Miguel Ángel Rodríguez facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
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| 8th Secretary General of the Organization of American States | |
| In office 15 September 2004 – 15 October 2004 |
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| Preceded by | César Gaviria |
| Succeeded by | Luigi R. Einaudi acting |
| 43rd President of Costa Rica | |
| In office 8 May 1998 – 8 May 2002 |
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| Vice President | Astrid Fischel Volio Elizabeth Odio Benito |
| Preceded by | José María Figueres |
| Succeeded by | Abel Pacheco |
| Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica | |
| In office 1 May 1990 – september 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Fernando Volio Jiménez |
| Succeeded by | Alberto Cañas Escalante |
| Constituency | San José (1st Office) |
| Minister of the Presidency of Costa Rica | |
| In office 1 April – 8 May 1970 |
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| President | José Joaquín Trejos |
| Preceded by | Diego Trejos Fonseca |
| Succeeded by | Carlos Coto Albán |
| Director of the Office of National Planning | |
| In office 1967–1970 |
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| President | José Joaquín Trejos |
| Preceded by | Alberto Di Mare Fuscado |
| Succeeded by | Marco López Agüero |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 January 1940 San José, Costa Rica |
| Political party | PUSC |
| Spouse | Lorena Clare Facio |
| Education | University of Costa Rica University of California, Berkeley, (MA) (PHD) |
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Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría (born 9 January 1940) is a Costa Rican economist, lawyer, businessman and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 1998 to 2002. He was minister of planning from 1968 to 1970 and minister of the presidency in 1970 during the administration of Jose Joaquin Trejos Fernandez (1966 - 1970); member of the board of the Costa Rican Central Bank from 1966 to 1969; congressman from 1990 to 1993, serving as president of the Legislative Assembly during the 1991 to 1992 period; and was elected Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2004. He voluntarily stepped down from this post to return to his country to face allegations of financial wrongdoing during his presidential tenure in Costa Rica. On April 27 of 2011 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but this ruling was later reversed in a December 2012 decision by an appeals court, which found him innocent of all charges.
Rodríguez came to the presidency as the candidate of the social Christian party (Partido Unidad Social Cristiana) with an agenda that included the opening of state-run monopolies in insurance and telecommunications, the rationalization of the public sector including increasing the role of the private sector in public infrastructure, trade liberalization, and the expansion and modernization of the social welfare system. The reforms of the insurance and telecom sectors generated massive protests and were subsequently abandoned, but were later implemented when Costa Rica became part of the DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement) in 2009.
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Early life
Rodríguez was born in San José. At the University of Costa Rica he obtained degrees in both economics (1962) and law (1963) and worked there briefly as an assistant professor of economics. He then attended the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, where he received both M.A. and PhD degrees in economics in 1966, having completed a thesis on monetary policy. Immediately after graduating he returned to Costa Rica to serve as Minister of Planning and member of the board of directors of the Costa Rican Central Bank, during the government of president José Joaquín Trejos.
In the 1970s and 1980s Rodríguez combined academic work as a professor of economics at the University of Costa Rica and at the Autonomous University of Central America with a business venture in cattle holding: Grupo Ganadero Industrial, S.A.
Rodriguez is also a devout Roman Catholic. His brother, Álvaro Rodríguez, currently serves as Superior General of the De La Salle Brothers.
Political career
Rodríguez was the President of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica from 1991 to 1992. Rodríguez ran three times for president. In 1990 he lost his party's nomination to Rafael Ángel Calderón. In 1994 he won his party's nomination but lost the election to José María Figueres. He finally secured the presidency in 1998. In spite of his experience as an economist and businessman, his presidency was generally regarded as ineffectual. Proposed free-market reforms, including a plan to end the state monopoly on telecommunications, fell apart under opposition from the trade unions of government employees and other groups, but he was successful in reforming the retirement system and opening it to private participation as well as giving in concession to a private company the operation of the main port in the Pacific Ocean (Caldera). After his term of office, Rodríguez worked as a consultant at Manatt Jones Global Strategies and as a visiting professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Political views
Rodriguez is widely considered a believer in free enterprise and a pro-market politician, who favors market reforms and the opening of the economy to foreign investment.
He is also considered a social conservative. In 1998 Rodriguez incensed people in the gay community, by opposing a gay/lesbian festival in a beach resort in Quepos, in the central Pacific region of Costa Rica. Rodriguez, at the time the president of Costa Rica, was quoted in the press as saying "It is important that the appropriate authorities not grant any permits for any type of public activities associated with the gay/lesbian festival". His position was echoed by Mons. Roman Arrieta, Archbishop of San Jose, and Father Minor de Jesús Calvo, a conservative priest that had at the time a program in TV. Francisco Madrigal, the director of Triangulo Rosa, a gay/lesbian organization filed a complaint in the Costa Rican Supreme Court's complaints division against Msgr. Román Arrieta Villalobos, the Archbishop of San José, and Father Minor de Jesús Calvo. Triángulo Rosa also registered a complaint with the Defensoría de los Habitantes, the government's ombudsmen organization, against the President of Costa Rica, Dr. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Gay organization fights discrimination.
Secretary-General of the Organization of American States
On 7 June 2004 he was unanimously elected to replace César Gaviria as secretary general of the OAS. He began his term on 15 September 2004 but served only 1 month, before stepping down when a former political collaborator accused him of having accepted a kickback from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel, which had been awarded a large government contract for cellular phone bandwidth during Rodríguez's tenure as president.
On 8 October 2004, Rodríguez resigned as OAS Secretary General, effective 15 October, and was replaced by Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi, a former U.S. State Department official who assumed the title of Acting Secretary General. After resigning from his post, Rodríguez returned to Costa Rica on 15 October 2004 and was placed first under house arrest and two weeks later in jail, pending further investigations.
Sentence
On 27 April 2011 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. In 2012 the sentence was revoked amid accusation of prosecutor misconduct. The appellation tribunal found that Lobo, the crown's prosecution witness was not only given immunity (even as from his own declaration he was the mastermind of the transactions) but was allowed to keep the money he obtain from the illegal transactions (an amount more than 3 times that of Rodriguez). Lobo also changed versions more than 7 times and the appellation tribunal found unusual that Rodriguez was accused using one version on the events but condemn using a different version, harming his ability to mount an effective defense.
See also
In Spanish: Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría para niños
