Roberto Thompson, Mayor of the second largest and most populous city of Costa Rica, was arrested yesterday afternoon after being summoned to a regional precinct by prosecutors. He is expected to be booked on charges related to unlawful awards of liquor licenses, although an ongoing investigation suggests that other charges may be filed as well.

According to a news report filed by Natasha Cambronero of national newspaper La Nacion, Mayor Thompson was in his office yesterday afternoon when agents from the local Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) raided the Municipality. The presence of OIJ agents yesterday was not surprising since they have been engaged in a series of raids in recent days. This time, the raids were apparently related to alleged irregularities in the issuance of business and construction permits in Alajuela.

As it happens, development and prosperity in Alajuela have been flourishing under the leadership of Mayor Thompson in the last few years. The downtown district has been revitalized to attract visitors, both foreign and domestic, infrastructure has been improved, and several gated communities have emerged in the periphery of this city, which is also home to the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) as well as the future site of the largest shopping mall in Central America.

With the OIJ agents in the midst of seizing documents and computers, Mayor Thompson got a call from a prosecutor, who ordered him to a local precinct. Upon his arrival, the Mayor taken into custody and locked in a cell while prosecutors explained that they were acting on a tip from a municipal employee. The alleged information suggests that Mayor Thompson accepted a bribe to award five liquor licenses, which have become very lucrative in this burgeoning city.

After the arrest, political analysts in Costa Rica quickly observed that the arrest comes exactly 48 hours before the general assembly of the powerful National Liberation Party (Spanish initials: PLN), where Mayor Thompson was widely expected to get a vote of confidence to keep his Mayoral seat until 2020. Vice Mayor Dinorah Barquero, also of PLN, happens to be on vacation and getting ready for the assembly; she is a political rival of Mayor Thompson.