by Rod Hughes

For Vice President Laura Chinchilla, it must seem like a homecoming. She has been tapped to take over the Ministry of Public Security in the faillout over presumed infiltration of Colombian FARC guerrillas into Costa Rica. Meanwhile a special Legislative Assembly investigative committee has been named to conduct a three-month probe into the matter.

Chinchilla was Public Security Minister under former President Jose Figueres (1994-98) before turning politician and takes over for Fernando Berrocal who resigned unexpectedly last Sunday in the aftermath of statements indicating that Costa Rican politicos could be involved with FARC. She is also Minister of Justice, administering the nation’s prison system.

The Vice President will head up a special high-level mission to Colombia on the matter, consisting of the country’s head prosecutor, Francisco Dall’Anese and Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno. The latter has notified his Colombian counterpart, Fernando Araujo, of the impending visit. “The idea is to continue a strong coordination (with Colombia). This is a subject of national security,” explained Chinchilla, adding. “We don’t want to interfer with judicial relations (between the countries). We want to guarantee transparency in the flow of information during the investigation, whether it is judicial or legislative.”

The Legislative Assembly vote to create a short-term, nine-member investigative committee carried easily with 45 votes in favor. Berrocal was scheduled to testify before the lawmakers about his statements that local politcos could be involved with the murderous FARC guerrillas but his resignation invalidated the invitation. Now he will likely be called as a private citizen and has agreed to testify.

The probe is the fallout following the discovery by police of $480,000 of FARC funds in a safe in the home of an Heredia couple and reports of visits by FARC top officials with them. (See previous articles on this blog.)