In May 2026, the newly inaugurated president of Costa Rica, Laura Fernández Delgado, ordered polygraph screening of senior officials as part of her anticorruption campaign. Her polygraph dragnet has now led to the removal of seven police directors from their posts, the Costa Rican Tico Times reports. Excerpt:
Costa Rica’s government removed seven police directors from confidence posts on Monday after they did not pass polygraph tests tied to the administration’s security controls, President Laura Fernández said. The officials were among 33 people evaluated as part of the government’s Fuerza Élite, a high-level security group focused on organized crime.
Fernández said the seven were questioned about organized crime, drug trafficking and whether they had received illicit benefits while serving in public office. The president said she ordered Security Minister Gerald Campos to separate the seven officials from the Fuerza Élite and end their appointments as directors. She also ordered a preliminary investigation from her office against each one.
“Seré implacable combatiendo la corrupción y limpiando a Costa Rica,” Fernández said, saying she would be implacable in fighting corruption and “cleaning” the country. The government did not release the names of the officials, the police units they belonged to, their specific posts, or the exact questions they failed. No criminal charges were announced.
According to the president, the tests were coordinated by the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad Nacional, known as DIS, with support from IPSC, a company she described as internationally certified. Fernández said the ministers and the directors of both DIS and the Unidad Especial de Intervención, or UEI, passed the evaluation.
Read the rest of the article here.
The company IPSC mentioned in the article appears to be the “International Polygraph Services Study Center,” which is run by three polygraph operators: U.S. national Raymond Nelson, a past president of the American Polygraph Association, Mexican national Rodolfo Prado Pelayo, and South African national Ben Lombaard.
It is not surprising that those who “failed” just happened to be among the lower-ranking officials polygraphed. It would have been a political embarrassment for the new president had any of her cabinet members failed to pass. Polygraphy has no scientific basis, and savvy operators know who it’s safe to fail and who must pass.