Karina Bolaños, Costa Rica's Vice Minister of Culture and Youth, was dismissed this week from the position she's held since 2006 after a private video of the politician in her underwear surfaced on YouTube.

Speaking with CNN en Español, Bolaños said the video, in which she lustfully addresses an unidentified lover nicknamed "Little Man," was recorded in 2007, when she and her husband were temporarily separated.

She claims a computer engineer she hired to set up security cameras in her house stole the footage and has been using it to blackmail her and her husband ever since.

"It is very difficult to prove because he is a computer engineer and he is one of those people that hacks and steals accounts, and...because my husband is a congressman and I am a vice minister, he took advantage of the situation to get money out of us," Bolaños told CNN.

When the vice minister stopped making payments, the man uploaded the video to YouTube.

Bolaños' dismissal by President Laura Chinchilla has garnered mixed reactions. Some believe she brought her ordeal on herself by making the video in the first place, while others feel the president's swift judgement was too harsh.

An online campaign has been launched by supporters who have taken to posting photos of themselves in various stages of undress holding a sign that reads "we are all Karina."

For her part, Bolaños said that while she expected more support from her colleague in government, she nonetheless respected the president's decision to dismiss her.

[screengrab via Telenoticias 7]