Two More Women Accuse, Former President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias, of Sexual Misconduct

Two women, both journalists, alleged to having been the victims of sexual assault by former two-time president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace prize winner, Oscar Arias Sánchez; the women decided to speak up after a physician and antinuclear activist filed a criminal complaint against Arias for events that occurred back in 2014.

Nono Antillón, a television figure back in the 80’s and who worked with Arias when she was 25 years-old during the presidential campaign in 1986, affirms that once, when she was alone with Arias at work, he grabbed her hand and placed it over his hard penis. “I stood and pushed him, and he pushed me against a wardrobe and touched me. The noise caused people to knock the door. I never again accepted to be alone with him”, said Antillón in an interview with national daily La Nación.

“Why now? Because the society was not ready to believe us. There are courts but things always get delayed. I never filed a complaint because back then I would have never been able to make myself be heard and now it seems to me that I owe it to myself. I owe it to myself because I kept silent and it always affected. I felt furious, impotent, disgusted, embarrassed, to see him speak of honesty, ethics, the great politician, the Nobel prize winner. And then I see this woman (Arce)…”, commented Antillón (https://bit.ly/2RFpamw).

On the other hand, Emma Daly, a journalist who worked for The Tico Times back in 1998 and also for Reuters, told her story to the Washington Post, “(…) Emma Daly, the head of communications at Human Rights Watch, told The Washington Post in an interview Tuesday that Arias groped her in 1990, when she was a reporter covering Central America and while he was still president”.

“Daly said, Arias ran his hand between her breasts and exclaimed, “You’re not wearing a bra.”

Daly recalled being shocked by the incident and so flustered that all she could think to say was “Yes, I am.” She said she didn’t think about making a formal complaint against Arias, in part because of how common behavior like that was in Central America at the time.

“We just kind of took it,” she said. “It seemed as if being treated like that came with the territory, and there wasn’t much I could do about it.” (https://wapo.st/2Gr3Zm6)

Through his lawyer, Rodolfo Brenes, former president Arias stated: “I deny categorically the accusations made against me,” he said. “I have never acted in a way that disrespected the will of any woman.” (https://news.co.cr/two-more-women-accuse-former-president-of-costa-rica-oscar-arias-of-sexual-misconduct/78712/)