On Tuesday, the government fired the executive president of the National Radio and Television System (SINART), Mario Alfaro. The decision was made by the Executive Branch after a report presented to the Governing Council, which had been investigating since May 3rd an alleged influence peddling by Alfaro.
The decision was announced by President Carlos Alvarado after the session of the Governing Council. The president added that the government raised the case to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and to the Attorney General’s Office.
In the Judicial Branch, the alleged influence peddling will continue its course of investigation, while in the Attorney General’s Office it will be requested that it be determined whether or not the severance payment is applicable.
The investigation against Alfaro was opened after it was revealed that former President Luis Guillermo Solís ordered to open an administrative proceeding against him for apparently having requested a meeting in May 2017 from the National Cooperative Development Institute (Infocoop) to manage a ¢500 million fund for the Cooperativa Autogestionaria de Servicios Múltiples y Asesorías RL (Coopeasesorías), which has some of his cousins as members.
Apparently, the objective of the financing request was for the cooperative to provide factoring services to the SINART advertising agency, through which it will pay in advance to the agency the invoices of customers who have not paid.
However, Alfaro said that it is absolutely false that he has requested the approval of the credit for said cooperative. He also alleged that someone wanted his position at the SINART.
In that hearing Alfaro and the Minister of Culture, Sylvie Durán, who was also present at the hearing, had a strong confrontation. Alfaro assured that she blames him for the dismissal of the former director of that institution, Pablo Cárdenas, who was recently dismissed as director of Communication of the Presidency in this new administration.
Cárdenas was dismissed from the SINART on April 5th, 2018 after being in in the middle of a controversial situation with the current legislator of the Citizen Action Party (PAC) Enrique Sánchez. Before being elected as a legislator, Sanchez worked in SINART, so in the month of February he had a special permit to devote himself to politics.
However, on February 12th, Sánchez had to return to his job and did not do so. The current congressman held the position of advisor to the General Directorate and his immediate boss, Pablo Cárdenas, was in charge of communicating, verbally, the dismissal to Sànchez, since he did not see fit to rejoin the position once he was elected as legislator. But it was not until February 22nd when the Executive Council of the SINART realized what had happened.
The right thing was for the now elected legislator to resign from SINART. On February 23rd, the department of Human Resources of the entity received the letter of resignation from Sánchez dated February 22nd, where it indicates that his resignation was retroactive as of February 12th.
The Governing Council decided to dismiss Alfaro on Tuesday after he revealed several situations that compromise the past government.
Alfaro denounced that the former Minister of the Presidency, Sergio Alfaro, and Comunications Minister Mauricio Herrera, as well as Durán, pressed for the Sinart not to investigate Cárdenas for the departure of Enrique Sánchez from that institution.
According to Alfaro, in Presidencia they thought that this report could affect the image of the party prior to the second round of elections, so they issued direct instructions to postpone it until after April 1st.
The next day, on April 6th, I received a message from the Minister of Communication, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, via WhatsApp and I will quote: ‘Over here there is a lot of annoyance with the dismissal of Cárdenas,'”
said Alfaro, giving a photograph of said message.