Costa Rica’s intelligence and national security director said his agency received confidential information about a supposed plot to assassinate President Rodrigo Chaves ahead of the country’s presidential and legislative elections.
Jorge Torres, director of the Intelligence and National Security Directorate, told journalists about the allegations as he prepared to file a formal complaint at the public prosecutor’s office, according to a report by The Associated Press.
Torres said the information was confidential and that he wanted to put it on record in the complaint. He told local media that he would not go into detail, but that the information “concerns the life of the president of the Republic,” according to the report.
Torres said the call came from a woman, who reported a supposed plot against Chaves, and that a payment had been made to a hitman, according to the account he provided to journalists.
Torres also said security was being reinforced for the president. In the report, the reinforcement was linked to Chaves’s effort to present himself as tough on crime ahead of the Feb. 1 elections.
Torres spoke as El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was scheduled to visit Costa Rica, the report said. Bukele has drawn international attention for his security policies.
On Wednesday, Chaves is scheduled to lay the cornerstone of a new “mega-prison” that Costa Rica plans to build, according to the report. The project is modeled on a facility built by Bukele, the report said.
Costa Rica is set to hold presidential and legislative elections on Feb. 1, the report added. Chaves is ineligible to run for reelection, and the ruling party’s Laura Fernández is listed among the presidential candidates.
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