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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 247

A.M. Costa Rica/Noel Dekking

Unhappy crowd taunts police in front of legislative building after treaty vote

Committee sends free trade treaty to full assembly, 6-3

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The committee studying the free trade treaty voted 6-3 late Tuesday to send the measure to the full Asamblea Legislativa. The action was expected, and the six members who voted in favor had made their positions clear long ago.

The decision by the committee president, Janina del Vecchio, to cut off discussion angered José Merino del Río of Frente Amplio. He is not a member of the committee but sought time to speak and had presented motions.

Out in the street, a crowd of about 500 anticipated the decision and became highly vocal when they learned that the measure has received a favorable vote. Many in the crowd were young people, but there were flags of the unions representing public employees, too.

The crowd pushed a yellow fence police had erected in front of the Avenida Central entrance to the legislature. Then they pulled part of it down. More police reinforcements arrived, and the crowd never reached the sidewalk.

The fence angered the citizens. Many had said earlier that they were exercising their democratic rights and felt that the government overreacted by putting up the barrier.

The six deputies on the committee representing Liberación Nacional, Unidad Social Cristiana and Movimiento Libertario voted in favor. As expected, three lawmakers representing the Partido Acción Ciudadana voted against the treaty.

Three dictámenes or summaries of opinions on the treaty will be prepared and published in the La Gaceta official newspaper. Liberación Nacional and the Movimiento Libertario will produce one favoring the document. Unidad Social Cristiana will produce a second favorable document but with different views elaborated. The Partido Acción Ciudadana will explain its negative vote in a third. Lawmakers said citizens will have access to all views, thanks to public publication.

The committee, the Comisión Permanente Especial de

Relaciones Internacionales y Comercio Exterior, met in unusual evening session to finish up work on the treaty.
Opponents complained that President Óscar Arias Sánchez had pushed too hard for the treaty. The assembly president had given the committee a deadline of Tuesday to send forth the treaty, although committee members had staked out a period this morning to finish up if needed.

The full assembly cannot act on the treaty until two days after its publication in La Gaceta. Then lawmakers will be going on Christmas vacation. So serious discussion of the measure on the floor of the assembly probably will not take place until January.

Lawmakers who oppose the treaty noted that the action Tuesday night was expected and that the international agreement with the United States has a long way to go, including a study of the document and the legislative process by the Sala IV constitutional court.

The treaty is not a panacea. It is a commercial instrument that will collaborate in the development of Costa Rica, said Mayi Antillón, the leader of Liberación Nacional, after the vote.

Evita Arguedas of Movimiento Libertario said she would work to bring the so-called complementary agenda before the full assembly. This is a basket of legal changes that bring Costa Rican law into conformity with the treaty.

When the committee began its evening session there were 336 motions on the table. Some were from the committee staff and others were from Frente Amplio and the Partido Acción Ciudadana. The committee approved 17 motions and rejected 50. The remainder were overlooked, one of the things that sparked Marino del Rio's anger. The lawmakers can bring up their motions again in the full assembly.

The vote was about 11:30 p.m. The crowd of opponents began to disburse about 12:30 a.m. without any major incidents.

Costa Rica is the only one of four other Central American nations and the Dominican Republic that has not approved the pact.

An A.M. Costa Rica commentary
Country has and will change with or without trade treaty

By Jay Brodell
editor of A.M. Costa Rica

Modern marvels have cut the isolation for expats and brought residents here closer to their families elsewhere.

It was only six years ago that the local Internet provider, Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., was struggling to provide dial-up service to the metropolitan area. And the prices for access at higher speeds were multiples of what they are now.

Thanks to the Internet, its voice over telephone technology, cell phone cameras and improved access to the worldwide web, expats are plugged in like never before. Software, popular music and even eBay are as close as the computer. Add a small Web cam, and holiday visits via the Internet are visual.

Some 20 or more years ago, expats in Latin America were dependent on the mail service. Courier service was in its infancy. The mails were unreliable. The Sunday New York Times was like gold. So were novels in English. Television was local and boring. Photographs took two to three days. The occasional overseas telephone call required a major investment. And if a sports fan were lucky, the Armed Forces network on shortwave might have live coverage of an American football or baseball game.

Today the Internet is as close as the cell telephone. Internet television carries the favorite soap opera available when viewers want it. And a handful of courier services will walk overseas purchases through customs and make delivery. The New York Times is on the Web, as are thousands of publications. Political junkies can see real

time television talk shows and even be fully briefed on the latest ax murder, thanks to Nancy Grace.

For Costa Ricans, the change has warped the culture. The youngsters are way ahead of their parents. As the government struggles to add Internet service to various agencies and create a valid virtual signature system, the kids are in MySpace.com perfecting their flirting and their English.

Meanwhile, thousands of Costa Ricans are at work producing the computer chips that make modern life possible.

Globalization is here whether or not the free trade treaty with the United States wins approval. None of the inventions that are icons of modern life was created in Costa Rica. Not cell telephones. Not soap operas. Not Web cams. And not Intel chips.

To try to create a unique Costa Rican development model, as some academics seek to do in opposition to the free trade treaty, is futile. Each of the modern marvels is the survivor of a vicious Darwinesque vetting process. For every iTunes there are the bleaching bones of many short-lived marvels, like the eight-track.

The free trade treaty may not be a good idea for Costa Rica. But reaching out and becoming more in step with the rhythms of the world is. Fortunately, that process, thanks to global communication, is taking place mostly without government initiatives.

The younger generation is more worldly and more skilled at technology, and that will be good for Costa Rica.

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