Saint Joseph. The Costa Rican Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the president, Rodrigo Chaves, and the foreign minister, Arnoldo André, for allegedly “illegal financing of political parties,” according to local media published this Wednesday.
The investigation focuses on “an alleged parallel electoral financing structure of the ruling Social and Democratic Progress Party (PPSD)” during the 2022 electoral campaign that brought Chaves to the Presidency, indicated the newspaper La Nación, citing the Prosecutor’s Office as a source. .
Along with the president and the chancellor, the deputy and president of the PPSD, Luz Mary Alpízar, is also being investigated.
As part of the investigation, this Wednesday the Prosecutor’s Office raided the offices of the Lexincorp law firm in San José, of which the foreign minister is a founding partner.
The Costa Rican Penal Code contemplates prison sentences of two to four years “for anyone who raises funds for a political party without having been authorized by the party’s treasurer.”
This investigation is the third open against Chaves in a month.
On August 1, the Prosecutor’s Office opened a case against the president for allegedly committing “influence peddling.”
The file was opened after a complaint by banker Leonel Baruch, president of the BCT Corporation, and member of the board of directors of CR Hoy, a media outlet critical of Chaves.
Previously, on July 17, the Prosecutor’s Office also began to investigate the president for “abuse of power” for the alleged commission of “influence against the Public Treasury.”
