The office of prosecutors has absolved President Laura Chinchilla of the charge of violation of ethics surrounding her air transport to Peru May 11 aboard a private jet apparently leased by a Colombian suspected of links with drug cartels.
Head of the judicial section on governmental ethics Gilberth Calderon said no laws covered a president in such circumstances. But the President has been punished by having to accept the resignations of two of her closest advisors — former Communications Minister Francisco Chacon and personal assistant Irene Pacheco, who were with her on the flight.
Also resigning was Mauricio Boraschi who was in charge of the personal security of the President and head of the police intelligence agency DIS. After the ownership of the plane was revealed Boraschi said he would never have let the President board the corporate jet if he had been aware of the ownership.
Flying with the President was her husband as well as the Foreign Trade Minister, Anabel Gonzalez and her husband. The plane had been leased by the THX petroleum company and was lent to the President by Gabriel Morales. The trip had been a private one to attend the wedding of the son of Vice President Luis Liberman.
The trip was given an official veneer by a brief get-together of Chinchilla and Peruvian President Ollanta Humala the day after the wedding. Still stinging from the firestorm of criticism surrounding the trip, the President issued a decree forbidding her Administration’s officials to use private aircraft for official business.
In an interview with La Nacion, Chinchilla grumbled about the blunder of not investigating the aircraft loan and Morales’s background, noting that it was impossible for a chief executive to arrange trips and tend to other duties.(President Says She Paid Peru Trip)
Chacon and Pacheco were both notified by the ethics court of the decisions regarding their cases but did not release to the press other details.
Source: iNews.co.cr
