Costa Rica’s Security Minister Steps Down
Written by thom
Fernando Berrocal - Ex-Minister of Security
The Public Security Minister, Fernando Berrocal, resigned from his government post this weekend following his public allegations claiming that fellow political colleagues had ties with Columbian rebel group Fuerzas Armandas Revolucionarias de Columbia (FARC).
Berrocal was due to appear in front of the rest of the Legislative Assembly today to explain his outbursts from a couple of weeks ago that had disgruntled many of his colleagues as to why he accused Costa Rican politicians to have ties with FARC.
Berrocal appeared from Casa Presedencial yesterday, not long after noon, where he released a statement claiming that he had not resigned but yet had not been sacked either. He claimed that his departure from his Public Security position was more of a consensus between himself and President Arias that the situation should not be politicized after careful analysis and the only where for it not to be politicized was for him not turn out in front of the Legislative Assembly. The only possible way he could not turn out in front of the Legislative Assembly would be to resign, so he did.
Berrocal’s actual comments in question came after a raid in Columbia earlier this month where the Columbian Army managed to obtain a personal computer belonging to that of that Raul Reyes, a highly ranked FARC member.
Information held on the computer pointed towards Costa Rica where searches were continued and carried out. Most notably was that of a raid on a Professor of Economics house in Heredia (north of San Jose) where $480,000 was recovered in a safe believed to belong to FARC.
Berrocal claimed there were officials’ names on the computer at the time of the raid however later claimed that there was no official lost containing all the politicians and refused to name the names of those mentioned on documents that were found on the computer. This lead to the Legislative Assembly calling Fernando Berrocal to the stand today where he was asked to explain himself.
The Public Security Ministry had been very successful under Berrocal and the government will miss a man that has done a lot for Costa Rica. Costa Rica has typically been known as a “half-way point” for Columbian drug smugglers of cocaine and marijuana and during Berrocal’s time as public security minister he had managed to confiscate over 65 tons of cocaine, $14 million in drug money as well as making hundreds of arrests and deportations in conjunction with United States officials.
(picture courtesy of La Nacion www.nacion.com)
This post's rating:
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Loading ...Related Stories
Filed under: Costa Rica News on March 31st, 2008
[…] In the last few weeks, Chinchilla took on the responsibilities of Minister of Security after the Minister stepped down during the most critical days of investigation regarding FARC’s presence in Costa Rica. In […]