Fiscalía Files Charges
Against Former President
Rodríguez
Former Costa Rican
president and former
secretary general of the
Organization of American
States (OAS)< Miguel
Ángel Rodríguez, will
finally have his day in
court.
Yesterday, the Fiscalía
(prosecutor's office),
filed charges against
Rodríguez for accepting
payoffs in the
ICE-Alcatel scandal.
Fabián Barrantes, press
chief of the Poder
Judicial, confirmed
yesterday that the
Ministerio Público has
filed charges in the
case, though no details
of the charges or the
case against the former
president were made
public.
One thing is for sure
though, José Antonio
Lobo Solera, the
ex-director of ICE and
close friend of
Rodríguez, who confessed
to receiving a us$2.5
million bribe from
Alcatel, is not
mentioned in the
accusation.
Ewald Acuña, Lobo's
lawyer, confirmed that
his client has made a
deal with the Fiscalía.
Rodríguez, who was
president from 1998 to
2002, is being accused
of corruption dating
back to 2004 involving a
payoff by the French
telecommunications firm
Alcatel for being
awarded the multimillion
dollar contract to
install 400.000 GSM
cellular telephone lines
in the country.
The Fiscalía
investigation concluded
that the former
president received
us$539.000 in cheques
and other payments from
the hands of Lobo.
The money, the Fiscalía
says, is part of the
payoff by Alcatel.
Rafael Gairaud,
Rodríguez's lawyer, said
yesterday that he is
content that the charges
were finally filed.
The ICE-Alcatel case
unfolded in October of
2004, when Rodríguez was
just beginning his term
at the OAS and
voluntarily stepped down
to return to Costa Rica
where he was handcuffed
on board the TACA
aircraft immediately
after it landed and
wisked away in a "perrera"
(police wagon) to a San
José court.
Accused at the time were
also former ICE board of
directors José Antonio
Lobo and Joaquín Alberto
Fernández,.
Lobo testified in
October 2004 that while
in the president's
chair, Rodríguez, had
asked for a 60% share of
the spoils offered by
Alcatel.
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