Former Presidents Influencing Court Appointment
A report in today's edition of the Spanish language newspaper, La Nación, says that former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez, while detained, used his influence to intervene the election of Rosario Fernández as magistrate to the Sala Tercera de la Corte, by calling on Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) head, Federico Vargas.

The confirmation was made to the La Nación by legislative deputies, Gloria Valerín and the president of the Congress, Gerardo González. The same was confirmed by other deputies of the PUSC party, though Vargas denies that the former president tried to influence the magistrate's election.

Vargas admits to receiving a call from Rodríguez several months back, while Rodríguez was still under preventive detention in La Reforma prison but says they discussed many things, including the former president's concern that Vargas may be upset with him, but never did Rodríguez try to influence my decision.

The report says that former president Rodríguez told Vargas to vote for whomever, but not Fernández. "He never told me to vote for Rónald Salazar, but to vote for whomever", were the words of the head of the party.

Other deputies are claiming that the "ex-presidents" are trying to influence the vote for the court appointments and "some deputies still blindly respond to them", where the words spoken by unnamed sources.

The La Nación says it attempted to talk to the former president Rodríguez to get his side of the story but was denied access to him when they visited his home, where a domestic employee answered the door, telling them that the former president was not home. Calls to Rodríguez's lawyer went unanswered.

Rodríguez is under house arrest for his involvement in the multi million dollar pay off by the Alcatel firm in being awarded the contract by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) to install the current GSM cellular network.

The appointment to the court is an important one for both former presidents Rodríguez and Rafael Angel Calderón, who is also under house arrest for his role in the Fischel-Caja scandal, as the Sala Tercera will have the final decision in the judicial process that both former presidents are facing.

The Sala Tercera is composed of five magistrates, and which may see another resignation this year, that of magistrate Jesús Ramírez, who has confirmed his intention to resign from the court.