DEPUTIES OPPOSE ROBERT VESCO'S APPLICATION FOR NATURALIZATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09-00956R000105640056-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 1, 2013
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: January 4, 1973
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/08/01: CIA-RDP09-00956R000105640056-8
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DEPUTIES OPPOSE ROBERT VESCOIS APPLICATION FOR NATURALIZATION
COSTA RICA
Article; San Jose, La Nacion, Spanish, 4 January 1973, Pp 1, 477
"What Robert Vesco and his advisers are trying to do is not to ob-
tain Costa Rican citizenship but to escape the action of North American jus-
tice," Deputy Oscar Saborio Alvarado stated before leaving San Jose yester-
day. He was referring toreports that the investor was try-ing to obtain na-
tionality.
"As you know," Saberio Alvarado added, "I am compiling oh my own ac-
count a useful report on the financial activities of Mr Vesco, and according
to a document I have received originating with the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission, what Robert Vesco is doing With his investments in
our country is buying security.
"I can assure you of one thing," added the legislator Saborio
Alvarado, "and this is that, with the interest that some of uS-deputies are
taking in obtaining information, when the promised investigation into his
activities is begun, the 34-year-old magnate who has become so well-known
in the world for his speculations in mutual funds is going to find himself '
in difficulties. I can only trust that in the meantime the Civil Register ,
does net rush matters and grant him nationality. I understand that Mr Ves-
cols legal advisers are trying to discover some way by which this controver-
sial gentleman need not comply with the constitutional procedure of residing
among us for 5 years. There is, in between, a request for an investigation
of his activities, and this must be waited for no matter how great the re-
sources of Vesco and company may be."
Investigation Necessary
There will be no alternative but to repeal Article 14 of Law 14812 on
residents living on pensions or on income from investments in order that
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Mt Vesco and his associates not find their own solution to obtaining a pro-
visional Costa Rican passport," said deputy Jenaro Valverde Marin yesterday
in referring to the aims of the North American businessman to acquire na-
tionality or at least a Costa Rican passport.
Speaking with the political Constitution in his hand, the legislator
Valverde Marin spelled out clause 4 of Article 14 of the Magna Charta, which
specifies that all aliens other than Spaniards, Central Americans, or Latin
Americans must have a 5-year period of residence in the country in order to
apply for citizenship. "This is clear, this is decisive, and Mr Vesco
is included in this rule on residence, since he is not a Latin American so
far as we are aware. Let me make it plain that I shall in any case advocate
that the law on resident pensioners be amended as soon as possible," Valverde
Marin continued, "as it could be turned into a precedent for cases similar
to that of Vesco and his friends.
-- "Additionally, the president of the Legislative Assembly, attorney
Daniel Oduber Quiros, has promised that the ,eongressional investigation will
begin as soon as sessions are resumed on 12 January, and it seems to me the
most elemental prudence that Vesco's application not be acted on until we
see what the investigation supplies us. The charges of the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission are serious and known to all, so why not
wait a few days? People know that we are dealing with a delicate case, and
it is the Assembly's duty to treat it as such, without undue haste, espe-
cially when the matter at hand is one in which there is much to discuss and
not a simple application for nationalization," concluded Deputy Valverde
Marin.
Denial of Passport Requested
Deputy Dr Longino Soto Pacheco stated that he had communicated with
the Civil Register to request that Vesco not be granted a provisional pass-
port.
"I said that Mr Vasco, on my request in the Legislative Assembly,
will be investigated for his activities inside and outside the country, and
that as this gentleman is presently under investigation by a United States
federal commission for a crime severely categorized by the international
press, I requested that his passport be withheld until such time as the
facts are disclosed. As Norman Leblanc and Ulrich Strickler are Mr Vesco's
partners, I had them included in my request to the Register."
Investigation To Be Held
The National Liberation deputies and those from other segments of
the opposition told the press yesterday, "There will be an investigation,
and a commission will be designated for this purpose that will be granted
the widest powers for carrying out its task." Christian Democratic Depu-
ty Jesus M. Fernandez Morales stated, "Look, in the Vesco case, all of us
are determined to see that the facts are made clear, as it is essential to
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preserve the good name of the country even though we are dealing with in-
vestors. Also, the stories in reputable information media in regard to Mr
Vesco cannot be ignored. There is an investigation pending in the United
States, and we must accordingly proceed with caution insofar as his re,-
sources are concerned."
11,532
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