President of Costa Rica traveled in a plane linked to drug trafficking

Laura Chinchilla

Yesterday, the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) recognized  having failed to protect the President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, who made two international trips on a jet provided by a suspect of drug trafficking, what have unleashed a scandal in the international political arena.

The plane is owned by the Colombian Gabriel Morales Fallon, who was introduced as Gabriel O’Falan, a false identity. The President used the aircraft for travel in March to Caracas to the funeral of Hugo Chavez and one more time, last weekend to go to Peru to attend the wedding of the son of Vice President Luis Liberman.

“The DIS was not informed. We are reviewing in detail everything that happened, determining how this step of information was bypassed” said during an interview on radio DNA, Mauricio Baraschi, director of intelligence.

The scandal has led to a series of events, including  last Wednesday’s  resignation  of the Minister of Comunicación Francisco Chacon, who contacted Morales Fallon.

In a statement, Chinchilla, acknowledged her “deep concern about the chain of failures (…) so in her closest group it was not  implemented the proper filters and controls that would have alerted her of the link of the aircraft used for her trips to