SAN JOSE, (Reuters) – Costa Rica’s communications chief resigned on Wednesday amid a scandal engulfing President Laura Chinchilla, saying he failed to properly screen a man who arranged for her to use a private jet and is under suspicion of using a false identity.
The attorney general’s office is now investigating flights Chinchilla made to Peru and to Caracas for the funeral of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
Costa Rica has no presidential plane so Chinchilla usually flies on commercial airlines or uses aircraft provided by other governments when making state visits.
“Under the circumstances, I feel the right thing to do is resign as communications minister,” Francisco Chacon, who acts as Chinchilla’s spokesman, told a press conference.
Chacon said Gabriel O’Falan, who had claimed to represent a Colombia-based oil company called THX Energy, had duped him when they met before Chinchilla’s trip to Peru.
Mauricio Boraschi, Costa Rica’s anti-drug commissioner, told the news conference that O’Falan was believed to be Gabriel Morales, a Costa Rican citizen born in Colombia.
