Invitation Is Out, But Will
Figueres Come To The Chinchilla Crowning?
José María Figueres Olsen, the former
president of Costa Rica, now living in
Switzerland, is on the invited list at
Chinchilla's crowning.
But will he come?
Figueres, as you will remember, was asked by
a legislative commission to come back to
Costa Rica to answer questions of his role
in accepting consulting fees from Alcatel,
fees he never denied receiving, though he
never made it back to Costa Rica.
Figueres has maintained that the us$900.000,
part of the total us$2.7 million paid by
Alcatel to various people, was legitimately
earned in 2004 for his expertise in
telecommunications.
Figueres was president between 1994 and
1998, preceding Miguel Rodríguez Echeverría
(1998 - 2002), who is also involved in a
controversy with Alcatel and following
Rafael Calderón Fournier (1990 - 1994) who
was last year sentenced to jail for
embezzlement for his role in the Fischel-
Caja case.
Both Rodríguez (who is to have his trial
start next month) and Calderón are invited
to the crowning, confirmed Adrián
Chinchilla, who is heading the transfer of
powers commission.
President-elect Chinchilla told the press
that she has not spoken to Figueres in the
last eight years. It was Chinchilla, while a
legislator during the scandal, that made the
call for Figueres to head home to answer
questions and current president, Oscar
Arias, who called for Figueres to be
expelled from the Partido Liberación
Nacional (PLN).
Interesting enough, Chinchilla last weeks
named various ministers to her cabinet that
had cabinet posts in the Figueres
administration, more prominet, Marco Vargas,
who will be the ministro de la Presidencia
in the Chinchilla administration and the
same role he played with Figueres.
Three other of the appointments made their
(political) bones in the Figueres
administration.
José María Figueres Olsen is the son of José
María Figueres Ferrer (who served as
President of Costa Rica on three occasions:
1948–1949, 1953–1958, and 1970–1974) or "Don
Pede".
José María Figueres Ferrer is regarded as
the "father" of Costa Rica for abolishing
the country's army, nationalized its banking
sector, and granted women the right to vote
during his first term in office.
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