Police Raid Santa Cruz, Detain Mayor Chavarría

By Ralph Nicholson

Accusations of Kick-Backs, Misuse of Funds

The Mayor of the Municipality of Santa Cruz, in Guanacaste, Jorge Chavarría, was detained by police this week on suspicion he has taken kick-backs and misused public funds.

Officers of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Fuerza Pública and the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), the country’s investigative police, raided Mayor Chavarría’s house early Tuesday, as he sat eating breakfast with his 84-year-old mother.

Mr Chavarría, in charge of the country’s ninth biggest municipal budget, was led away by police and held for most of the day.

The Mayor’s house was searched, at the same time as police raided the Municipality’s offices in downtown Santa Cruz, as well as the office of attorney, Rodrigo Sandoval Villalobos. Mr Sandoval is an external legal consultant to the Municipality.

Municipal employees, as well as elected councilors, were forced to sit outside in a public park, as police cordoned off the municipal building with yellow tape.

In a bizarre performance, former municipal councilor, Carlos Zapata, circled the block around the municipality in a red pick up truck, shouting into a megaphone.

“Thank God and the judicial power for intervening,” he shouted, “thank God we can finally put brakes on the corruption.”

At about midday, officers of the Prosecutor General’s Officer could be seen leaving the building with large cartons of files, sealed in plastic.

A spokesperson for the Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed on Wednesday the investigation stemmed from 14 anonymous complaints made by people both within and outside the municipality.

The charges are against Mayor Chavarría, the Municipal Council of Santa Cruz, and two other municipal employees.

The complaints include receiving kickbacks, administrative resolutions that violate existing legislation, and the mishandling public funds.

“It was completely unexpected,” Mayor Chavarría, who has held his post since December of 2006, told The Beach Times by telephone this week.

“I had no idea,” the Mayor said.

© Zoraida Diaz

EVIDENCE: Officers from the Prosecutor General’s Office take files from the Municipality of Santa Cruz on Tuesday.

“They searched everything and found nothing,” he said adding that once they had thoroughly searched his home, he was taken to the tribunal in Santa Cruz, questioned and asked to wait while officers made related raids in the town.

The complaints being investigated are understood to stem from the purchase earlier this year of two garbage trucks, the awarding of a contract to build a temporary garbage facility at the disused garbage dump known as El Cacao, as well as the approval of licenses to itinerant vendors at Playa Conchal.

There are also suggestions there may have been irregularities in the adjudication of the Flamingo marina concession.

To date, Mr Chavarría has not been charged.

However, the Prosecutor General’s Office wants to strip the mayor of his job for a year, while the investigation is carried out. Mr Chavarría would not be able to leave the country, nor go near the municipality and would have to sign in with the Prosecutor General every 15 days.

Late Thursday night, Wilberth Villavicencio, the mayor’s legal defense, was still waiting for a San José judge’s to rule on the Prosecutor General’s request.

“The Prosecutor’s request is a very serious one and has great repercussions upon the mayor,” said Mr Villavicencio. “Imagine being stripped of your job, never mind the demoralizing aspect of this act.

“The contract for the purchase of the two trucks; the awarding of the contract to build the temporary garbage trench and the awarding of sale patents (licenses) for the maritime zone are all decisions made by the council,” Mr Villavicencio said.

“The mayor was merely the executor of the council’s designs.”

Mr Villavicencio said the awarding of the contract to build the garbage trench had already been appealed by a losing bidder before the Administrative Tribunal.

Municipal employees who spoke on condition of anonymity said a number of councilors had traveled to Colombia to attend a presentation by the firm that won the contract to build the garbage cell. The Beach Times could not confirm which councilors had traveled abroad or where the funds to do so had come from.

Councilor Cristina Chavarría (no relation to the mayor), who was waiting with the other employees in the park on Tuesday was somber when asked if she knew the council had also been named in the Prosecutor General’s accusations.

“No, I don’t know anything,” she said. “We haven’t been notified.”

© Zoraida Diaz

SAINT NICK: Barry and Suzye Lawson. Bringing a little Christmas cheer to the kids around Tamarindo, a jolly annual ritual of giving back.

But Mr Villavicencio is clear.

“If what is being questioned are issues that derive from municipal accords, voted on by the councilors, then it is they who must answer,” he said.

“The mayor does not have a vote, only veto power,” said the lawyer, “and yet, they didn’t arrest any of them.”

Rodrigo Sandoval, whose office was also raided, said the search was specifically aimed at finding documents relating to issues where he had given advice to the municipality.

“They took away the municipality-related documents that they found in my computer and my archives,” he said.

Mr Sandoval confirmed that part of the investigation was related to licenses that had been given to craftsmen selling their wares on Playa Conchal.

“The council gave out those patents, based on guidelines for traveling and stationary street vendors that they had approved in May,” Mr Sandoval said. “When this was approved I was not working with the municipality. I started with the municipality as a freelance legal counsel in August.”

The Prosecutor General has indicated more people may be implicated in the accusations.
“Although the charges against the council are part of the dossier, this is still a process under investigation,” said a source within the Prosecutor’s office. “As the days go by, it could happen that other people are taken in. Since it is a complex investigation, it is seen part by part.

For his part, Mayor Chavarría has vowed to fight the accusations.

“What I don’t understand is why, instead of going after the councilors, one by one, they came to me,” he said after his ordeal. “I limited myself to executing some of the council’s agreements.
“I’m going to stand up and face this,” he said.

“One works so hard to build a good image, and it’s sullied from one moment to the next.”