by Rod Hughes

Happy birthday to the new Minister of Public Security. National Liberation Party deputy Janina del Vecchio turned 62 today, the same day that the lady lawmaker’s appointment to the cabinet is made public. She replaces Fernando Berrocal who resigned Sunday.

Like Berrocal, de Vecchio has no prior experience with law enforcement, but President Oscar Arias said she has the qualities of leadership needed in the post. Unlike cabinet appointments in the United States, ministers do not have to be vetted by the Legislative Branch. Vice President Laura Chinchilla, who does have ample police experience, will continue as temporary security minister until de Vecchio takes over April 25.

Berrocal resigned suddenly after a hasty Sunday huddle with Arias and his Minister of the Presidency (a sort of political chief of staff on steroids), Rodrigo Arias. The reason given for stepping down was a March 15 comment in which Berrocal said he expected ties between this country’s “political sectors” and the Colombian FARC guerrillas to be revealed in a captured guerrilla laptop.

But the obviously forced resignation puzzled journalists who felt that such an outcome to Berrocal’s incautious statement an over-reaction. The nation’s largest newspaper, La Nacion, editorially called for the Executive Branch to reveal the real reasons for Berrocal’s fall from grace. One of the plus factors for the appointment of del Vecchio, a former ambassador to Spain, Switzerland and the Vatican, is that she has refrained from comment on the FARC issue.

The appointment balances the Arias cabinet at six male ministers and six females.