Draped in Chilean flags, the coffins containing the bodies of the three Chilean Embassy officials who were killed in a hostage standoff lie in the Metropolitan Cathedral during a funeral Mass in San Jose. President Abel Pacheco offers his words to family and friends.

Fotos of the Religious Service What Happened Religious Service The Victims The Survivors The Mad Gunman

"My sorrow is great. These things affect me deeply, and when it happens to a beloved nation like Chile, even more so," said Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco, who declared three days of national mourning.

"I would like to send my deep feeling of grief to the Chilean government and people," Pacheco said. "I think this incident would not affect the friendship between Chile and Costa Rica."

He also said Chilean President Ricardo Lagos had expressed "understanding" over the incident.

Lagos, for his part, declared two days of mourning in his country.

"A tragic event occurred for Chile," Lagos said, adding Pacheco had assured him that what happened at the embassy did not represent Costa Rica.

"Costa Rica is a peaceful country, a serene country and what has occurred can only be explained by the delirium of a person who lost his mind," Lagos said.

What Happened
The incident unfolded over more than six hours late Tuesday after José Orlando Jiménez Jiménez, 54, a Fuerza Publica officer assigned to protecting the embassy,  was informed that he was being transferred to another post.

A police official had called Jimenez Tuesday to tell him that he would be transferred to another position after two years at the embassy at the request of First Secretary Roberto Nieto, who became one of his victims, Costa Rican Security Minister Rogelio Ramos said.

The transfer request "is something we consider normal. The diplomat gave no evidence of fault in the work of this person, just simply that it seemed time for a change," Ramos said.

His transfer did not involve a demotion, Ramos insisted. Jimenez probably faced "a worse situation from the mental point of view."

Police and Red Cross officials who interviewed survivors said Jimenez entered the embassy at the unusual time of 3:30 pm, walked directly to the office where Nieto, Second Secretary and Consul Cristian Yussef and Cultural Attache Rocio Sariego were, and shot them point-blank.

Seven other embassy staff members, five Chileans and two Costa Ricans, barricaded themselves in an office. Jimenez shot at the door of that office and later shot himself in the chin. But, police said, he did not die immediately and remained conscious and bleeding for several hours.

Some 200 heavily armed police officers quickly surrounded the diplomatic compound, located in the eastern part of San Jose. At around 10:00 pm, they stormed the embassy, without firing a shot.

Prior to the incident the Jimenez, had been "an exemplary citizen" who must have been driven to commit the crime by sudden psychosis, Pacheco said.

President Pacheco, speaking as a psychiatrist (his profession) explained how a man like Jiménez would come to take the lives of others, saying that a man or woman at the age of Jiménez, 54, can suffer violent changes in personality that cannot be foreseen.


Religious Service
The service began at 6pm as they filled the Metropolitan Cathedral to the fullest. Outside the area around the Cathedral was blocked off by police as cars lined both the front and side of Cathedral.

Diplomats from from foreign embassies and members of the government of Costa Rica and Chile, along with the families and friends of those slain who attended the official service.

The religious service was headed by Monseñor Hugo Barrantes who spoke about respect for life, solidarity for the Chileans and the importance for Costa Rican to maintain a peaceful culture.

President Abel Pacheco sat quietly to the side of the altar as the mass was conducted and offered in condolences and regrets of the events to those gathered.

The bodies of the three Chilean will me flown to Chile for burial in their homeland.

The Victims Roberto Nieto (2), First Secretary to the embassy.   Cristián Yuseff Marchant (1),  lawyer and Counselor to the embassy.   Rocío Sariego (3), Cultural Secretary. She came to Costa Rica to organize commemorative activities related to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The Survivors Leonardo Banda Maldonado (Chilean) Leonardo Guerra (Chilean) César Gómez (Costa Rican) Xinia Vargas (Costa Rican) Jeannette Viques (Costa Rican) Cecilia Montero (Costa Rican),  and Jeannette Aguilar (Nicaraguan attaché)

The Mad Gunman
José Orlando Jiménez Jiménez, 54 years of age,  had worked as a member of the Fuerza Publica as a civil guard at the embassy for two years, thus reason he had a high level of confidence on the part of embassy staff when he was able to walk in without question

José Orlando Jiménez Jiménez.

It is customary in Costa Rica to station a member of the Fuerza Publica at all foreign embassies.

Jiménez lived in barrio Los Ángeles, in Santiago de Puriscal, a father of  8 children, and was described as peaceful man.

Chilean Ambassador, Guillermo Yungue, confirmed yesterday that the embassy staff had requested a change when Jiménez was found incurring "small failures" at his post, like leaving his post to talk to other officers working close to the embassy.

Roberto Nieto, as First Secretary at the embassy, had made a formal request to the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica to replace Jiménez. Nieto was Jiménez's first victim.

Jiménez was given notice of the change by his superiors in the early afternoon, then a few hours later stormed the embassy and killing his three victims, one by one, in their offices, while the survivors hearing the shots, were able to lock themselves in a part of the embassy that Jiménez could not access. He fired several shots at the closed door, according to the surviving witnesses, but did not manage to enter the room.

Jiménez then took his own life, shooting himself with his service revolver. He did not die immediately.

Police stormed the building and Jiménez who they thought was lying unconscious, giving himself up peacefully, rather he had perished from his wound. Red Cross workers entering the building behind police confirmed the four dead.

Guillermo Yungue, Chilean Ambassador, who was not at the embassy at the time of the events, said that the only explanation that is reasonable to him is that this is an act of a disturbed man.

The events unfolded at 3:45pm when Jiménez entered the embassy building, shot and killed three Chilean diplomats, later taking his own life. Seven other embassy staff members - two Chileans, four Costa Ricans and one Nicaraguan - that were in the embassy at the time, were able to lock themselves in a part of the embassy that Jiménez could not access and ended when police stormed the building at 10pm, found the four bodies and rescued the surviving hostages.

Randall Jimenez, son of the policeman, apologized Wednesday for his father's actions.

"Apologies to the Chilean people for all the trouble this has caused to the relations between the two countries," Jimenez told a local radio.