WASHINGTON (AFP) - Organization of American States Secretary General Miguel Angel Rodriguez resigned amid accusations of corruption dating to his presidency of Costa Rica and licenses for French telecom giant Alcatel.
"I resign the post of secretary general of the OAS on October 15," Rodriguez said in a letter to the OAS, also released to the media.
OAS Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi of the United States will head the OAS until the OAS General Assembly elects a replacement in accordance with OAS bylaws, said Permanent Council Chairman Aristides Royo representative of Panama.
Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco on Monday demanded that Rodriguez resign and face corruption charges over an alleged bribe from French telecom firm Alcatel.
Rodriguez had been on the job for only two weeks.
He served as Costa Rica's president from 1998 to 2002, and was succeeded by Pacheco.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "We took note of the announcement that was made by Mr Rodriguez ... He is a man that is known well to us, a man of skill and of determination who we supported for this position.
"We regret very much that he found it necessary to take this step, but we understand that it is important for him to deal with this issue with the Costa Rican government."
Rodriguez insisted that he is innocent of the charges, and that his resignation is for the good of the OAS.
"I do not want to submit the OAS to the cost of a cruel and long persecution of its secretary general not only in court but also in the media, at the same time that I do not want to make my beloved family suffer the cost of defending myself at a distance," he said.
"With humility, pain and anguish, I ask you and your countries for your forgiveness for putting you through this difficult time and I hope that my decision allows the organization to focus all of its attention on the tasks at hand," he added.
A friend of Rodriguez, Jose Antonio Lobo, a former director of Costa Rica's telecom monopoly, told prosecutors that, as president, Rodriguez had demanded part of a kickback that Alcatel paid after paying 240 million dollars for rights to operate 400,000 cellular telephone lines in 2001.
Lobo was for 20 years part of Rodriguez's Christian Social Unity Party.
Rodriguez said earlier that the money he received from Lobo was a loan to defray the costs of his campaign to head the OAS.
The state-run Costa Rican Electricity Institute enjoys a monopoly over telecommunications, and has in three years paid Alcatel 258 million dollars.
Rodriguez, in his brief time heading the OAS, had slashed salaries, including his own, by 10 percent and converted the multilateral organization's 22 departments into seven to meet anticipated budget shortfalls.
Costa Rican prosecutors will next week set a date on which to call Rodriguez to testify, judicial sources said Friday.