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 -Published: Tuesday, December 31, 2019- Police seize more
than 700 kilos of cyanide in Guanacaste
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
During a patrol Sunday night, police intercepted a driver carrying cyanide containers near the community of Lajas in San Miguel de Cañas in Guanacaste. According to a police report, officers asked the driver to park the car on the side of the road. When the officers checked the vehicle, they found the luggage carrier, covered with a green cover with 15 metal tin with cyanide, said the Ministry of Public Security. This is a highly toxic substance usually used in mining work, said the ministry in its report. Each mental container contained 50 kilos of cyanide, for a total of 750 kilos of that chemical, the police said. Due to the danger of the product, the police coordinated with firefighters to check the containers one by one to make sure there were no leaks of the substance before being seized. "Cyanide gas prevents the body's cells from receiving oxygen. It can cause the death of those who inhale it," said the Ministry of Security in its statement. According to the ministry, the car was driven by a man from surnamed Vega, who was arrested and taken to the cells of the Public Ministry where he was interrogated by the judicial agents and after that, he must wait until a judge orders the pre-trial measures against him. The statistics provided by the ministry, counting the 750 kilos seized Sunday night, more than three tons of cyanide have been seized at different areas in Guanacaste. "This type of substance is illegally introduced to the country from Nicaragua. It is used in illegal mining, especially in the Crucitas area in Cutris de San Carlos, in Alajuela," said the ministry. The Crucitas area in San Carlos, has been in the headlines during this year, especially for events related to the investigation of former president Oscar Arias in the case of the former open pit project of Infinito Gold Mining.  In October the Criminal Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of San José declared the definitive dismissal against Arias in the case of Crucitas. Definitive dismiss is a legal term that means "to be unwilling to pursue." In Commonwealth and the U.S. common law, it is used for ending a criminal case before trial or before a verdict is rendered. The same statement was also made by the judge in February. According to Rodolfo Brenes, the lawyer of the former president, this case was dismissed in February, so the action to reopen the case by the Prosecutor's Office had no justification. "We regret that the Public Ministry has reopened a criminal process without any new evidence to justify it, in a case where clearly no crime was committed and where the facts have been prescribed for a long time," said Brenes. The prescription legal term, or expiration date case, is a statute of limitations if a law passed by a legislative body in a common law system to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. However, there is still a period where the Prosecutor's Office can appeal the judge's decision. In September the Attorney General's Office again requested that the former president be brought to trial in the Crucitas case. In February the Prosecutor presented the justification of this request, saying that the former president was guilty of prevarication when he signed the decree that authorized mining in Cutris. The legal term prevarication is a crime that consists of an authority issuing an arbitrary resolution in an administrative or judicial matter knowing that said resolution is unfair and contrary to the law. At the preliminary hearing in February, the judge dismissed the case because of a prescription, a decision that was appealed by the Public Ministry. The Prosecutor General's Office accused the former president of malfeasance for decreeing that the mining project, operated by Infinito was in the national interest. Arias was never charged for the declaration of national convenience of that activity, but his former minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles, who also signed the declaration, was charged in the case and convicted in January 2015. Arias was not charged then. This sentence was annulled, and a preliminary hearing is pending to establish if the case is going back to trial. Arias insisted on his innocence. The mining concession was granted long before Arias took office. The reactivation of the case was covered by a legal analysis ordered by the attorney general to deepen the search for new evidence that was not incorporated into the investigation file at the appropriate time, the judiciary said. The Crucitas open pit gold mining operation was controversial. After Arias signed the decree, a court shut down the project to protect some trees favored by endangered birds. The mining company's Canadian parent, Infinito Gold, Ltd., brought a case in March 2014 against Costa Rica in the World Bank's arbitration system based on a trade agreement between the two countries. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes at the World Bank listed the case as still pending Monday night. The Crucitas site now is invaded periodically by illegal miners. At one time the company estimated that there was about $2 billion in gold in the ground. One of the complaints against the Infinito project was that the firm would be using cyanide to leach gold from the surrounding rocks. Environmentalists said that the chemical might reach the San Juan River at the Nicaragua-Costa Rican border. Arias served two terms as president. The first term was from 1986 to 1990. The second was from 2006 to 2010. It was during the second term when the Crucitas situation developed. -------------------- Have you heard about illegal gold mining works in your community? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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