There are currently three major scandals and a couple of minor ones. Space and time do not permit going into details on them. The Movimiento Libertario has been active in denouncing the illegal and immoral activity.

Here is a brief rundown of the major ones.

A major company bribed the head of the Caja (The state run Social Security, pension, and medical system of Costa Rica). This case has many facets. New revelations appear in the local newspapers almost daily. One point of interest is a loan from the government of Finland which came with a lot of strings. It had to be used to buy a list of specific equipment. Most of which was not necessary or inappropriate for the Costa Rican Hospital system. This equipment is, for the most part, sitting gathering dust and rusting. Otto Guevara, when he was a Diputado, was the only one to oppose this loan. The Diputado who pushed it through became head of the Caja. A very cosy arrangement.

The government of Taiwan gave a grant to be used on a list of specific projects. Instead these funds were diverted by the Foreign Ministry and used to "supplement" salaries of civil servants, including the President's daughter. Of course taxes were not paid on this "supplement". The Movimiento Libertario has filed criminal charges in this case.

We were opposed to the new Controller of the Republic because he was not serious about the fight against corruption and several other reasons. Despite our opposition he was named to the post two weeks ago. It now turns out that as a notary he forged a signature and authenticated it himself. We cannot have a person who blatantly commits illegal acts as the Controller. We have called on him to resign and demanded an investigation. We have called on the former Presidents who supported him to demand an investigation. The Presidents, undoubtedly seeing which way the wind is blowing, just withdrew their support, but have not called for an investigation.

With the country mired in corruption, the President and the traditional political parties still want to raise taxes. The President has forgotten his statement during the 2002 campaign where he said that the current taxes were sufficient, money was just wasted in corruption and that was what had to be addressed. We will continue to remind him and the Costa Rican people.

Source: Libertario.org