Q COSTA RICA — Former president and current government spokesperson Rodrigo Chaves added a new name on Wednesday to the long list of political figures he has criticized or accused of wrongdoing after they expressed positions contrary to the government.
This is former president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), one of the former presidents who has joined the defense of the independence of the judiciary despite having faced years of legal proceedings he considers unjust.
Struggling to call the former right-wing president a “communist,” Chaves insinuated on Wednesday, September 9, that Rodríguez was bribed with a multimillion-dollar settlement in the legal cases from which he was acquitted.
“How much are they going to pay Mr. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez after 25 years? Well, now they’ve bought him off. They’re telling him, ‘We’re going to pay you,’ three billion?… three million dollars, not just 1.3 billion pesos(sic), something like that,” Chaves said in one of his usual tirades against the Judiciary and those who defend it during Wednesday’s press conference at Casa Presidencial.
“So now Mr. Miguel Ángel, after having denounced the Judiciary for years, well, he has to go to the protest because now they’re going to give him three million dollars. Or am I imagining perverse things? Mr. Miguel Ángel should be ashamed to stand next to Dall’Anese (Francisco, former Attorney General), who framed him and Rafael Ángel Calderón on the orders of the Arias family,” he said as if it were a fact.
“Money and vested interests bring very diverse people together, even if they’ve hated each other for years,” Chaves concluded, explaining the varied bloc of opposition figures who have united in defense of judicial independence, as seen in the August demonstration in the Plaza de la Democracia.
“The situation is critical, but it has been chronic for decades. (Attorney General) Carlo Díaz is a national disgrace, and (Magistrate) Patricia Solano is his partner,” stated Chaves to emphasize that the Judiciary is corrupt.
Chaves, as Minister of Finance, is promoting a ¢40 billion colones cut and freeze towards the Judiciary in 2027, in what is seen as practically a technical shutdown of the Judiciary.