President President Pacheco with Chancellor Roberto Tovar Miguel Angel Rodríguez

Former President Rafael Angel Calderón Fiscal General, Franciso Dall'anese

On Monday, President Abel Pacheco asked Rodríguez, a fellow member of his political party, Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), to resign "in the interest of Costa Rica's good name and the OAS itself."

That evening, 43 of 47 members of Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly also demanded Rodríguez's resignation.

The evidence seems damning enough: Rodríguez's close friend, former housing minister, former Legislative Deputy and former member of the ICE board of directors that awarded the Alcatel contract, José Antonio Lobo, now under house arrest while cooperating with authorities, told prosecutors that former president Rodríguez demanded a cut of the lucrative deal.

The demand by Rodríguez was while he was still in office. Rodríguez served as president of Costa Rica from 1998-2002.

Rodríguez claims the money was not a bribe but a personal loan, a loan that ended up in a Washington bank account held by his wife. There is no paper trail, according to Rodríguez, because it was a deal done con el "pelo del bigote" - a Costa Rican idiom for word of honor.

In many respects, Costa Rica has been Latin America's model nation, its political stability and economic prosperity contrasting sharply with its neighbors. Its nearly 4 million people enjoy one of the strongest social safety nets and highest levels of education in the Americas, making tiny Costa Rica hugely attractive to foreign investors, tourists and retirees.

The OAS post, never held by a Central American, was the latest jewel in the country's crown. And president Pacheco campaigned hard on behalf of Rodríguez, twisting a presidential arm or two here, including a war of words with neighbouring Nicaragua, who tried to condition their vote, by demanding among other things that Costa Rica settle the long time dispute over the San Juan river that borders the two countries.

But now Costa Rica has shown that it is just as vulnerable to high-level corruption as any other country in the region and adding to the perception that all Latin countries are corrupt.

Presidential corruption scandals, like Nicaragua's Arnoldo Aleman in and out of prison, were not supposed to happen in Costa Rica. Certainly not twice in one year.

Former president, Rafael Angel Calderón, is also in a similar position as Rodríguez, facing his scandal for accepting payment from the Corporación Fischel through a Panamanian corporation controlled by Fischel president, Walter Reiche Fischel.

Calderón cannot leave the country until the investigation is completed. And though, unlike Rodríguez, Calderón made a payment of us$522.500 into the courts, the amount he received from Fischel, Calderón is not off the hook. The Fiscal General head prosecutor) Francisco Dall'anese says the re-payment doesn't change anything.

How Costa Rica resolves the corruption crisis will distinguish the nation from many of its neighbors. The country's measure will depend on how it turns the crisis into positive change.

The investigation(s), the accusation(s), all have come from Costa Rica. Elsewhere, it was international pressure, including from the OAS.

The repudiation of Rodríguez has been nearly unanimous in Costa Rica. Pacheco has had a hard time getting the legislature to agree with him on anything, but in this case they are united.

In contrast, current Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños has had to fight corruption single-handedly while the National Assembly manipulates all types of legislation on behalf and at the bidding of Nicaragua's convicted former president.

In many respects, Costa Rica has lived and thrived on its reputation, and it was on behalf of that reputation that Rodríguez was cut some slack not long ago. A special legislative commission investigating campaign finance irregularities in Costa Rica had agreed last year to postpone Rodríguez's testimony to that body for six months - until right after the OAS election.

Perhaps Costa Rica had its eye trained too hard on the prize and let its desire for greater recognition and power - in the form of the OAS post - overcome its better judgment.

When Rodríguez finally did testify in June, 10 days after the OAS election, Costa Ricans learned that he had received another loan unrelated to the most recent allegations. It too was deposited in his wife's account and it too lacked a paper trail.

The best indication that Costa Rica will change for the better may be that the country is no longer willing to risk the rule of law for its image.

The passage of the new "anti-corruption' law may not in itself solve the country's problems, but it is a step in the right direction. President Pacheco has been criticized many times for his dilly dallying on many issues, skirting this one and the other, or for not being transparent enough - lacking the confidence of Costa Ricans - following his election of being an honest and straightforward man.

However, in this case, he has taken the bull by the horn and has made it clear and without equivocation that he will does not tolerate corruption and no matter who it is, his friend and fellow party members, Rodiguez or Calderón or any other public official,  he will use the law that he called a “tiger with sharpened teeth and claws”  to clear Costa Rica's image.