VZCZCXYZ0005
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #0592 0732028
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 142028Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4528
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000592 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN JASON MACK 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR PGOV CS
SUBJECT: KEVIN CASAS, SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT-ELECT 
 
REF: A. SAN JOSE 443 
 
     ¶B. SAN JOSE 591 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: Kevin Casas, chosen by Oscar Arias to be his 
second vice presidential running mate, will come into the 
third highest political position in the country on May 8 with 
scant political credentials.  Only 37 years old, Casas is an 
academic and researcher who has never held office. 
Intelligent, poised, well-spoken, and full of ideas, however, 
Casas is the kind of bright technocrat that appeals to Arias. 
 We expect that his principal responsibility in the Arias 
administration will be to oversee a reform of government 
institutions.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Kevin Casas Zamora was born in San Jose in 1968, 
the youngest of five children of a mother from Costa Rica and 
a father from Cuba.  All his siblings were born in the United 
States, and, because his parents were naturalized U.S. 
citizens, Kevin acquired U.S. citizenship at birth.  Kevin's 
father, who left Cuba prior to Fidel Castro's ascension, 
owned and operated an auto repair garage in a working-class 
San Jose suburb. 
 
¶3.  (U) Casas, always a serious student, entered the 
University of Costa Rica in 1984 as a valedictorian scholar. 
After graduating with a law degree (not a graduate-level 
program in Costa Rica), Casas worked briefly in research and 
consulting services before pursuing his master's degree in 
Latin American Government and Politics at Enland's Essex 
University.  Casas completed his dotorate in Political 
Science at Oxford Universityin 2003.  During and between his 
studies, Casas orked for several years as a research 
consultant,first at the UN Latin American Institute of Crime 
Prevention (ILANUD) and later at the Arias Foundaion for 
Peace and Human Progress.  Casas most reently served as 
consultant for the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) 
in the preparation ofthe National Reports on Human 
Development and th State of the Region Report on Sustainable 
Human Development in Central America.  In 2003, Casas was 
awarded the prestigious European Consortium for Political 
Research prize for his doctoral thesis, "Paying for Democracy 
in Latin America: Political Finance and State Funding for 
Parties in Costa Rica and Uruguay." 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Casas first met Arias through his involvement in 
the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, where he 
worked for two years between his master's studies at Essex 
and doctoral studies at Oxford.  Arias and Casas quickly 
established a rapport, and Casas began writing speeches for 
Arias shortly before returning to England.  Casas maintained 
contact with Arias throughout his doctoral studies and even 
had the same doctoral thesis adviser that had worked with 
Arias some thirty years earlier.  Casas views Arias as a 
kindred spirit and mentor, but is hard-pressed to enunciate 
exactly why Arias tapped him to be vice president.  He 
acknowledges his role in helping the PLN to reach out to the 
country's youth, but also believes he has won Arias's trust 
and respect professionally. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Arias has not explicitly identified the roles his 
two vice presidents will play in his administration. 
However, Casas's academic and professional experience in 
public governance make him well prepared to help implement 
the government reform projects that Arias envisions. 
 
¶6.  (U) Casas enjoys reading and is an avid squash player. 
He is married to Simone Bunse, a 32-year-old German citizen 
he met while studying at Oxford.  They do not have children. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Over the last few months, Casas has become an 
important Embassy contact. 
LANGDALE