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Leaked Memo Starts Costa Rica Scandal

Second Vice-President Kevin Casas temporarily stepped down this week from his post as Planning Minister following a scandal that erupted over the government's campaign for the controversial U.S. trade pact. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal is investigating whether or not Ministry funds were used to back the YES campaign for the October 7th referendum on the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

In a July 29 memo to President Oscar Arias and his brother, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias, Casas and National Liberation Party (PLN) legislator Fernando Sánchez suggested a series of questionable and potentially illegal tactics to promote the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

The memo proposed that the state withhold funds from mayors whose cantons did not approve CAFTA and “stimulate fear” among voters about the alleged risks of not passing the treaty. They also suggested that the government try to fool the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) to get around restrictions on using public resources in campaigns.

“We have to make (mayors) responsible for the campaign in each canton and strongly let them know, a very simple idea: The mayor who does not win his canton (for CAFTA) will not receive a cent from the government in the next three years,” reads the memo.

The memo was leaked to the University of Costa Rica's (UCR's) weekly newspaper, Semanario Universidad, which broke the story late last week.

Tribunal head Luis Antonio Sobrado said the memo calls for an “improper use of public funds” and asked the Internal Auditing Office at the Planning Ministry to investigate whether the recommendations were put into practice.

Rodrigo Arias said he and the President do not agree with the memo's recommendations and did not implement any of them. He defended the two men and thanked Casas for deciding “to leave the Ministry so that the investigation could be realized in the broadest, clearest and surest form.”

Vice-Minister of Planning Hannia Vega Barrantes will take over as interim Minister during the investigation. Casas has also stepped down from the state's CAFTA campaign, but at press time he was still Vice-President, despite calls for his resignation from outraged legislators.

Sobrado added that the memo's suggestions are “unacceptable” and violate the Tribunal's imperatives against misinformation, smear campaigns and misuse of state money in the campaign leading up to Costa Rica's first referendum. And despite Casas' initial claim that the memo is “private correspondence,” Sobrado ruled that it is a public document subject to investigation.

In an opinion piece published in the daily La Nacion Monday, Casas and Sánchez said the memo was written in anger after a heated debate July 27 in Heredia, north of San José, with anti-CAFTA spokesman Eugenio Trejos.

They offered “the sincerest apologies to anyone who felt offended.” They added that their right to privacy has been violated by the person, whom illegally stole the memo from a computer.

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