When George Bush sat down to lunch with the leaders of Central America Sunday thousands of Salvadorians and others were in the streets quietly protesting free trade as an exploitation of workers.

Switch to Costa Rica where last week a national deputy claimed (incorrectly) that potatoes imported from Canada would bring cancer-causing fungus. 

These are just two events that show the deep suspicion in Latin America to free trade. And the suspicion is mixed with fear that their country, whichever it is, cannot be successful as an equal trading partner with the United States. 

Some of these fears are justified. Consider Costa Rica where agricultural imports are subject to the whims of the world market. The computer chip business is under the control of multinationals who would move their investments elsewhere if company officers thought they could save money.

And then there is the fact that tariffs and duties here on imported products are designed more to feed government bank accounts rather than to protect local industries. And the government needs the money because it is up to its eyeballs in debt.

Bush has been criticized because he brought nothing concrete to the table on his Latin American trip last weekend to promote a free trade pact with the Central American nations. He also spoke in generalities when he first said Jan. 20 that he would push for such a pact as an example and a  guide for creating a free trade agreement to cover the entire Western Hemisphere. He has not been more specific. 

It was Colin Powell who was the most candid with reporters on Air Force One as it was heading to El Salvador and Bush’s lunch date. Powell, the U.S. secretary of state, said that a Central American free trade agreement is not likely soon.

So what was the purpose of the trip? A  California Democratic politician claimed that Bush was just pandering to the Hispanic voters in the United States in advance of the November congressional elections.

Certainly Bush stressed anti-terrorism and drug interdiction in Peru and perhaps at his private lunch with the five Central American presidents. There was a big emphasis on Mexico, a country with which Bush has a special relationship. He visited there first at a U.N. development conference in Monterrey.

The choice of El Salvador for the lunch Sunday was ironic. Bush praised the country, calling El Salvador 

But it was under President Jimmy Carter, President Ronald Reagan and then the current president’s father, George Bush, that the United States sided with the establishment in its 12-year civil war that ended in 1992. Thousands died as the United States supported the Salvadorian military and the conservative elite, which eventually won.
 

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So many of the marchers in the San Salvador protests already had felt the full strength and power of the United States.

A clear test for a future free trade agreement with Central America would be to study the United States experiences with Mexico, which joined the North American Free Trade Agreement. But analyses are mixed. 

Among the critics of the agreement with Mexico is Public Citizen, which characterizes the agreement’s history this way:

"NAFTA's proponents promised the pact would create new benefits and
gains in each of these areas. The promised benefits — of 200,000 new U.S. jobs from NAFTA per year, higher wages in Mexico and a growing U.S. trade surplus with Mexico, environmental clean-up and improved health along the border — have failed to materialize. However, after eight years, NAFTA fails to pass the most conservative test of all: a simple do-no-harm test. Under NAFTA, conditions not only have not improved, they have deteriorated in many areas."

Public Citizen is the 31-year-old non-profit organization started by Ralph Nader.

Other non-profit groups and corporations strongly favor NAFTA and its expansion to the rest of the hemisphere.

What is clear, based on other trade agreements and the current Canadian-Costa Rican that is being considered now in the National Assembly here is that free trade will be taken in many small steps. Some of these agreements cover many years before certain markets are opened up to outside competition. Surely Costa Rica will try to make the best deal it can.

.And then the suspicion might take over, and the whole agreement might be scrapped either in the U.S. Congress in Washington or at the National Assembly level here.

The U.S. Embassy has issued a caution to citizens in Costa Rica and told them to be prepared to present proof of their legal entry and stay in Costa Rica.

The warning, posted on the embassy’s new Web page http://www.usembassy.or.cr/ is low-keyed and says that several U.S. citizens have been detained, deported or fined in recent months.

The Directorate of Migración agents have made a number of sweeps along the Pacific coast beaches looking for illegal foreigners. Plus they have been maintaining inspection locations along the Pan-American Highway.

In one high-profile case, a woman, a U.S. citizen, said that she was taken off a bus in Puntarenas, handcuffed and detained for two days before being placed on a Miami flight. A.M. Costa Rica quoted her husband, but the woman told the Naples, Fla., Daily News that the embassy did nothing to help her.

Embassy officials generally refuse to comment on specific cases because they said they believe federal privacy laws prohibit such comments.

The embassy announcement said that officials have

The announcement seems to have been posted over the last few days, although the Web page received a complete makeover a month ago.

Here is the embassy announcement:
 

"The U.S. Embassy has become aware of increased enforcement by Costa Rican authorities of local immigration laws. American tourists are reminded that they must apply to the Directorate of Migración (located in La Uruca, across the General Cañas Freeway from Hospital Mexico) for permission to remain in Costa Rica beyond the maximum stay (usually 90 days) authorized by the authorities.

"Americans should always be prepared to present to Costa Rican authorities proof of their legal entry and stay in Costa Rica. This proof can be the appropriately stamped tourist card or passport. A photocopy of the U.S. passport and stamps may not necessarily be accepted as proof of status. In recent months, Americans have been detained, deported, or fined due to their failure to demonstrate their legal status in Costa Rica."

Grupo TACA and LACSA, the Costa Rican airline, got some bad press in the Toronto newspapers when an engine on a Cuba-bound aircraft blew up in flight.
 

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The trip was on LACSA Flight 623 Saturday morning. About a half hour after takeoff, one of the two engines became engulfed in flames, and the pilot made an emergency return.

Then, according to the newspaper,  passengers claimed they had to wait nine hours before they were told they would not fly out again Saturday. 
They were told arrangements for an alternate flight to Cuba had been made with American airlines, but when passengers arrived Sunday morning, they found that American Airlines did not know of any arrangements.

Some passengers complained that LACSA only provided hotel rooms for those who could prove they came from out of town.

Eventually, American Airlines got the passengers on board, said the paper. Reporters said they could not get a comment from LACSA. Grupo TACA is an alliance of the principal Central American airlines, including LACSA,  united under one corporate identity.