After eight months of being subjected to constant wear and tear by illegal appointments and accusations of political patronage at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-which led to the resignation of Epsy Campbell on December 11th-, the government finally presented a new chancellor.
After the session of the Government Council on Tuesday, President Carlos Alvarado presented Manuel Ventura Robles, a 70-year-old lawyer and former judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH). Ventura is the new head of national diplomacy.
Besides being a judge of the IACHR, in this court he was secretary, interim secretary, assistant secretary and vice president. He has also been Minister Counselor in Legal Affairs of the Embassy of Costa Rica in Washington, United States.
The new chancellor is credited with achieving budgetary and administrative autonomy for the Inter-American Court, as well as the building of its current headquarters in Costa Rica.
Ventura received the 2015 Rodolfo Piza Escalante Award from the Costa Rican Bar Association and the 2014 Human Rights Prize from the Brazilian Institute of Human Rights.
More recently, the Costa Rican served on the panel of international human rights experts of the Organization of American States, which drafted and published a report on crimes against humanity committed by the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela.