Álvaro Colom, of the National Unity of Hope party (UNE) won the first round of presidential elections by a narrow 5% margin on September 9. The social democrat candidate will now face Otto Pérez Molina, of the far-right Patriot Patriot party (PP) in a second round to be held on November 4. Among the candidates who had little to celebrate was Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchú, who obtained a disappointing result with a mere 3.09% of the votes. With a mere five point difference during the first round, Colom and Pérez Molina are now desperately seeking alliances with other parties that were ousted during the first round of the race. Analysts predict that competition between Colom and Pérez Molina will become increasingly fierce as the second round approaches.

A territorial dispute with Colombia over the San Andrés Archipelago dating back to the 1980's has made the headlines again due to suspected oil interests in the area and reported acts of intimidation by the Colombian military. Meanwhile, San Andrés residents are divided on the issue with some refusing to be bound to either Nicaragua or Colombia and calling for independence for the islands.

By Juan Pablo Ozaeta

Translated by Dylan Ramshaw

President Torrijos' latest cabinet reshuffle led to the resignation of 14 cabinet members, including the Interior and Justice Minister, the Secretary of State, the Education, Health and Labor Ministers. According to political analyst Olmedo Beluche, the underlying aims behind this reshuffle are to remove officials who have fallen out of favor with the current administration and a government attempt to place its best people at the forefront in order to boost the ruling party's image. Shortly afterwards, Torrijos released a progress report touting the successes of his government, now in its third year. However, political analysts, both left and right, question the policy direction of the Torrijos administration.

The arrest of government auditor Edgar Carías Hernández on bribery and fraud charges, is the latest in a string of corruption scandals that have plagued the Court of Audit for years. The scandal goes all the way to the top and also involves court magistrates and even the court president himself. Political analysts have blamed government corruption on culture of impunity in which opposition parties make secret pacts to hide each others' past and present acts of corruption.

By Miriam Abarca

Translated by James Wilson

Not only has it come to light that the campaign promoting a “Yes” vote on CAFTA has ten times more funds than the “No” campaign, but there are now accusations that some of this massive treasury came from illegal sources. It appears that the supporters of the “Yes” campaign might be using front organizations to secretly exceed the limits on campaign contributions. Moreover, some of these supporters are not Costa Rican – at least four Guatemalans have contributed hefty sums, clearly a violation of Costa Rican electoral laws. Ultimately, the damage from these alleged actions is irreversible – most of the money has already been spent. Costa Ricans, then, will likely go to the polls on October 7 with a bit of illicit conditioning.