Recently, CRHoy.com announced that Vice President and Chancellor Epsy Campbell broke the law to favor the appointment of two officials in the foreign policy direction of the Foreign Ministry, who do not meet the requirements for the positions and that this promotion will imply a salary increase.
This has earned her severe criticism from the opposition. But Campbell also holds the positions of directors and alternate directors of Protocol and Foreign Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who were also appointed outside the law by the government of Luis Guillermo Solís under the leadership of former Foreign Minister Manuel González.
Chancellor Campbell keeps Gina Guillén, current director of Protocol and Cyrus Alpízar, deputy director of this directorate. She also keeps Lina Ajoy, director of the Foreign Service and Sergio Vinocour, current deputy director of that department. None of them meet the basic requirement to perform the duties of these positions, which is having the rank of ambassador within the diplomatic career. This is established by law 3530, Statute of the Foreign Service of the Republic.
Despite this, Campbell made these appointments and keeps these people in those offices, even when the Chancellery has a high number of career ambassadors that are not being used and that, according to internal sources in that ministry, perform administrative functions unrelated to their training.
This type of appointment includes the well-known “political appointments,” and Campbell has defended them at all costs, despite the opposition’s questions.