by Rod Hughes

Ex-president Rafael Angel Calderón (1990-94) admitted Wednesday to the daily newspaper La Nación that he was, indeed, behind the bill to curb, if not essentially castrate, the Prosecutor General’s office. Calderón is facing corruption charges and is under house arrest.

The bill was submitted in December by Social Christian Unity party congressman Bienvenido Venegas, a political crony of Calderón. It was such a slavish copy of Venezuelan legislation that it contained a measure for fines in Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar. Although Venegas denied at first that it was Calderón’s idea, the party’s hierarchy is backing the measure. But Unity party whip Lorena Vásquez is having none of it.

“It appears to me,” she said, “that the prosecutor’s office should be kept as far as possible from political decisions. I believe in separation of government branches. This should remain in the Court’s field.” The other two major congressional delegation leaders agreed. Myri Antillón, floor leader of the government’s National Liberation party, said such a change would “politicize” the court while Libertarian party whip Luis Antonio Barrantes called the idea a “mistake.”

Attorney General Francisco Dall’Anese, who spearheaded the investigation of Calderón’s actions that landed the ex-president in jail, simply shrugged that “it’s normal for a defendant to want to influence the court.” The bill would remove Dall’Anese within three months of its passage and replace him with a top prosecutor elected by the Legislative Assembly and, presumeably, one more sympathetic to political figures.

It is not unusual in Latin America for political parties to be a mere extension of the personaility of a single leader, called a “caudillo” who often is the party founder. Indeed, the National Liberation party was the first broader-based political party and even that was led by an oligarchy made up of founders such as José “don Pepe” Figueres and Luis Alberto Monge. The party broke new ground when the rank and file approved the nomination of Oscar Arias for his first term against the wishes of the old guard.

The Social Christian Unity party was the next step toward a broad-based party, a coalition of like-minded parties put together by Rodrigo Carazo and other lleaders. Carazo won the subsequent election. But Calderón has become the caudillo of Social Christian Unity, which did poorly in the last election.

Luis Fishman, Unity party president, agrees with Calderon, noting that prosecutors may be elected judges and that judges may become prosectuors within the court. (Fishman is a former vice president in the administration of former president Abel Pacheco, but Pacheco refused to give him any powers or posts after he and Fishman fell out over leadership issues. Fishman sat out the four years without any government role at all.)

The unflappable Dall’Anese perferred not to comment. “He’s a defendat under investigation for a crime and it’s not my custom to argue with defendants in the press,” he said tartly.