Costa Rica’s presidential seat was searched during the raid

Corruption investigators carried out 57 raids on Monday on suspicion of embezzlement and forgery of public works contracts. 72 people were arrested, including several civil servants.

Corruption investigators in Costa Rica have also searched the official residence of the president during dozens of raids. The OIJ said every fourth of the 57 simultaneous deployments occurred Monday morning (local time) in public institutions, with the rest in private homes and businesses. Accordingly, suspected bribery, embezzlement and fraud in contracts for public works and maintenance of the road network were investigated.

She said these measures would have shredded an estimated 78 billion colones (about 102 million euros) in the state budget from 2018 to 2020. It is one of the most significant cases of public corruption in the Central American country. There was talk of 72 arrests, including a number of state employees.

In the evening (local time), President Carlos Alvarado addressed the nation in a video message distributed across social media. “Like you, today I feel indignant, angry and angry over corrupt practices in public works contracts,” he said. According to media reports, one of his advisers, Camilo Saldariaga, was targeted by investigators. The Social Democratic Alvarado, who has been in power for three years, said he had resigned in order to defend him. “If this situation is going to be useful for anything, it is to remove corruption within the institutions.”

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