Costa Ricans Back CAFTA in Referendum But Opposition Refuses to Recognize Result
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Costa Ricans prepared on Monday to join a controversial free trade agreement with Central American neighbors, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. after a thin majority apparently backed the pact in a national referendum.
But even Sunday’s vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement did not end a yearlong battle over the agreement.
Opponents said they will wait for a mandatory recount, set to begin Tuesday, before recognizing the referendum’s results. The ballot-by-ballot recount is required by Costa Rican law, and can last no longer than two weeks.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting Monday, 51.5 percent of Costa Ricans voted in favor of the trade deal, which is known as CAFTA.
Costa Rica was the lone holdout among the six Latin American nations that now constitute the trade bloc. The pact has already taken effect in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
The White House kept a close eye on Sunday’s election results, having fought a bruising political battle to get the deal ratified by the U.S. Congress in 2005, when it passed the House of Representatives by just two votes.
Washington last week urged Costa Ricans to recognize the treaty’s benefits and vowed not to renegotiate the terms of the deal if voters rejected it. U.S. officials also suggested they might not renew other trade preferences now afforded Costa Rican products, set to expire next September, if the pact is not approved.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias called the trade deal crucial to industry in the Central American nation of 4.5 million people.
Opposition legislators on Monday vowed to use a pending vote on a package of laws required by CAFTA as leverage to win increases in education outlays and farm subsidies.
Bills that would open state telecommunications and insurance monopolies to competition are among the most controversial of the package of 13 laws.
Critics also object to requirements that Costa Rica open its agricultural and service sectors to competitors, fearing a flood of cheap U.S. farm imports.
© 2007 The Associated Press
…crucial to industry at the expense of 4.5 million people.
Assuming this vote wasn’t rigged, this is an example of 90% or more of an electorate voting against its own best interests. Costa Ricans must be drinking the same kool-aid that the US electorate is drinking.
The Costa Rican electorate has no excuse…they have had 13 years to observe how NAFTA hammered Mexico’s small businesses and workers. The human trafficing industry will now have a new source of cheap labor to smuggle around the globe.
then these countries will be flooded with highly subsidized US agricultural products putting local farmers out of work and then they will be obliged to work as an illegal in the US in order to feed their families and ICE will have lots of work kicking them out again and Americans will tut!tut! and wonder why all these hispanics have to be in their country…
It is my opinion that this referendum was manipulated and rigged. See:
Threats, Dirty Tricks, Fake Polls: Costa Rica Votes Under Duress on “Free Trade”
http://www.alternet.org/story/64544/
I also believe the majority of the people in the United States as well as in Costa Rica oppose CAFTA and NAFTA. I know conservatives, liberals, independents, and leftists in the U.S. who all oppose this bullshit. Even Minutemen speak out against it. We in the States don’t get an opportunity to vote on these “free” trade laws. Congress votes on them and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what we think; they are getting campaign contributions and perks from the corporations that benefit from these trade deals.
People in my country (the U.S.) are going to have to start losing their houses, their jobs, and losing their ability to pay for essential living necessities to get their asses off the couch and get out there and demand some change.
Unfortunately my government and the media have a brilliant way of pitting white citizens fearful of losing their jobs against undocumented immigrants entering the country. So they all fight among each other when they should be pissed at the government who is screwing us all over.
It’s very frustrating.
“Washington last week urged Costa Ricans to recognize the treaty’s benefits and vowed not to renegotiate the terms of the deal if voters rejected it. U.S. officials also suggested they might not renew other trade preferences now afforded Costa Rican products, set to expire next September, if the pact is not approved.”
In the interest of free trade, if you don’t accept our conditions we wont trade with you!
Dispatches from Costa Rica: CAFTA, Si TLC
http://blogs.dmregister.com/?p=9195
100,000 Costa Ricans march against CAFTA
http://blogs.dmregister.com/?p=9088
As other CD readers know, up until the very last hours before the CAFTA referendum, ALL polls showed a majority of Costa Ricans were against it.
