QCOSTARICA – As promised, on Monday, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada officially resigned his pension as former president, through a letter sent to the National Director of Pensions of the Ministry of Labor, Priscilla Gutiérrez.
At the beginning of 2020, the president expressed his intention to renounce the presidential pension during a television interview with Telenoticias, however, with this letter the procedure becomes effective.
Since the pension is a labor right established by law, it is not legally possible to totally renounce this benefit, so from this announcement the Ministry of Labor must take the necessary measures to comply with Alvarado’s request.
The President can also donate the money if he wishes.
“As I have stated throughout my tenure as President, I maintain a high commitment to public finances; therefore, at the end of my term as Head of State, I will not take advantage of the pension that my condition as former President of the Republic will generate,” stated the president in his letter.
Currently, a total of ten people receive a former president’s pension, of which seven served in the position: Óscar Arias Sánchez (two terms), Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, José María Figueres Olsen, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría, Abel Pacheco de la Espriella, Laura Chinchilla Miranda and Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera.
The other three people are two former first ladies and the daughter of a former president: Karen Olsen Beck, the widow of José Maria Figueres Ferrer and mother of fomer president and 2022 presidential candidate, Jose Maria Figueres Olsen; Marita Camacho Quirós, widow of Francisco Orlich Bolmarcich and María Ulate Rojas, daughter of Otilio Ulate Blanco.
Under the Ley de Pensiones para Expresidentes (Ex-Presidents Pensions Law), all living ex-presidents receive a pension, as well as personal security, usually police, and a secretary whose salary is paid by the state. Retired presidents receive a pension based on the monthly salary of the Legislative Assembly deputies, which was ¢4,000,714 in 2020, including representation expenses, and which will pass to their widow in the event of death.
When Alvarado ends his term, on May 9, 2022, he will be 42 years old.
