Miguel Ángel Rodríguez

Rodriguez is widely considered a believer in free enterprise and a pro-market politician, who favors market reforms and the opening of the economy to foreign investment.

He is also considered a social conservative. In 1998 Rodriguez incensed people in the gay community, by opposing a gay/lesbian festival in a beach resort in Quepos, in the central Pacific region of Costa Rica. Rodriguez, at the time the president of Costa Rica, was quoted in the press as saying "It is important that the appropriate authorities not grant any permits for any type of public activities associated with the gay/lesbian festival". His position was echoed by Mons. Roman Arrieta, Archbishop of San Jose, and Father Minor de Jesús Calvo, a conservative priest that had at the time a program in TV. Francisco Madrigal, the director of Triangulo Rosa, a gay/lesbian organization filed a complaint in the Costa Rican Supreme Court's complaints division against Msgr. Román Arrieta Villalobos, the Archbishop of San José, and Father Minor de Jesús Calvo. Triángulo Rosa also registered a complaint with the Defensoría de los Habitantes, the government's ombudsmen organization, against the President of Costa Rica, Dr. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Gay organization fights discrimination.

In 1997, while Rodríguez was a candidate for the Presidency of Costa Rica, he met Carlos Hank González, a Mexican politician and rich businessman. He reportedly accepted campaign contributions from Hank, which is forbidden by Costa Rican law. The international media made allegations of these illegal payments. Most of the articles hinted that Hank had ties with organized crime.[5] Rodríguez denied any wrongdoing. He did not face charges.

News reports claimed that Rodríguez had also received $1.4 million from the government of Taiwan. This amount was deposited in Panama in an account controlled by the firm Inversiones Denisse S.A., a consulting firm that allegedly belonged to Rodríguez. His lawyers claim that Rodríguez was no longer the owner of Inversiones Denisse when the payments took place.[6] The motivation for the Taiwanese government payments is unknown. Taiwanese officials, however, have recognized that their cooperation with allies led to corruption in some cases. President Ma Ying-jeou promised to end what he called "the diplomacy of the cheque book."[7] In 2007 Oscar Arias recognizing China's economic growth ended Costa Rica recognition of Taiwan Costa-Rica switches allegiance to china.

On 22 October 2010, the British media reported that Julian Messent, a former executive in the reinsurance firm PWS (owned by Lord Pearson), had pleaded guilty in Southwark Crown Court to paying £ 1.2 million in bribes to three Costa Rican officials, in exchange for a contract with the state insurance monopoly, the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS). The money was disbursed in 41 payments, over the period from 1999 to 2002.[8] Messent was sentenced to serve 21 months in jail. According to the sentence, Mr. Messent should pay a fine of US$160,000 to the Costa Rican state. https://web.archive.org/web/20101029212335/http://www.nacion.com/2010-10-26/ElPais/UltimaHora/ElPais2568554.aspx The Costa Rican media suggested that the unnamed officials might be Rodríguez, former INS director Cristóbal Zawadski, and former director of the INS's reinsurance department Álvaro Acuña Prado.[9]

Rodríguez, Zawadski, Prado, and several others were already under investigation in Costa Rica after it had been revealed that PWS had transferred at least $200,000 to Inversiones Denisse, a Panamanian firm owned by Rodríguez. PWS allegelly inflated the policies of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) in order to create a discretionary fund of $1.6 million. The director of ICE at the moment that this operation took place was Rafael Sequeira, father-in-law of Rodríguez's son. The other reinsurer that made payments to the company of Rodríguez was the firm Guy Carpenter Reinmex, based in Mexico.[10]

On 30 July 2013, The Prosecutor's Office requested the opening of a judicial investigation of alleged embezzlement charges against Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, according to the weekly newspaper The Tico Times. The investigation also includes the president of the National Insurance Institute (INS) Cristóbal Zawadzki Wojtasiak and Álvaro Acuña Prado, a department manager at INS. Reportedly, Rodriguez dismissed the charges in a press release, stating that these charges are a gross persecution against him, and that he will fight the allegations in courts. He also mentioned that the Prosecutor Office had already decided to dismissed the charges in 2005.

Rodríguez was tried in Costa Rica for allegedly receiving more than US$800,000 in payments from Alcatel, a French telecommunications company, in exchange for helping the company receive a government contract to provide 400,000 cell phone lines. In 2007, Christian Sapsizian, a former adjunct to the vice president of Alcatel for Latin America, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of Miami to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by conspiring with Edgar Valverde (the president of Alcatel in Costa Rica) to bribe an "official" of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) and a "senior government official" of Costa Rica. Mr. Sapsizian was sentenced to 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and forfeiture of $261,500.[11]

The prosecution in Costa Rica alleges that the "senior government official" was President Rodríguez, and that the ICE official was José Antonio Lobo, who has agreed to testify against Rodríguez in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Valverde, Rodríguez, and seven other people were tried in Costa Rica for their alleged involvement in the kickback scheme. After long delays, the trial began on April 2010. The trial took many months, because 110 witnesses appeared before the judges.[12] On 28 April 2011, Rodríguez Echeverría was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his participation in the kickback scheme. Moreover, he will not be able to serve in public office during 12 years. Miguel Angel Rodríguez sentenced to five years in prison-Spanish. The other defendants were also found guilty and received sentences ranging from two to 15 years of prison Three defendants will go directly to prison.

In 2010 Alcatel-Lucent agreed to pay a fine of US$137.4 million to avoid US prosecution for alleged bribes paid in several countries, including Kenya, Taiwan and Costa Rica.[13] In a separate deal with Costa Rican government, Alcatel-Lucent also agreed to pay a fine of US$10 million. The agreement with the Procuraduría General de la República, the legal representative of the Costa Rican state, is intended to compensate for the social damage brought about by the kickback scheme. Originally, the Procuraduria had demand a compensation of US$60 million. Reportedly, the Procuraduría will also pursue compensation from other people currently on trial. The compensation sought amounts to US$52 million.[14]

In July 2015 it was reported in the international media that Alcatel-Lucent (name of the company after a merger with Lucent Technologies) had agreed to make an additional payment of US$10 million to the Costa Rican government. According to these reports, discussions on the settlement have been dragging on for years. However, on 8 June 2015 Alcatel agreed with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) to pay to the latter US$10 million to settle the question. It has also been reported that Alcatel-Lucent has budgeted US$52 million to pay for civil action concerning legal prosecution of its former managers in the country. Alcatel Luct pays 10 million to Costa Rica's ICE over old bribery scandal

External links

• OAS website: Brief biography
• Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)
• Miguel Angel Rodríguez Echeverría (1 January 1993). Una revolución moral: democracia, mercado y bien común. Editorial Costa Rica. ISBN 978-9977-23-584-4.