'Casa por Carcél'  for Rodríguez
A criminal court judge rejected yesterday the prosecutor's request to for a nine month preventive detention for former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez and ordered house arrest or 'casa por carcél' against the man who is accused of corruption while in office.

Judge, Carlos Jovel Sánchez, ordered six months of house arrest for Rodríguez, while the Fiscalía  (prosecutor's office) continues it's investigations.

Judge Jovel also ordered that Rodríguez pay into court the sum of ¢250.000.000 colones (us$555.000 dollars at the current exchange rate) and not make any financial transaction of any type while in detention.

Francisco Dall'Anese the Fiscal General  said that the Fiscalía would appeal the judge's decision and had begun to prepare the case to be heard by the judge.

Dall'Anese says there is enough evidence - documentation and testimony - against the former president that preventive detention - jail - is the where he should be.

The Fiscalía de Delitos Económicos y Anticorrupción argued that Rodríguez has tried to impede the investigation, in their arguments for jail time.

The Fiscalía has three days to present their appeal.

Rodríguez was arrested last Friday as he arrived in Costa Rica from his office as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) following his resignation Friday 8 October, only a after a few weeks of taking office.

Rodríguez in handcuffs was rushed to the San José courthouse in a police wagon known as "la perrera" or kennel, denied his diplomatic status and immunity as still chief of the OAS.

Once at the courthouse he went before prosecutors declaring that he is not guilty and later in the night transferred to the Goicochea court house jail cells to spend the night, while waiting to appear before a judge.

Saturday afternoon, Rodríguez was taken to the Clínica Católica, a private hospital, after suffering hypertension while he was being interviewed by prosecutors. At the hospital a complete medical exam was performed. Doctors found the 64 year old former president suffering from high blood pressure and stress.

A judge signed the order for house arrest instead of jail while Rodríguez was being examined by doctors and then transferred to an apartment in Montes de Oca, San Pedro, his temporary home.

The judge also ordered that Rodríguez be under police watch for his own safety, fearing reprisals from angry Costa Ricans who have been calling for the man's head.

Rodríguez is being accused of "cohecho impropio y enriquecimiento ilícito".

Rodríguez was immediately arrested following the landing of the Grupo TACA aircraft that carried the ex-president and was transferred to San José were he made his declarations before four prosecutors.

Rodríguez declared himself innocent after listening to the charges against him.

According to José Antonio Lobo, a former Minister in the Rodríguez administration 1998-2002) and former director the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Rodríguez asked for a 60% take of the us$2.400.000 dollars the French telecommunications firm Alcatel paid to Lobo's wife.

Alcatel had won "the prize" in being awarded the us$149.000.000 dollar contract to install 400.000 GSM cellular lines in Costa Rica.

Alcatel also paid other large sums of money to other ICE directors and employees. A total of us$9.900.000 dollars in payouts or "commissions" were paid out in deal. Alcatel president, Egar Valverde, was arrested last week following his firing by Alcatel and told prosecutors that the total cost of the contract would have been lower if they hadn't had to pay out so much in commissions.

Rodríguez is also being accused of received money from the government of Taiwan.

Former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez, allegedly received us$200,000 in 2001 from the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry and another us$200,000 in 2002 from the Taiwanese Embassy in San Jose.

The Taiwanese foreign ministry is denying any payoffs to Rodríguez and has agreed to cooperate fully with Costa Rican authorities in providing details of donations to projects and funds by Taiwan to Costa Rica.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Mark Chen Chen said "Taiwan's aid to the international community is neither sympathy diplomacy, money diplomacy, nor political donations to any individual."

The Fiscalía is continuing it's investigation of Rodríguez, following up leads that the former president may have received more that what has been discovered to date. Their investigation is complicated as it involves bank accounts and corporations registered in Panama, where most of the money was deposited, and foreign governments, like Taiwan.

The investigation gets further complicated as Lobo is adding to his original accusations of Rodríguez now to other public functionaries and employees of ICE. Lobo is being completely cooperative with the Fiscalía, providing them details of events that would have been difficult to uncover otherwise. Lobo is currently under house arrest.