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José María Figueres Olsen (born in San José, Costa Rica, December 24, 1954), politician, businessman and international expert on Sustainable Development and Technology. President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998, Minister of Foreign Trade 1986-1988, and then Minister of Agriculture 1988-1990.

Biography

José María Figueres is the son of the famous thinker and three-time president of Costa Rica, José Figueres Ferrer declared “Person of the 20th Century” by the leading newspaper in Costa Rica[1]. His mother, First Lady Karen Olsen Beck, born in the United States to Danish immigrants, later adopted Costa Rican nationality. After being First Lady she was appointed Ambassador to Israel in 1982. In 1990 she was elected Member of Congress for the 1990 - 1994 legislature.

With both parents actively involved in public service, José María Figueres grew up in La Lucha, a farm community his father Don Pepe founded in 1928. There José María attended the public school Cecilia Orlich Figueres, before going on to study at the Colegio Humboldt and later Lincoln High School, both in San José. Upon graduating from high school he worked for a couple of years, and then was accepted into the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy (West Point), where he graduated with the Class of 1979, having majored in Engineering.

Upon returning to Costa Rica, he worked and later led the restructuring process of the deeply indebted family businesses, Sociedad Agroindustrial San Cristobal (SAISC), towards profitability and professional management.

Political Experience

In 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Laurate and President Óscar Arias (1986–1990), appointed Figueres to overhaul the ailing National Railway System, INCOFER. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Minister in the Arias government, first of Foreign Trade and later of Agriculture, upon the completion of the governmental period Figueres continued his academic studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, graduating in 1991 with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

Back in Costa Rica, Figueres declared his intention to seek the nomination of the political party he belonged to, Partido Liberación Nacional. After a heated and much-disputed primary election process involving five candidates, Figueres won the party's nomination in 1993 and went on to the national election which he won in February 1994. José María Figueres Olsen was elected President of Costa Rica for four years at the age of 39, the nation's youngest president in the 20th century.

Presidency

President Figueres promoted Sustainable Development as the integrating architecture of governmental action. This program was anchored on three pillars: Firstly, to transform the Costa Rican economy towards one of higher productivity, with special emphasis on technology. Secondly, for the Costa Rican society to express greater solidarity by opening opportunities of wellbeing for all. Thirdly, for society to develop itself in harmony with nature (from the book “Gobernando en Tiempos de Cambio: Administración Figueres Olsen, by Leonardo Garnier). The administration is credited with having worked to advance and promote further integration of Costa Rica into the globalized economy.

Government Achievements

• Reformed and reorganized many public institutions, including closing down some of them, such as Banco Anglo Costarricense (ALREADY BROKE) and the National Railway System (INCOFER), to increase the efficiency of the State. Increased the legitimacy of the remaining public institutions to improve governance and consolidate democratic values.
• Established a coherent strategy to boost development and create qualified higher paying jobs by attracting foreign investment to Costa Rica. Created a new cluster of national high tech exports, thanks to his personal efforts in attracting INTEL to establish themselves in Costa Rica.[2]
• Designed a profound reform to modernize the state-banking sector, including opening the monopoly on current accounts held by state owned banks.
• Launched several initiatives to improve national education, including a constitutional reform approved by Congres to dedicate 6% of GDP towards public education[3]; introduced English as a second language in public schools from the first grade up; consolidated the installation of computer labs in high schools.
• Created EBAIS (Primary Teams of Basic Health Care) as an effective provider of preventive medicine in the communities, primarily by giving easy access to medical services.
• Reorganized social institutions such as the Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social (IMAS) to facilitate better services for citizens of his country, thus, with the objective of enabling greater social mobility for the most vulnerable sectors of the society.
• Complied with the Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development. Ratified the international Biodiversity and Climate Change Conventions. Implemented important legislation in both areas and approved a first tax on Carbon Emissions in 1995.
• Figueres was the architect of the Centroamerican Alliance for Sustainable Development (ALIDES) signed by the region’s presidents in 1994. This regional integration agreement aimed to modernize the older Central American Common market Agreement, by creating common policies in broad-scale economic, social and environmental matters.^[1]
• Developed broad links with regional and international academic institutions. Figueres worked very closely together with leading thinkers such as Michael Porter, Jeffrey Sachs, and Theo Panayotou. As a result of these efforts Figueres spearheaded programs improving the competitiveness of the Central American Region, and later established the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development based at INCAE, the region’s leading graduate business school.
• Opened a second international airport in Liberia, Guanacaste, that helped the tourism industry flourish in the northern region of Costa Rica.
• His government was the first in modern Costa Rican history that refrained from spending during the election cycle towards the end of his mandate. Thus for the first time, the incoming government did not have to increase taxes to cover past spending.

