ART to Observe Costa Rican Referendum on CAFTA
Costa Rica is the only country in Central America that has not ratified CAFTA. On October 7th, an historic National Referendum will decide the fate of CAFTA, which is largely opposed by Costa Rican civil society. ART, in coordination with the Stop CAFTA coalition, has organized a delegation to observe the Referendum process.
ART will be hosted in Costa Rica by the National Association of Energy and Communication Technicians and Workers (ANTTEC), which takes a strong anti-CAFTA position due to the anticipated negative impacts for the energy and communications sector. ANTTEC is part of the broad based social movement, which has mounted sustained opposition to CAFTA.
At a press conference in Costa Rica last week, the delegation released a report compiled by the Stop CAFTA Coalition documenting impacts of CAFTA in countries where it has been implemented. The report finds that “patterns of growing inequality and ongoing poverty within the signing countries have taken an upward tick, in spite of predictions to the contrary prior to the agreement’s passage.” (To read the report, please see the article directly below this one.)
On September 30, more than 100,000 people marched in San Jose to protest CAFTA, one of the largest protests in the history of Costa Rica.
President Oscar Arias, who won the presidency by a very slim margin (about 1.2% of the valid votes cast), is a champion of the pro-CAFTA forces. Recently allegations of massive, illegal government spending to mount a pro-CAFTA campaign forced the vice-president to resign last week. In a leaked email, he threatened local party affiliates with getting cut-off from funding for the next election cycle in any location that lost the referendum.
The pro-CAFTA camp is using fear tactics and big bucks to influence the vote. TV stations have been saturated with commercials in favor of the referendum and a plane flying a “Pro CAFTA’ message flew over the march on Sunday.
On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica, John Veroneau, stated that the Congress has never been asked to extend preferential benefits to a country that has rejected a bilateral trade agreement and implied that Costa Rica’s CBI benefits could be threatened if a No vote prevails.
Costa Rica is the plum prize for the corporations, with far more items ‘for the picking’ than any of the other CAFTA countries. If the people of Costa Rica say No to CAFTA on Sunday’s Referendum, it would mark a turning point in the struggle against the corporate-led trade model promoted by the United States and strengthen efforts in the region to roll back these agreements.
We will be posting blogs from Costa Rica all this week, so please come back to hear what is happening.