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 friend of new Security Minister Janina del Vecchio reaching back to the years when del Vecchio served as ambassador to Switzerland.

But that appears to be all that the two old friends now agree on. Moscarelli says that del Vecchio knew of her work for the Mafia lord, del Vecchio stoutly denies it. But once they were close enough for del Vecchio to write a letter of recommenation to then-Tourism Minister Carlos Roesch in 1998, lauding Moscarelli as an honest person who should be granted permits to build hotels.

Salamone, a Palermo, Sicily, resident, was convicted in Italy of bribing public officials to let large government contracts to Mafia families. Moscarelli admits that she worked for Salamone and former Italian Christian Democrat parliamentarian Salvadore Sciangula as financial counselor and in business administration capacities but says she “knew them not as Cosa Nostra people but as persons.” Sciangula was being investigated for corruption but died in 1995 before charges were brought. Corruption is so rampant in Sicily that the island is known as “Briberyland” (Tangentopoli) in Italian.

Antimafia prosecutors in Lugano, Switzerland, sent a letter to the Costa Rican courts in 2005 requesting that officials question Moscarelli on her connections to Salamone and Sciangulo. After she left the embassy, del Vecchio worked for a time for Moscarelli and even stayed briefly in her home in Costa Rica when del Vecchio returned from Switzerland. But del Vecchio maintains she knew nothing about Mpscarelli’s association with the Mafia figures.

When a La Nación reporter repeatedly probed Moscarelli’s insistance that del Vecchio knew of the tie with the Sicilian mob, the Minister replied, “No, no, that’s probably the things she, in her desperate situation, wants to put out now. I don’t have the faintest idea what she’s talking about.”

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 to reveal the source.

Costa Rica has been the target of human rights orgnizations due to its antiquated (model 1902) press law which, among other dangerous assaults on freedom of speech, allows incarceration of journalists and contains a draconian article that makes it illegal to “impune the honor” of a public figure. Thus the court edged closer to the guarantees of most other Western nation. Indeed, not even the United States has the protection of sources in its jurisprudence.

A reformed press law has been languishing in the Legislative Assembly since the last administration and, like many needed bills, has all but been forgotten. But this week’s decision makes even the reporter’s notes inviolate. The 6-1 decision came in response to a writ of habeas data filed by lawyers for ex-President Miguel Angel Rodríguez who wanted to examine documents used by the daily La Nación to develop its exposé of the ICE-Alcatel scandal. Rodríguez faces corruption charges in that case.

by Rod Hughes

Not with a bang but with a whimper did Saprissa lose the final game of the CONCACAF regional soccer tourney final, 2-1. So it will be Pachuca of Mexico that goes to the World Tourney of Clubs and wins a cool million dollars in prize money. And Saprissa head coach Jeaustin Campos must probe further into why his club, coming off a winning streak of nine matches, has fallen into a nose dive and has not won in the last five encounters.

Saprissa did show brief flashes of its fast, aggressive attack but the rest of the time, they played like a second-class side hoping for a scoreless tie and the game-of-chance possibilities of a penalty shootout. Pachuca, playing on its own home pitch, by contrast scored after only three minutes of play when striker Christian Giménez got one pass a surprised Saprissa goalie Keylor Navaqs on a pass from Gabriel Rey. The Rey added insurance early in the second stanza when he took a pass from Julio Manzur.

Saprissa’s brilliance sparkled in the final 10 minutes of the first half but strikes by Gabriela Badilla and Ronald Gómez found only the capable hands of Pachuca goalie Miguel Calero. At minute 86, Jairo Arrieta registered the only success Saprissa had before the goal. The sclub from Tibás mostly demonstrated, not the explosive attack of yore, but a palid, predictable approach.

This is not the first time the big purple S has suffered a meltdown at the last minute. I remember years ago during a so-called classic, when Saprissa started the second half leading 3-0 over Alajuela. The defense suffered a collapse and Alajuela won 4-3. But a million bucks weren’t riding on that match…