Attacks on Government Work

President Figueres' Government was controversial to some. The most common criticisms were:

• Relinquished the social democratic values of his political party in favor of more economically liberal policies.
• Closed the oldest state owned bank, Banco Anglo Costarricense, and opened up the checking account monopoly held by state owned banks since 1948.
• Shut down the National Railway System, and reformed many other government institutions creating job losses.
• Reformed the special pension fund belonging to teachers, causing the longest teacher strike in Costa Rican history.
• Foreign Policy pursued a strong alignment with Central America

International Recognition

President Figueres has received numerous international awards for his work and adherence to the tenants of Sustainable Development during Office. These include:

• Kew Gardens Annual Award, 1995
• Botanic Research Institute Texas, 1996
• State Botanical Garden in Missouri, 1996
• First recipient of the Global Prize from the World Bank's Global Environmental Fund for leadership and efforts for the environment, 1998
• Liberty Prize from the Max Schmidheiny Foundation and St. Gallen University in Switzerland, 1998
• Award of the Climate Institute, Washington D.C., 1998
• Order of José Matías Delgado Grand Silver Cross from the Republic of El Salvador, 1999
• Sustainability Award in Switzerland, 2003

International Leadership

Upon leaving government in 1998 President Figueres founded Entebbe – Fundacion Costa Rica para el Desarollo Sostenible (Costa Rican Foundation for Sustainable Development). This organization leads and promoted initiatives and projects with national and international impact that encourage the incorporation and use of modern technologies to improve the quality of life in Latin American societies. The foundation started and developed pioneering programs, such as LINCOS (Little Intelligent Communities), APVE (Clean Transport Alternatives) and CENTAIRE (Center for monitoring and evaluation of Air Quality in Central America). A large number of academic. social and communal organizations, as well as private sector partners contributed to the development of these programs. In the same field of deploying technologies to boost development, together with Nicolas Negroponte and Jeffrey Sachs, Figueres founded the “Digital Nations Consortium”, a program overseen by the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1999 he was called upon by Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United Nations to chair a working group on Information, Communication, Technology (ICT). He was later elected Chairman of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (ICT).

In 2000, Figueres was appointed Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, and independent international organization dedicated to improving the state of the world by bringing together world leaders to establish alliances that can influence industry, regional and global agendas. Three years later he was appointed as the first CEO of the World Economic Forum. His responsibilities included coordinating the prestigious annual meeting of the Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together prominent corporate leaders, Heads of State and Government, as well as respected personalities from the academic, cultural and religious world. Among his achievements while at the Forum was the strengthening of bonds between the corporate world and governmental and social sectors in order to identify their common long term interests and visions.

Figueres resigned from the World Economic Forum towards the end of 2004. In March 2005, Figueres joined the Felipe IV Group in Madrid, Spain as its CEO. This organization supports and collaborates with institutions working in the fields of Development, Dialogue, and Democracy around the world.

Figueres has been a member of a number of boards in the environmental field. He was Chairman of LEAD as well as FUNDES Internacional. He has also served as a director of the,World Wildlife Fund, the Botanic Research Institute Texas, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Stockholm Environment Institute. His current positions include Earth Council Geneva, Global Fairness Initiative, Dean's Alumni Leadership Council at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Thunderbird Board of Fellows, Dubai Recycling Park, Abraaj Capital, FRIDE, and the Club of Madrid where he is a founding member. He is also a member of the Global Leadership for Climate Action task force [4] and an Advisory Board member of the Humanitarian Response Index.[5]

