Ever since former President Laura Chinchilla was succeeded by President Luis Guillermo Solis, something has happened to all political parties in Costa Rica. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, all political parties in our country are in shambles, and their situation seems to be deteriorating further as time goes by.

The latest political party to face a deep crisis is Frente Amplio (Broad Front), which happens to be an opposing faction that gained the most legislative seats in the last election that culminated in a strange landslide victory for President Solis, who was virtually an uncontested candidate in a runoff election.

The Broad Front crisis originated in Guanacaste, a region that has gone from being known as a forgotten province to the one of the hottest political tickets in Costa Rica. This region was represented by former legislator Ronal Vargas of Broad Front; Mr. Vargas shocked fellow legislators as he addressed the nation with his immediate resignation due to an illness that he did not elaborate on.

Mr. Vargas’ testimony before the Legislative Assembly was emotional to the point of tears. It was also fake; not long after his teary farewell, The Costa Rica Star reported that Mr. Vargas was forced to resign by his party’s leadership, allegedly due to complaints about sexual harassment of a fellow legislator, who happens to have been involved in a romantic relationship with Mr. Vargas to the extent of living under the same roof.

While Broad Front constituents in Guanacaste are not questioning the fact that sexual harassment is conduct unbecoming a legislator, they have a problem with the sham testimony and the fact that the disciplinary committee of the Legislative Assembly has not received a complaint from the alleged victim, and neither has law enforcement.

To make matters worse, Mr. Vargas has now filed a formal complaint before the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Spanish initials: TSE), and he is now claiming that he was railroaded into giving up his legislative seat in a murky round of high-level horse trading, which may have involved former presidential candidate Jose Maria Villalta. According to online news daily El Pais, Broad Front leadership is now scrambling to convince the alleged sexual harassment victim to file a complaint.