Editor’s note: It should be noted that Alberto Rodriguez Baldi has never been charged with any crime in relation to the leaked intelligence reports, which date back three years, though Costa Rica’s Attorney General did indicate last month that there remains an “open investigation” – though no charges – of possible money laundering by the businessman.

Well-known Costa Rican businessman and hotelier Alberto Rodriguez Baldi, who made headlines last month after confidential reports by the Costa Rican intelligence agency, DIS, alleging that the businessman hosted a party for the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, El Chapo’s ex-wife, and Sinaloa cartel members at his flagship hotel, the Baldi Hot Springs Resort Hotel & Spa located in La Fortuna de San Carlos was leaked to the press, has been summoned to appear before the Commission on Security and Drug Trafficking of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, February 11^th.

Baldi is expected to testify regarding the allegations made in the leaked report.

In January, tabloid daily Diario Extra published portions of secret DIS reports from 2013 and 2014 which indicated that El Chapo’s son, César Guzmán Salazar; El Chapo’s ex-wife, Griselda Guzman Lopez and other Sinaloa cartel members attended an exclusive party hosted by Baldi in 2012. The report had apparently been sent to the money laundering unit of the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).

According to the excerpts, the intelligence agency appeared to have suspicions about Mr. Baldi’s business activities and possible links to El Chapo’s Sinaola cartel, though the businessman has never been charged with a crime.

“…Baldi is a hotelier in the area of La Fortuna de San Carlos, where he owns the [Baldi Hot Springs Resort and Hotel], and has important political and commercial influence in the area, participates in at least 19 corporations, and to whom is registered a significant amount of [property and real estate] including a helicopter with registration TI-TNT and a number of high-end vehicles for his personal use.

It is noteworthy that such luxuries contradict the very negative [slowdown in tourism activity] in the area of La Fortuna de San Carlos, which raises suspicions that Rodriguez Baldi could be associated with Mexican cartels and effectively using his companies to launder money associated with drug trafficking,” a portion of the leaked report states.

In December – prior to the January leaks published by Diario Extra – the daily La Nacion published an interview with DIS chief, Mariano Figueres, in which Figueres supposedly told a reporter for the newspaper that the intelligence agency was investigating the reason behind at least two trips by children of El Chapo to Costa Rica in 2014.

According to La Nacion, Figueres told the reporter that the visits occurred around the time of the Costa Rica presidential elections and that the drug lord’s children visited a “tourist site” in San Carlos, Alajuela, but declined to elaborate further, citing the ongoing investigation.

Just days later, however, Figueres issued a press release in which he denied that he ever confirmed the alleged visits to the La Nacion reporter, and said that no such investigation existed.

La Nacion subsequently fired back with an article defending its original report and interview.

“In mid-November (2015), in a personal interview at the Casa Presidencial, Figueres was asked: ‘Prior to the elections (in 2014), during the campaign, there was a party in San Carlos that was attended by a son of Chapo Guzman.  What information does the DIS have about this?’” La Nacion claimed in the article.

Acording to La Nacion, Figueres responded by saying “It is information that we have and that is related to two specific cases that we are piecing together and are under investigation.”

 

Second intel leak linked Baldi to triple murder of rival hotelier

In a stunning twist, a second leaked intelligence document, also published by Diario Extra last month, revealed that the DIS also named Baldi as being the orchestrator of the brutal triple murder of a rival La Fortuna hotelier and his two sons.

On February 9^th, 2013, Geovanny Soto Ruiz, 52 and his sons Emmanuel, 18, and Juan Mauricio Soto Soto, 27 were found dead in various areas of La Fortuna, showing signs of torture.  Soto was the owner of the Mountain Paradise Hotel.

The bodies of Mr. Soto Ruiz and one of his sons were found near the Arenal River on the old road between La Fortuna and Monterrey with their throats cut, and showing signs of torture.

The youngest of the three men was found shot to death in a family-owned microbus on the way to the Fortuna River waterfalls.

Days after the discoveries, two Nicaraguan men, both who worked for Soto, were arrested on suspicion of having been hired to commit the crime.  Authorities said they were able to collect evidence against the men during raids on their homes, including a bloody knife.

However, both were eventually acquitted for lack of evidence, allegedly due to mishandling by detectives, and no further arrests were ever made for the murders.

But the second leaked report published by Diario Extra last month – which is dated March 12^th, 2013 – names Baldi as the architect and financier of the crime.  While the report cites only “intelligence sources,” the report is dated one month to the day after the first of the two suspects were taken into custody.

The report goes on to state that Baldi left the country for the United States during the days the murders are believed to have occurred, and returned to Costa Rica the same day that the men’s bodies were discovered.

Despite the DIS report, Baldi was never charged with any crime in relation to the killings.

In numerous Facebook posts, the businessman – who has come to be known as a vocal critic of government corruption over the years – has repeatedly denied all of the allegations made in the leaked reports.

Baldi first gained national notoriety in 2013 when former Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla sued the businessman for criminal defamation over a Facebook post in which the hotelier insinuated that the former president engaged in corruption and mismanagement of public funds during her time in office