Controversies

Chemise case

In 1991, when Figueres was seen as a possible contender for the presidency, brothers David and José Romero published a book accusing Figueres of having participated in the extrajudicial execution of a drug dealer named Jose Joaquin Orozco, known as "Chemise".^[2] The basis for this allegation dated back to March 7, 1973, when the drug dealer was detained for selling marijuana, and later released by police. Shortly afterwards, he was killed and tossed into a ravine. The murder was never solved.^[3] However a Congressional Committee questioned several persons on their possible knowledge of the circumstances surrounding this death, including young Figueres, who served as a voluntary police lieutenant. The Romero brothers also filed a complaint for murder against Figueres, but under the statute of limitations the case could no longer be opened. Figueres accused the Romero brothers of libel and in 1993 a court acquitted them while condemning their main source, former drug-enforcement officer Walter Campos. Figueres won the presidential election in 1994 and appointed his lawyer in the libel case as the new Minister of Public Safety. In 1998 another court sentenced the Romero brothers to seven years' imprisonment for making a false accusation, but that sentence was appealed and revoked due to procedural issues.^[4] In 2000, two years after Figueres left office, the legal proceeding ended with a settlement between the Romero brothers and Figueres's lawyers.^[5]

On 22 January 2002, television anchor Ignacio Santos of Channel 7 in Costa Rica, interviewed John Biehl, an international figure in Latin America and a close collaborator to President Oscar Arias during his first presidency (1986–1990). In the interview Mr. Biehl speaking on the issue of dirty politics, states that for answers on the ‘Chemise Case’ with which President Figueres was attacked during his campaign, questions should be addressed to Fernando Zumbado. Mr. Zumbado had been Minister of Housing during President Arias’ first administration, and is again a Minister in President Arias’ second term (2006 to present). During the political campaign to elect Jose Maria Figueres, Mr. Zumbado was first a contender of Mr. Figueres, and later retired to support candidate Margarita Penon, who was then married to President Arias.[6]

Religion

In the middle of Figueres’ presidential campaign, anonymous allegations arguing Figueres was not Catholic were widely spread and picked up by the media. Costa Rica’s political constitution establishes the Catholic faith as the official State religion [7]. Over 85% of Costa Ricans declare themselves catholic. Figueres’ maternal grandparents were both devout Christian Scientists, hence the allegations against him. To dispel the strong rumors Monsenor Román Arrieta, Archbishop of San José and President of the Episcopal Conference[8] was obliged to pronounce himself acknowledging José María Figueres had been baptized a Roman Catholic.

Alcatel

In 2004, Costa Rica’s Attorney General opened official investigations against two other former presidents, for alleged financial misconduct. Both were placed under arrest. Shortly afterwards local media reports claimed Figueres had also received bribes from Alcatel.[9][10] It was revealed that Figueres Olsen received nearly US $ 900 thousand from Alcatel, for a consultation on telecommunications. Figueres was hired by the firm H.F. Desarrollos Interdisciplinarios S.A. (DISA), owned by Roberto Hidalgo, who was an advisor during his presidential term. Carmen Valverde Acosta, former Secretary General of the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN by its Spanish acronym, Figueres Olsen's party) also received nearly US $ 900 thousand from DISA. Valverde elaborated texts for DISA and provided editing services through her company, Grupo de Asesores Lingüisticos Asociados. Carmen Valverde Acosta is the sister of Edgar Valverde Acosta, Alcatel general manager in Costa Rica at the time of the bribery scandal. Roberto Hidalgo signed three contracts between 2000 and 2001 with France's Alcatel intended to provide political advise to Alcatel on Costa Rican politics and interpretation of the Costa Rican reality. in total Alcatel paid Hidalgo's DISA a total amount of US $ 2,7 million, shared proportionally by the three people involved, Figueres Olsen, Hidalgo and valverde Acosta. Alcatel payments were conditional on the success of Alcatel in its dealings with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE, by its Spanish acronym). In August, 2001 Alcatel won a contract to install 400 thousand land lines, at a cost of US $ 149 million. It also won a contract from ICE in 2002 to expand the land-line system,a project of US $ 109 million. Hidlago was also external advisor of Alcatel, receiving US 2000 per month during the first year, an amount that doubled afterwards (http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/ESPECIALES/ice-alcatel/n1027.html). The revelations of these payments triggered strong reactions from former allies of Figueres Olsen. Marco Vargas, the minister of Presidencia (Cabinet minister) during Figueres Olsen administration resigned as Figueres Olsen representative in Costa Rica. In a letter, Vargas stated that the news about Figuerres and associates dealings with Alactel, caused him to feel "surprised, annoyed, confused and even indignant" (http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/ESPECIALES/ice-alcatel/n1027.html#nota3). Oscar Arias stated that he felt wretched by the news of the revelations. He also stated that Figueres' actions imply "a treason to the party and the heritage of Don Pepe" (Jose Figueres Ferrer, father of Jose Maria Figueres). http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/ESPECIALES/ice-alcatel/n1027.html#nota4). Arias announced at the time he intended to demand to the party authorities the expulsion of Figueres Olsen from the PLN.

