QCOSTARICA – Corruption plays with the lack of transparency to violate the law, bypass administrative processes, and appoint people who are not trained in important management positions.
Diego Miranda, a pre-candidate for the Coalición Juntos San José party to lead the Municipality of San José, has declared a frontal war against corruption, Image: La República
That is what Diego Miranda, a pre-candidate for the Coalición Juntos San José party to lead the Municipality of San José, sees as a problem to correct in Costa Rica’s capital city.
Mayoral pre-candidate Miranda, who is currently a city councilor said there is currently a network of corruption that affects the services that citizens receive at all levels in the municipality.
In this sense, Miranda promises to cut off any indication of corruption, since thousands of people want a change.
Speaking to La República, Miranda says he is motivated to know quite well the institution, the municipality, the problems, and the needs. In addition, he says he has many ideas on how to solve the problems that affect the residents of the municipality.
Miranda has been at the Municipality for the past eight years and believes that a change in San Jose is needed, starting with denouncing the lack of transparency in hiring and appointment processes.
The pre-candidate, if he makes it to the mayor’s office, said he would change many of the ways of “doing business” of the past by following the procedures and guaranteeing the technical suitability, which would lead to many of the current problems to be solved.
“Corruption plays on the lack of transparency to break the law, while officials with technical knowledge and experience are pushed aside, just because they go against the interests of some people within the institution today.
“We are about to make the municipality transparent, I think we must make a clean slate, whatever has to be processed, we are going to process it and we will concentrate on the important things that the citizenry requires, which knows that we are going to clean up the institution we have,” said Miranda.
Without referring directly to the current, long-time mayor of San Jose, Johnny Araya, the pre-candidate does not hold back saying, “Currently there is a network of corruption within the Municipality”.
“I believe that my candidacy responds to a citizen’s feeling, it is palpable in the environment that people are discontent. With the Diamante case, it became even more evident that things are not right and the possibility of change materialized,” said the councilor.
Johnny Araya, mayor of San José, told La República that when he leaves office in May of the next year, he wants to continue to be linked to the municipality in some way.
Araya, who has been at the helm of Costa Rica’s capital city for more than two decades and is not eligible for reelection until 2032, confirmed that, as leader of the PLN and of the government project of the municipality, is not going to give up leaving just because he is not in the mayor’s office, he wants to continue influencing, he wants to continue there and he is going to try to put a person who is related to his ideas and interests.
In Costa Rica, before the reform, all local authorities in the different positions available could be re-elected consecutively and indefinitely after completing their first term. Now the possibility of re-election is established for all positions, as well as eight-year waiting periods to be able to run again.
The mayoral elections are on February 4, 2024. The people who are elected will take office on May 1 of the same year.
Formally, the electoral process will begin in October 2023. However, the national, provincial and local political parties that participate in the race will be in charge of their candidacy selection processes and definition of government programs before that.
