The chancellor and vice-president Epsy Campbell decided to ignore the law and appoint officials who do not meet the requirements for two positions within the Foreign Ministry.
Despite the fact that Law 3530, Statute of the Foreign Service of the Republic, states that the directors and alternate directors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must be officials with the rank of ambassador, Campbell decided to appoint two officials below that seat.
The minister appointed Adriana Murillo as foreign policy director, a career diplomat who is a minister advisor, and former vice chancellor Carolina Fernández as alternate director, the latter being the first secretary in the Foreign Service roster.
Fernandez resigned as deputy foreign minister on May 16th, after CRHoy announced that she had been sanctioned in 2010 for abandoning her job when she was working at the Brazilian embassy in Costa Rica.
These two appointments outside the law were made by Campbell despite the fact that in the Chancellery there are a high number of career ambassadors who are not being used and who, according to internal sources in that ministry, “sit idly by” or in administrative functions unrelated to their training.
To justify her decision, the hierarchy had a journalist of the institution read some lines that were sent to CRHoy.com through the WhatsApp application. In the audio, read by the communicator Alexánder Rivera, the institution explains the decision was made to favor gender equity within the Foreign Ministry, because in these positions, they say, only men have been appointed.
In addition, it is alleged that what is stipulated in article 9 of the Foreign Service Statute is only “a reference”. Furthermore, without going into detail in the Foreign Ministry, they shied away saying that “it is a legal administrative practice” to make these changes and that even the Executive Branch has “constitutional powers” to do so.
It is worth mentioning that despite being appointed to the Foreign Policy Directorate, these two officials have not had enough experience in positions outside the country. Murillo has only been a counselor at the United Nations, while Fernández has only been in Brazil.
Chancellor Epsy Campbell also has to appoint the heads of three other departments of the ministry; those of Foreign Service, International Cooperation, and Protocol. In addition, Campbell must also designate the deputy directors of these offices.
In turn, the minister has not appointed the director and alternate director of the Manuel María de Peralta Institute. This is the institution responsible for training the national diplomatic corps.
To these pending appointments to date, we must add the seven officials that Campbell must appoint to the Foreign Service Qualification Commission, an advisory body to the minister who discusses issues of officials of diplomatic career, such as appointments, promotions, and disciplinary proceedings. The current members were appointed by the former minister Manuel González.