"The evidence seems damning enough: Rodriguez's close friend and former housing minister, Jose Antonio Lobo, now under house arrest while cooperating with authorities, told prosecutors last week that then-president Rodriguez demanded a cut of the lucrative deal. Rodriguez claims the money was not a bribe but a personal loan, a loan that ended up in a Washington bank account held by his wife. There is no paper trail, according to Rodriguez, because it was a deal done con el pelo del bigote -- from the hair of his moustache -- a Costa Rican idiom for word of honor. "
Check the story by Marcela Sanchez of the Washington Post (registration required). Lets hope this is all a coverup of the guy in prison and Miguel Angel is innocent. I don't know him personally, but I have spoken with him a couple of times over the phone to invite him to conferences and he has always struck me as a very accesible and humble person. I have known from other people that he is a very honest and principled man. His resignation could only mean that he is a very principled man that gave out his post to defend his dignity.
Nunca pongas tus manos al fuego por ningun politico.
ReplyDeleteNo las pongo, pero creo que el hecho de que renuncie dice mucho. ¿Por que exponerse a perder la inmunidad si no es inocente? Nadie de las naciones Unidas ha renunciado por el problema de Oil for food con Saddam Hussein y Claudia Rosset del WSJ http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rosett200404182336.asp ha documentado como dicho programa se convirtió en una fuente de corrupción grandísima, en Irak y en la ONU. Comparemos estas dos actitudes y luego veamos que sucede con ambos casos.
ReplyDeleteAs a non-Costa Rican you may not know the history of Miguel Angel Rodríguez (MAR), and that may explain your admiration for him. However, he did not resign because he's a "principled man". He did it because the Costa Rican government was ready to ask the rest of the governments in the Americas for his resignation. The evidence that has been uncovered so far is very damaging. It would be good if none of the charges were true. It would give Costa Ricans trust in the two political parties that have dominated our political life during the last 50 years. Nonetheless, MAR's explanations so far lack credibility. He says his "associate", José Antonio Lobo, lent him $140,000 for his OAS nomination without any contracts or anything. Lobo produced yesterday bank documents that show that MAR received over $700,000 from him. The jury is out and I am willing to bet that MAR may be staying in jail, as he currently is, for a while.
ReplyDeleteAside from his guilt or non-guilt, it's sure nice to see a politician being held accountable for his actions. Now, if that could only happen in other Latin American countries...