Costa Rica’s Supreme Court asked the National Assembly to revoke President Rodrigo Chaves’s constitutional immunity, clearing the way for him to stand trial on influence-peddling charges. The court’s full bench voted 15–7 in an extraordinary session, the first time in modern Costa Rican history it has sought to prosecute a sitting head of state.
Prosecutors allege that CABEI-donated funds were steered toward a $405,800 communications contract under which a company funneled $32,000 to Chaves’s former image adviser, Federico Cruz. The attorney general says the arrangement amounts to concusión, an abuse-of-office offense that carries a sentence of two to eight years. Culture Minister Jorge Rodríguez, who oversaw the presidential office at the time, faces the same accusation.
The request now moves to the opposition-controlled 57-seat National Assembly, where at least 38 lawmakers—two-thirds of the chamber—must back the measure for the president’s immunity to be lifted. If the threshold is not reached, the case would remain on hold until Chaves leaves office in 2026.
Chaves has rejected the allegations as politically motivated, labeling the court a “national disgrace” during his weekly press briefing. The president is already under separate investigation for alleged campaign-finance irregularities tied to his 2022 election.
The Costa Rican Full Court agreed to ask the Legislative Assembly to lift the immunity of the President of the Republic, Rodrigo Chaves Robles, and the Minister of Culture and Youth.
