Arias Not Compelled To Appear Before Commission On Drug Trafficking, PLN Says
The ruling party - Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) - avoided at all costs that their leader, president Oscar Arias, not appear before the Comisión de Narcotráfico (commission of drug trafficking) to answer questions of the alleged ties of his second vice-president, Kevin Casa, to drug trafficker, George Nayor.

The commission has requested that Arias appear before them to answer their questions. The appearance was slated for tomorrow (Thursday) morning. The motion for the appearance of the president before the commission was spearheaded by Bienvenido Venegas, a legislator for the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC).

However, PLN legislator, Sandra Quesada, justified her motion to suspend the presence of the president before the commission, alleging that there are constitutional fundamentals that permit Congress to interrogate the "Presidente de la República".

"There are clear outlines in the political constitution on the division of powers, same that impede that the president be required to appear before the Legislative Assembly", said Quesada.

Quesada added that the statement by president Arias that his government will fully investigate any ties that the Cuban drug trafficker, Geroge "Julio" Nayor, has in the country should be sufficient guarantee that the case will not simply disappear.

"The president is not suspected of any ties to Mr. Nayor, nor is he a witness, nor has he had any relationship that would need him to appear in the investigation", added legislator Quesada.

"They want to take political advantage damaging the image not only of the government but of the country", said Quesada.

PUSC legislator Bienvenido Venegas, who voted in favour of requesting the president's appearance before the commission, assured that he sent president Arias a questionnaire asking questions of his knowledge about the Nayor case.

"Depending on the answers of the president, I will be evaluating my support for the motion for him to come to give explanations before the Comisión de Narcotráfico.

The president has to tell where he got the information that ties Nayor to lawyer Ciro Casas (brother of Vp Kevin) in the case of money laundering and he has to explain to us if Casas was detained in Colombia by the DEA", said Venegas.

On the other side of the bench, the Partido Acción Cuidadana (PAC) reacted upset at the suspension of the Arias appearance before the commission.

According to PAC legislator, Losé Joaquín Salazar, his party doesn't want to make a "political show" of the situation. However, he added, that his party is concerned that the PLN may be hiding something and is worried that the president is won't appear before the Legislative Assembly.

"It is not true that the political constitution prohibits the Legislature from calling the president to answer questions. In this case they (the PLN) are leaving us in the dark, and one has to ask what are they really hiding", said Venegas.

Vice-president Kevin Casas made public his older brothers ties with the drug trafficker, saying publicly that he had met Nayor once at his brothers home at a birthday party and that was the extent of his relationship. Casas made the statement following the news that Nayor had been extradited to the United States and while his brother was out of the country.

Vp Casas dispelled rumours that his brother Ciros was in a Colombian jail in relation to the Nayor case. He told the press that his brother was out of the country and would be returning in a matter of days.

Ciros returned to Costa Rica within days of the news and at first denied knowing Nayor. However, investigations discovered a history between the two men, including being business partners in a number of Costa Rican corporations.

Records indicate that the true identity of George Nayor is Julio Nayor Ramos and Casas not only knows the man, but have been in business in Costa Rica since 1984.

Nayor is currently being held in a Miami Federal Detention Centre after being deported from El Salvador in September. Nayor is a U.S. citizen of Cuban origin and is accused in the U.S. of drug trafficking and money laundering, wanted by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and linked to the Colombian drug cartel Julio Nasser, who is now deceased.

Nayor is suspected to have a number of businesses throughout Central America which are all being investigated.