On February, 2010 Alcatel announced that it will pay US $ 137 million for the briberies in Costa Rica to avoid a trial in the US for bribing officials in Costa Rica and other countries. Alcatel's operations in the US oblige it to comply with US legislation punishing bribing (http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2010/febrero/19/pais2274682.html)

Following the media allegations, Mr. Figueres was forced to resign from the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF issued a statement that it, "through the press, has discovered that Jose Maria Figueres had, during two and a half years, a significant contractual agreement with another enterprise while holding a directorial post in the Forum." The arrangement Figueres had with Alcatel contravenes WEF rules on outside employment (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1655/is_2004_Nov_4/ai_n7347073/). Figueres asked the Costa Rican Internal Revenue Service to revise his financial affairs and tax returns. Both Figueres Olsen and Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier (a former Costa Rican president who was found guilty of several bribery and other charges) paid 107 million Costa Rican colones for undeclared revenue in 2004. Figueres Olsen presented undeclared revenues and paid (throughout his brother Mariano) a total of 67,2 million Costa Rican colones in taxes. Figueres associates, Mr. Hidalgo and Ms. Valverde also reported undeclared revenue connected with their consulting for Alcatel. By paying before the Costa Rican Tributacion Directa (Internal Tax Revenue) intervention, people receiving payments from Alcatel and other alleged bribery schemes avoided to be tried for tax fraud, a crime that could result in a 10 year prison term (http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2004/noviembre/17/pais1.html). On 5 December 2005 the Internal Revenue Service of Costa Rica notified Figueres of no financial misconduct or tax evasion with resolution number 5452000009594 dated 27 October 2005 (citation needed).

A Congressional Commission took it upon themselves to investigate the allegations. The Commission of Control of Public Revenue and Expenditure (Comisión de Control del Ingreso y el Gasto Público) sent a subpoena to Figueres. He ignored the Commission requests, preferring to presented them a sworn affidavit with a detailed account of his professional services in the field of technology and communications (accessible on request in the Costa Rican Congressional Records[11]). At the time the Commission requested the Ministry of Seguridad Pública to demand the assistance of Interpol in order to bring Mr Figueres to the country. Member of Mr. Figueres' party, the PLN in the commission also supported the resolution (http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/ESPECIALES/ice-alcatel/n1119.html#nota2). However, on 6 September 2005, Judge Maria Morales of the First Circuit Court of Costa Rica pronounced a ruling in Figueres' favour, and against the Congressional Commission's procedures. The Commission also failed to register a report on the findings before the Congress, as stipulated in Congressional Procedural Regulations.

Figueres was never summoned nor charged by the Attorney General [12]. On 19 September 2007, the Attorney General formally announced that there were no grounds on which to summon, or press any charges against Figueres. [13] [14].

It should be noted that Figueres was elected by the Liberación Nacional political party (PLN). Both other ex-Presidents formally investigated belong to a different political party, Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC). The party at power at the moment of the investigations was PUSC, the same as the two ex-presidents who were incarcerated. Of the eight members of the Congressional Commission that looked into the this case, one belonged to the same political party as Figueres.[15]

See also

• Presidents of Costa Rica

References

External links

• Website - Jose Maria Figueres Olsen
• Dean's Alumni Leadership Council, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force

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