Of the seven members that make up the Board of the Bank of Costa Rica, there are four that investigate the case of the credit granted to Chinese cement importer Juan Carlos Bolaños.
Francisco Molina, Alberto Raven, Mónica Segnini and Evita Arguedas were the ones who denounced within the Board an alleged plan of Bolaños not to pay the credit and sue the BCR. They did this after hearing an audio of a conversation between Guillermo Quesada, deputy manager of the bank and -presumably- Bolaños Rojas.
Today, Ronald Solís, who was close to President Luis Guillermo Solís, and Gustavo Arias, also from the president’s wing, resigned from the board.
Also at the BCR is Paola Mora , the board member, who has defended the loan for Chinese cement and who is also very close to the suspended manager of the BCR, Mario Barrenechea, so much so that he lent her money to buy her car.
With this change, the Solís Government will now be able to appoint two people more closely related to their interests, and thereby ensure a complete division on the Board.
Last Tuesday, President Solís had asked the seven members of the Board to resign. On that day, they all rejected the request because they believed the results of the investigation should be awaited to determine if there are people responsible for the credit granted -apparently- amid irregularities. In spite of this, the two weaker figures closer to Solís yielded to the pressure of the Presidential House.
A source close to Casa Presidencial told the press that one of the people the President wants to appoint in the BCR is Victor Ramírez, who was on the National Bank Board and is also a very close friend of Mario Barrenechea.