COSTA RICA NEWS – 8:55AM -The advisor to President Luis Guillermo Solís and the Partido Acción Ciudadana, Iván Barrantes, announced this morning on ADN 90.7 FM radi0, that he is “abandoning ship” and stop working with the government.
Barrantes said he doesn’t any more exposure and knows that he is not liked by legislator and founder of the PAC party, Ottón Solís.
The consultant, who received some ¢111 million colones for his work as political strategist in the PAC presidential campaign (67% was a bonus for the win) that led to the election of President Solís, has been strongly criticized by legislator Solís, who sees a possible conflict of interest.
On Saturday the PAC party national assembly unanimously voted to request the President remove Barrantes.
Barrantes worked pro bono at Casa Presidencial (Presidential House) and simultaneously had private clients for his consulting services,
Barrantes explained on live radio that over the weekend he spoke to President Solís about his decision and he (Solís) “behaved like a gentleman.”
“I prefer to continue with my private activities. It is not my interest to continue to escalate this and that I am a pretext to hurt the government. End of story,” said Barrantes.
The Barrantes announcement comes as a surprise, after his statements over the weekend that he would continue his role as advisor to the President and that the PAC party decision had no bearing on his role in the government.
Although he is leaving Casa Presidencial and any “formal” role in government, Barrantes says he doesn’t think the situation will hinder his friendship with the President.
President Solís is expected to make a public statement later this morning.
Sources: ADN Radio; La Nacion
