by Rod Hughes
The testimony of former Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal before a special Legislative Assembly committee probing FARC penetration into the political culture has hardly produced the dramatic revellations lawmakers sought. But Berrocal apparently wanted to extend his 15 minutes of fame yesterday.
The former […]
by Rod Hughes
Former public security minister Fernando Berrocal stuck to his guns in a hard-hitting report to the Legislative Assembly yesterday, presenting 36 pages of testimony that declared the deep penetration of the Colombian FARC guerrilla-terrorist-narcotics trafficking organization deep into Costa Rica. But lawmakers are still waiting for concrete evidence, […]
by Rod Hughes
Fact check: Presidents, when reviewing past accomplishments, tend to paint with a wide, rosy brush. But many times the press picks up a gilded lily but this time it was the Comptroller General’s Office that blew the whistle on one statement of President Oscar Arias’s State of the […]
by Rod Hughes
A brief news story published by the Associated Press today confirms the unheralded death in Cuba five months ago of once-infamous financier Robert Vesco. From 1972 to 1978, the controversial Vesco kept the political scene in Costa Rica in a turmoil and made the country synonymous with “refuge […]
by Rod Hughes
President Oscar Arias’s National Liberation Party got a free hand in electing Legislative Assembly officials, thanks in large part to a pass given them when the Social Christian Unity delegation submitted blank ballots. What the conditions Unity extracted from Liberation lawmakers are, of course, unknown.
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by Rod Hughes
Speaking before the Legislative Assembly yesterday, President Oscar Arias reassured the nation that he realizes tha citizen’s concerns for their safety in the face of growing crime is “real” and that his administration will treat the threat seriously. Public unrest about crime and the helplessness of the country’s […]
by Rod Hughes
Anna Moscarelli, the Swiss-Costa Rican hotelier who allegedly owes the Costa Rican Catholic Church $3 million in a questioned loan transaction, was financial advisor to a notorious Sicilian Mafia figure, Filippo Salamone, an investigative article in the daily paper La Nación revealed today. Moscarelli is also a longtime […]
by Rod Hughes
The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber yesterday struck a blow for press freedom when the judges ruled that a reporter may not be forced to reveal the sources of his information. Under certain conditions, he still may be ordered by the court to turn over documents but not forced […]
by Rod Hughes
Former lawmaker Ricardo Toledo was rushed to the hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack as he played basketball at the Costa Rican Tennis Club He was the Social Christian Unity candidate for president in 2006.
Toledo must remain in the hospital for […]
by Rod Hughes
It’s official: By a 29 to 14 vote, the Legislative Assembly yesterday passed a bill to open up the insurance market which had been a monopoly of the National Insurance Institute (INS) since its creation in 1924. The bill is one of the original 13 pieces of legislation […]
