this evidence. It was a witch hunt from beginning to end. The offenders singed their names to the missing document. You have fake blood turned in by the boss of Santa Cruz OIJ, Victor Chavez Chavarria. There has been a refusal to test that blood and match it to mine.

        So no, I don’t accept your horseshit characterization that is void on what actually happened. You haven’t heard all of the story, instead you dwell on the manipulated aspects, such as the quantity involved.

        So for you to say I accepted the crime, that is total horseshit. And yes, I am going to call you out on that. And your viewpoint certainly shows me something else very critical to this ordeal. You better believe I know a thing or two about data collection, and how it is often times nefariously used. A newspapers comments section is the perfect example. Everything is tracked.

        • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

          “You better believe I know a thing or two about data collection, and how it is often times nefariously used. A newspapers comments section is the perfect example. Everything is tracked.”

          May I suggest we resume discussing this by email and remove this thread then?

          At any rate, you are correct that I have not worked your story. Honestly, I get flooded with so much material on a daily basis that sometimes things just get buried, especially complex cases such as yours, unfortunately. I know what sort of time and effort is required to properly cover such a story, so it sort of ends up in my “when I have time for a full investigative piece” pile, and meanwhile there is a daily flow of “current events” that I also have to cover. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to, and won’t, though.

          • SDPUS

            Tim, I know you are smart enough to know how the general public feels about the media-government relationship. The rise of Bernie Sanders is the epitome of that. The media needs to work for the people, not for government.

          • Ken Morris

            OK, enough of this media bashing, SDPUS.

            The reality is that the all-powerful media often end up being a handful of reporters and an unpaid intern, all behind on their rent, scrambling to churn out enough stories every day to attract enough readers to get some paltry ad revenues flowing in.

            Newspapers especially face an up hill challenge. There’s a reason why George Will is syndicated in over 800 newspapers, most of them chains, and it’s not because Will is writing investigative articles about local issues in over 800 markets. It’s because syndicated columnists are cheaper than hiring your own people and the marketing gurus show that they work for the bottom line.

            Much print and now online media is frankly subsidized by someone, usually people with their own agenda, since the business simply isn’t profitable. And if you want investigative reporting, you better hire a freelancer who doesn’t need to live off of it. Sean Penn is a good choice, since he’s an already wealthy movie star (with an agenda of his own), although there are trustfunders and youngsters ambitious enough to take a loss in the hopes that they become the next George Will.

            Meanwhile, take a look at the size of Costa Rica’s English-language media market. The market is so small that it could barely sustain a county weekly in the US, and you expect a daily in that size market with competitors to have a staff of investigative reporters? Forget it. In fact, even CRHoy, the Spanish-language upstart, requires a story a day from its reporters. You ain’t going to get much investigative reporting that way.

            This said, the poor man’s solution is for Tim to invite you to write a guest article (unpaid of course) describing your case. Tim can put in the usual disclaimer that the “views expressed are those of the author” to cover his ass, and you can have free reign–even go on with subheadings and so forth. I personally would be very interested in reading it.

            But anymore you really can’t expect the print media to do this job for you, since they simply don’t have the money. Even La Nación is hurting, having recently been forced to cut staff. Sorry, the media nowadays aren’t this hugely powerful force, but are mostly hand-to-mouth operations that simply don’t have the resources to cover most of what should be covered. You have to do it yourself, for free, if you want it done, and I’d like to read your article.

          • SDPUS

            Sorry Ken, that too is more of a cop out of an answer. Look at the headlines from every newspaper. It is all the same regurgitated crap for the most part. Same article from publication to publication.

            Regardless of your opinion on the importance of the media to society, I obviously hold a very different one in regards to ethics in the business.

            An editor “calling me out” as he put it. What kind of third grade tactic is that? Convicting me in his public forum of readers telling me I knew the law and the consequences. Horseshit. And I also call horseshit in you covering for what is broken. Tim, obviously had not done any work into looking into the situation. But yet he had the audacity to think he was going to put me in my place for being angry at bad ethics in his profession. For having one of the most serious subject matters in society glazed over and deemed non news worthy.

            Marijuana. Government corruption. Incarceration…..you would be hard pressed to find bigger subject matters in the worlds news cycle of today.