It reminds me of when the 2004 exit polls ALL showed that Kerry would trounce Bush in the last US Presidential “election.”
If the unrestrained oligarchs of the Americas continue manipulating the outcomes elections, referenda, and recalls, the lower-class citizens will start to observe or intuit how elite democratic actually operates…and for whose best interests.
This will add considerable weight to the legitimacy crises these respective oligarchs are facing.
Andersdl–Leaving apart what looks like fuzzy math (I don’t understand how 5l.5% voting in favor of CAFTA equates to 90% of the electorate), I would respectfully like to take issue with your statement that Costa Ricans have no excuse for voting in favor of CAFTA.
As a US citizen residing in Costa Rica I can tell you that the people here have been influenced by the same concerns and forces as people everywhere. They are working hard to support their families and often don’t have time to be entirely knowledgeable about what is going on in other countries.
Citizens who work in factories here have been required to participate in pro-Cafta rallies by their employers. I’m sure they were given pro-Cafta literature and talks by those same employers.
I believe the pro-Cafta vote, if it wasn’t the result of manipulation, was the result of last minute US pressure and threats.(Given that a poll taken a few days before the referendum showed 55% against, 43% for) A friend’s elderly father pointed out an article to me in the newspaper La Nacion detailing these threats as the reason he would vote “yes”. This, after I translated for him a letter written by another expat here which detailed precisely why CAFTA would be harmful for Costa Rica. They fear US government power here, too–and why wouldn’t they?
cheencheen–in case you have forgotten, CAFTA was only passed by Congress after the Republicans went against standing policy, keeping the vote open for many hours into the night while Tom Delay’s enforcers walked the House floor threatening and twisting the arms of Republicans who wanted to vote “no”, until finally they managed to squeak out passage by a vote of 217 to 215.
This was one of the few times when Congress actually DID try to follow the will of the electorate due to so much pressure from same, but Delay’s tactics won out in the end.
Another group (51.5%) of ignorant people willing to bend over for the welfare of multi-national corporations and their wealthy shareholders.
I wonder if most Costa Ricans realize they just sold their socially responsible conservationism to the very people who will spearhead its desruction for predatory profits? They must have forgoten that the U.S. cattle and banana industries are responsible for their “deforestation rate being second to none”.
How sad!
Keep you eyes on Peru next. The House will be looking at a cafta agreement with them. Write and call now!
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=10319686&type=CO
The trade debate is all too often mischaracterized as a choice between “free trade” on one side and protectionism on the other. The truth is that we all benefit to some extent from economic globalization, but often the price of “free trade” is too high for workers, the environment, and small farmers.
After 15 years of NAFTA-style free trade, there is public consensus that a new way is needed -a reasonably balanced regulation of our complex global economy. It’s called fair trade.
The fair trade formula recognizes the need for globalization and economic growth, but places equal importance on ensuring that the benefits are shared equitably and that growth doesn’t trump environmental sustainability.
Tell your member of Congress, “It’s too little too late-vote no on the Rangel/Bush Free trade agreement with Peru.”
Every time a country gets something good, the good old USA comes in to mess it up.
Thank you freeforall for your thoughtful comments. I am also a resident of Costa Rica having had enough of Bush’s brand of government, but I guess I didn’t travel far enough. I do know that your average Costa Rican does not want CAFTA and they have been strong-armed and manipulated in order to get this trade agreement on board. When you have margins this slim, you begin to wonder. If you had seen the 100,000 turn out against CAFTA, streets filled with those who clearly know how exploitative US trade agreements really are, you would have thought it was clearly defeated. I do not trust anyone in government any more.
SuZen
Thanks for the kind words.
I don’t think it’s possible to travel far enough to get out of the reach of US power and influence.
freeforall and SuZen - it may not be possible to travel far enough to get out of reach of US hegemony, but I’m trying for Norway anyway. If nothing else, it may postpone the doom, and I owe that to my daughter.