by Santiago Mosquera
During 2001 and 2002, the board of directors of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) declared a telecommunications company as the winner of multimillion-peso contracts for the installation of new mobile phone lines and the expansion/improvement of the fixed phone network in the whole country. They appeared as two normal business transactions between a foreign company and a developing country's government in order to provide basic infrastructure. As in other Latin American countries, though, juicy contracts also generate an opportunity for illicit enrichment for those making decisions in the recipient country—usually top government officials and sometimes even the country's president. This is what happened in Costa Rica, a country that the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index of 2004 ranked 41 among 146 countries, the third-highest ranking among Latin American countries, after Chile (20) and Uruguay (28). (The score quantifies perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts; a higher rank means a perception of greater corruption.)
This case involves Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Costa Rican president during 1998–2002, and a tangled network of collaborators. Jose Antonio Lobo, whom Rodriguez appointed as director of the ICE, apparently received more than $2 million from a local legal firm hired by the multinational telecom, which he then shared with the president. Other top ICE officials and various politicians also received bribes, totaling an estimated $9.6 million.
Rodriguez, who was sworn in September 15 as secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), replaced the former president of Colombia, César Gaviria, who had served as OAS head for the past ten years. As a result of the bribery investigations, though, Rodriguez served the shortest tenure in the history of the institution. He was unanimously elected during the organization’s 34th General Assembly, held in Quito, Ecuador. But after only two weeks in office, current Costa Rican president Abel Pacheco requested his resignation, after allegations of Rodriguez's involvement in this corruption scandal surfaced, particularly to protect Costa Rica's reputation in the international arena.
Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the only instance of corruption within the ICE. Then-president Rodriguez also apparently received monetary compensation from a Spanish company that won a contract to develop the underground electricity grid in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital. While this investigation takes place, another project to build the country's biggest electric utility won by a subsidiary of this same Spanish company has been stopped. But scandals involving the former president do not end there. Rodriguez is also accused of pocketing $400,000 in "donations" from the Taiwanese government, although during questioning he insisted that this was a "personal loan."
Since these scandals have come to light over the past month, many others have been uncovered. Indeed, several current and former government officials have made public admissions of their sins, returned the money they received, and turned themselves over to authorities. The Costa Rican government has vowed to continue with the corruption investigations and punish every single official involved. Even if that pledge is true, the image of Costa Rica as a model for other Latin American countries to follow has been destroyed. Moreover, Costa Rica has now added one of its own to the list of Latin American presidents tarred by corruption scandals, including Abdala Bucaram of Ecuador, Carlos Menem of Argentina, and Alberto Fujimori of Peru.
