Costa Rican political police rocked by high-level corruption scandal

DIS scandal

For years, Costa Rica’s unions and opposition activists have accused the country’s political police, the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS), of illegally spying on lawful political activity. Yet their allegations never made it into the US State Department’s annual human rights reports on Costa Rica. The Department’s latest report claims that the country’s “civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces”. Last November, however, government investigators uncovered an enormous money-laundering cartel operating inside DIS, whose head was no other than the organization’s Deputy Director, Roberto Guillén. Guillén, who was forced to step down on November 25, employed DIS computers to access private information of unsuspecting citizens, and used the data to launder nearly half a million dollars in illegal transfers to himself and others. Following the revelations, Costa Rican police raided the DIS offices in San José and confiscated numerous documents and computer drives. The high-level nature of the scandal has prompted a scheduled visit to Costa Rica by Ronald Noble, General Secretary of INTERPOL. Noble will be meeting this week with a number of Costa Rican government officials, including DIS Director José Torres. Meanwhile, the voices calling for an outright abolition of DIS are increasing. Last week, Costa Rica’s Chief Prosecutor, Francisco Dall’Anesse, contended that the country, which does not have a permanent military, “does not need an espionage body”. [IA]