(Photo opposite: Rafael Calderon) The big news this past week out of San Jose, Costa Rica was the 5 year sentence that former Costa Rican President Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (1990-94) received for stealing $540,000 dollars from the Costa Rican Social Security system. And Calderon is not the only ex-president that will face charges of corruption: Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002), will also face trial for receiving kickbacks while president; both former presidents are members of the Social Christian Unity Party (Partido de Unidad Socialcristiana). A third former president Jose Maria Fiqueres of the PLN (Partido Liberación Nacional) has also been investigated for corruption, but no charges have been brought against him to date.
Costa Rica is a great country, but its greatness has never been about its presidents; the greatness has been about its democratic politics and progressive intelligent policies in the areas of education, environment, tourism and the arts. Its politics and political class are not that different from other Latin American countries: granted it has never melted down into a total nut house like a lot of other Central American countries. However, there’s a feeling – and you hear it when you talk with Costa Ricans from the lower classes – that the stable democracy of the past has been slipping over the last 15 years.
Costa Rican democracy, which historically has been the strongest democracy in all of Latin America, was tarnished in the 1990s and early 2000s because of a series of very bad presidents. The first of these very bad presidents was Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (1990-94) and the last was Abel Pacheco (2002-2006); in between you had Jose Maria Fiqueres (1994-98) and Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002). The damage all four presidents inflicted to Costa Rican democracy was due to the high levels of corruption and incompetence during their administrations. Public disgust and then deep indifference to politics has led to lower voter turnout in Costa Rica and a general feeling that the country’s political class has not lived up to its sterling international image. In the 2006 election, for the first time in a post 1948 election a third, new, political party emerged and almost won the presidency – a sure sign that voters were sick of the traditional two parties that have dominated Costa Rican elections.
The public’s distrust began to grow in the 1990s, a time when most Central American countries began the process of globalizing their economies through deregulation and opening up domestic markets to outside products. As a result of increased links to the outside world a lot of hot foreign money poured into Costa Rica and this led to greater corruption and bad politics. The conviction of Calderon this week is a first step in wringing out the corruption that has seeped into Costa Rica’s political class. The Costa Rican judiciary sent a strong anti-corruption message to the executive branch of government by convicting Calderon who planned to run for the presidency next year. The conviction of Calderon will also send a signal beyond Costa Rica to neighboring countries where a number of former presidents (Nicaragua and Panama) may be indicted on corruption charges – look for a domino effect as governments get tough on political corruption as both a way to create greater political stability and attract outside investment.
Panama’s economy seems to be standing up well to the global recession. Most forecaster’s are predicting a 2 to 3 percent growth rate for Panama this year. There is still a lot of outside investment pouring into Panama. To really make Panama an attractive country to outside investment the government will need to invest in a new transportation system for the capital and better education.
An American ethanol company named Ethnergy International Inc. is interested in building an ethanol plant in Panama. The plan for the proposed plant was delivered to vice-minister of Foreign Trade, Jose Domingo Arias.
Panama is interested in signing a Free Trade Agreement with Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. Panama would like trade access to the European market.
Panama is again exporting beef to Mexico: on September 17th licenses to export beef to Mexico were reactivated for a period of two years. Panama’s beef exports to Mexico fell dramatically in the first half of 2009; the hope is that with reactivation of the export licenses Panamanian beef exports will pick up.
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