            Look at the City of Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanual in regards to concealing the video of the cop shooting a pedestrian. It took a journalist and a court order to have that video released. And the day before it is released they arrest the cop. The chief of police gets sacked. And the public wants Emanual to step down.

            This was real journalism. Putting pressure on corrupt government practices, that otherwise would have been buried and unnoticed.

            Why don’t you fight to have my blood re-examined Tim? Why don’t you help force the issue to be properly investigated by putting a spotlight on all the issues regarding a case that involves the OIJ Boss of Santa Cruz and his underlings. In a municipality that has a horrid relationship with the gringos of Tamarindo. Tamagringo, the very people your publication in this country of only 4 million people caters too. You know the area with one of the largest tax bases in the entire nation. Paid largely by gringo tourists. The town that gets almost zero support from the municipality it funds so handsomely. This is the type of leadership we get Unsolved crimes, corrupt police?

            That is real journalism on some real pertinent issues which are good for the fabric of society. But yet, Ken wants me to take over your job. Ken you have been around long enough to know my story. If you need to be reminded just go into the comments history and read up. I believe that is why we store this stuff…right? So we can all keep track?

        • SDPUS

          Here, I won’t waste your time any longer. I will do it for you. If you get a chance to understand the case and have questions or want more information just let me know. I believe people should have the opportunity to clear their name and that everything should be understood contextually speaking. If you are too busy, then it was it is. I also suggest you relax the demeaning comments towrards me, on what is a very serious situation. If the tables were turned, you would want help as well. Think about it. Thanks.
          ——————————————-
          Timothy Williams Mod SDPUS • a day ago

          “Stay tuned. We are working on the other side of the coin ourselves right now.. (regarding Baldi.) Your situation is more difficult given our limited resources, unfortunately and to be honest, but I haven’t shelved it. But since you felt the need to call me out, let’s keep in mind however the circumstances of your case and the fact that you admit to your wrongdoing (which given the quantities involved, in Costa Rica, is a very, very serious offense). As you have now learned, doing what you were doing while in a foreign country is a bad idea (or anywhere else that it is illegal, for that matter). I think you can agree that you could have avoided the situation altogether, unlike the case of Mr. Baldi, above, where previously secret intel documents from 2013 and 2014 regarding the man are suddenly being leaked to the press.

          I don’t agree with certain laws here (and many other places) either, but I have enough sense to not break them (though if I did, I would want to be treated justly and fairly, which seems to be your primary complaint).

          While I certainly believe there was some corruption in the way your case was dealt with, it doesn’t rise to the level (of a story, from a journalists’ perspective) of what is happening here with Baldi, especially for someone who admits they broke the law, as you have previously admitted, and to an excess by most reasonable standards.

          Regarding our RoR (reporting of reporting) of these leaks by Diario Extra, we believe it is newsworthy, though we have just added an editor’s note to the top of the article to clarify that these are simply leaked intel documents, and that no formal accusations were ever brought against Mr. Baldi.

          We are working on other possible angles, and of course the fact that these intelligence reports occurred only shortly before former president Chinchilla’s defamation suit against Baldi is of great interest. However that would beg the question that if this was a political hit job, why these reports would not have been “leaked” three years ago, around the time they were written and the time that Chinchilla sued Baldi and Baldi was on a serious attack campaign against the administration.

          Regardless (thanks, Ken), it seems no one had enough evidence then or now to charge Baldi with any crime, and he still hasn’t been charged with anything, so of course should be presumed innocent until proved otherwise.

          Hopefully, no hard feelings (but if you call me out in public, expect a response in public in kind)”.

        • SDPUS

          Here is another comment that was missing from you, Tim. Don’t you think it is important to keep things in context? If you delete your obscene comments and just leave mine that certainly isn’t right? Funny, I have a similar problem with OIJ. Image smearing. Sigh…

          Timothy Williams Mod • 31 minutes ago

          “You better believe I know a thing or two about data collection, and how it is often times nefariously used. A newspapers comments section is the perfect example. Everything is tracked.”

          May I suggest we resume discussing this by email and remove this thread then?

