Rodríguez Goes to Jail!
Who would have thunk it? In the long history of Costa Rica, two former presidents would be in jail at the same and in the same place?

Late yesterday afternoon, following an intense 30 hours of waiting on the decision of Superior Court Judge, Gabriela Jara Murillo, judicial officials revved up the "perrera" - the term used in Costa Rica for a police wagon - to head over to the Vargas Araya, Montes de Oca in San Pedro, apartment building to pick up Miguel Angel Rodríguez to escort him to his new home in Costa Rica's largest prison, La Reforma.

Miguel Angel Rodríguez President of Costa Rica 1998-2002

One for the history books. Superior Court Judge, Gabriela Jara Murillo, orders to prison a second former president. The foto shows judge Jara leaving the Goicochea courthouse shortly after making public her decision. Allen CAMPOS/Al Día Rodríguez, handcuffed boars the "perrera" for his transfer from his apartment to La Reforma. Rodríguez is escorted to La Reforma in the back of the "perrera" amid tight police security. Crowds had gathered outside Rodríguez's apartment expressing their sentiments.

The decision came as a shock to many, as it had been expected that judge Jara would have continued Rodríguez's detention on house arrest as ordered by Penal Court Judge Carlos Jovel Sánchez, as well as to have lowered the ¢250.000.000 colones bond.

The Fiscalía (prosecutor's office) argued before judge Jara on Thursday that Rodríguez was a possible flight risk and would certainly impede the Fiscalía's investigation if he remained under house arrest, where the former president had access to regular and free visits, a telephone and the internet.

The Fiscalía had asked nine months preventive detention (jail) for Rodríguez following his detention, however, Judge Jovel ordered six months detention and a bond to be posted.

Rodríguez spent the last two weeks of his detention in the comfort of his apartment in Montes de Oca, where under 24 hour police surveillance and regular visits by police supervisors to collect his signature in the prisoners book, and had regular visits.

Yesterday that all changed, as he spent his first night in a prison cell in La Reforma, the same prison that is holding another former president, Rafael Angel Calderón.

It is believed that the two men are in the cell block, however, prison official were quick to point out that the two men will not come into contact and schedules are being arranged for that not to happen.

Rodríguez left the court building Thursday morning following his appearance before Judge Jara. Rodríguez had made his case that he was not a flight risk - he had returned voluntarily to Costa Rica on October 15, following his resignation as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) of less than a month, and that he had co-operated fully with prosecutors and had maintained his respect for the law.

Rodríguez also argued that his bond, as ordered by judge Jovel, should be reduced, though no specific amount was made public.

Under heavy police escort, Rodríguez was transferred to the courthouse and then back to his apartment several hours later. Rodríguez, according to his lawyer was confident that the house arrest would be continued and would be prepared to post the full bond amount if the appeal judge upheld the decision.

Miguel Angel Rodríguez is being accused of receiving monies, by way of his former Housing Minister, José Antonio Lobo Solera, from the Alcatel firm with respect to the multimillion dollar "prize" - the contract that was awarded to Alcatel to install the GSM network in Costa Rica.

Lobo maintains that he went to Rodríguez with advice on what to do with the Alcatel commission, to which Rodríguez told him they would be partners and that Rodríguez would get 60%.

Lobo made his statement to the Fiscalía when it was discovered that his wife, Jean Philp Gallup, had received us$2.4 million dollars from Alcatel and that from that payments were made to several people, including Rodríguez.

From his office at the OAS Rodríguez maintained that the money he received by Lobo had been in the form of a personal loan to help him finance his campaign to the OAS Secretary General post.

However, Lobo stayed firm that Rodríguez owed him no money, there never was any loan. Lobo told prosecutors that Rodríguez told him he would send him paperwork to show that the payment was a loan and nothing else.

The Fiscalía, headed by chief prosecutor Franciso Dall'Anese, asked for Rodríguez to come to Costa Rica and explain his actions. The Fiscalía moved quickly to issue an international warrant for Rodríguez's detention in the event the former president chose to skip.

Rodríguez's name was added to the INTERPOL list of those wanted by Costa Rica and was promptly arrested on board his flight from Washington when it landed at the Juan Santamaria airport. Rodríguez landed on Costa Rican soil in handcuffs and escorted by Judicial officials into a waiting "perrera" and immediately brought to the San José First Circuit courthouse to be interviewed by prosecutors.

Following his interview, Rodríguez was escorted to the Goicochea court house, where he spend his first night back in Costa Rica in the jail cells of the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) in the basement of the courthouse, waiting on the judge's decision of what would become of him.

Following the initial detention, there are also allegations that Rodríguez received money from the government of Taiwan.

Costa Rican prosecutors are investigating alleged payments by the government of Taiwan into accounts controlled by the former president, who allegedly received US$200,000 in 2001 from the Foreign Ministry and another US$200,000 in 2002 from the Taiwanese Embassy in San Jose.

Furthermore, there are reports that a Panamanian company controlled by Rodriguez allegedly accepted two separate donations of US$500,000 each and that Taiwan had provided a total of US$1.4 million in political donations to Rodríguez over three years.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreing Affairs (MOFA) submitted an explanation of Taiwan's contributions to its Costa Rican counterpart Tuesday, has denied making any political donations to former president Rodríguez, but has not made proper disclosure of such.

The MOFA also said that it had allocated US$200,000 for a personnel-training project and international conferences in 2001 and 2002, after the Foundation for Liberty and Human Development in Costa Rica sent a letter to Taiwan's embassy seeking a donation of US$1.2 million, to defray the cost of seminars and training."

The MOFA, however, claimed that it was unaware of the source of the remaining US$1 million that was supposedly donated to Rodríguez's Panamanian company.

Rodríguez's lawyer, Rafael Gairaud, however, said that the amount of US$200,000 dollars sent in 2001 and 2002 to the foundation was a personal loan to the then president. Taiwanese banks arranged to loan Rodríguez the money through the government in Taipei, lawyer  said.