Costa Rica’s deputy minister of Security, Celso Gamboa, says the international police organization, Interpol, has added Nicaragua’s Eden Pastora on the fugitive list.
Pastora or “Commander Zero” as he is referred to in his country, is wanted suspect on charges of violating international laws in the dredging operation of the San Juan river between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, in the area of conflict between the countries.
According to Costa Rica, the 76-year-old Pastora made illicit use of public property during the 2010 dredging project in which he meant to recover water lost after Costa Rica rerouted the river in the 1940s.
For his part, Pastora is accusing Costa Rica of paying a bribe, saying he can’t understand how “being an organization for catching big criminals” it gets involved in the spat between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Click here for Interpol wanted poster.
Speaking on Costa Rica’s ADN90.7 FM radio, “…unless they (Interol) took a bribe” to chase him.
During the live radio talk show, Pastora said Presidentia Chinchilla prized Gamboa to the Security Ministry after his work in Chasing him while a prosecutor in Pococi de Limon.
Pastora said he seriously thinking of coming to Costa Rica to file charges against Interpol, but he first has to get permission from his boss, President Daniel Ortega.
Pastora is a former guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change (AC) party in the 2006 general elections in Nicaragua.
In the years prior to the fall of the Somoza regime, Pastora was the leader of the Southern Front, the largest militia in southern Nicaragua, second only to the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) in the north.