          At any rate, you are correct that I have not worked your story. Honestly, I get flooded with so much material on a daily basis that sometimes things just get buried, especially complex cases such as yours, unfortunately. I know what sort of time and effort is required to properly cover such a story, so it sort of ends up in my “when I have time for a full investigative piece” pile, and meanwhile there is a daily flow of “current events” that I also have to cover. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to, and won’t, though.
          • Reply•Share ›

          • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

            SDPUS, apparently when I delete my own comments they can’t be undeleted in the way that comments of others I delete can, something I wasn’t aware of. Read my quote from you in the quote above, that was the quote from you that led me to believe that you would like the comments removed in the first place. “You better believe I know a thing or two about data collection, and how it is often times nefariously used. A newspapers comments section is the perfect example. ” Also, I don’t think anyone would find my comments to you “obscene” or even inappropriate. When I said that you admitted to wrongdoing, I was only referring to the fact that you admitted to cultivating a large amount of marijuana, not that you admitted to trafficking it. At any rate, I really need to move on from this. I’ll be in touch privately, when I am able.

      • SDPUS

        The comments should be restored, otherwise that is censorship. I will be in touch. First I need to take care of some other obligations.

        • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

          Okay, I apologize. I got the impression from one of your comments that you actually preferred them removed.

          • SDPUS

            I guess you were not very genuine about promptly putting the comments back. I don’t agree with the ethics of the censorship, either. This could have been back up in under a minutes time. If you are just waiting to have it buried behind a bunch of new stories till you actually re-hang it, then there won’t be much need to put it back at that point.

            This is not about either you or I Tim. This is simply about pushing a story into the public domain and asking for help to apply pressure to efficiently and fairly apply all the laws that are applicable to what they did. These are OIJ people and Judges. They know the law very well. As you have said in the past, they know what they did. Now it is time for you to learn the story. This is not nearly as difficult as you previously claimed. And it is a very important story that I literally have spoon fed you. This is what makes or breaks journalists. Put in the homework and make the push for justice and watch what happens…

          • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

            SPDUS, the comments have been restored just now, except for one comment by myself some reason Disqus doesn’t show in the deleted items list.

            At any rate this is getting pretty absurd. I removed them because you yourself expressed your concern about having my comment public here in the comments, so I removed the thread, not to try to “bury your story.” That is an absurd claim. You honestly believe we are in cahoots with the government here to try to keep your story silent? You are entering tinfoil hat territory if so. We are a handful of people who struggle to find enough time, money and energy to just keep publishing current events, let alone work on more than one or two investigative stories per year. I don’t know what you have in your mind’s eye, that we are some big powerful media organization in bed with the government and political elites or something, but if that is what you think you would be shocked by the actual reality of the situation. We will get to your case if, and when, we can. That’s it.

            Likewise, if you think our little English-language news site has the influence to truly put pressure on anyone outside of the English-speaking population here, you’re mistaken. You might try Diario Extra, seriously.

            If you don’t feel like waiting until we feel we have the bandwidth to properly examine your case (it is more involved than you think to do it right – I estimate about a week’s worth of what we call publishing time) I would suggest taking Ken’s suggestion and send us a letter to the editor telling your story. We’ll publish it.

            At this point, I am not going to keep going back and forth with you over this, I honestly have other work to do.

          • SDPUS

            No, I don’t think you are protecting the government. I think you are just unwilling to take them on. Call it fear of retribution or whatever. I have copies of all the prior comments. Shall I send it to you so you can put everything in the original context?

          • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

            Sure. Send them over and I will put them back up. [email protected]

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      The comment thread from here down as been removed as per a request from the commenter.

      • SDPUS

        I think that was a bit of a mutual decision.

        • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

          Agreed.

      • jahjan

        Darn, and I was reading those very interesting comments but didn’t have time to finish – intended to go back later. Now it’s too late! I invite the commenters to email me privately with what they said. I will email them first inviting this.

  • Ken Morris

    This is either a massive (and sloppy) frame job or this guy is a serious piece of shit. I’m suspecting the latter, though will await due process and all that jazz.

  • NothingButNet

    For any follow-up articles, I would like to know more about the mishandling of evidence by detectives. This is not the first time I have heard allegations of mishandled evidence or sloppy crime-scene work by Costa Rica police, so I am intrigued as to why this happens. Is it due to poor training? Corruption? Lack of resources? Lack of proper oversight?

    • SDPUS

      My opinion. It is all corruption. By having sloppy work they can play both sides of the hand. They use it as a way to exploit the situation. Payoffs for preferential treatment. Pay or go to jail. It is a way for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, etc. to make illicit profits.

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