CAFTA ratified by razor thin majority in Costa Rican elections

October 10, 2007

Protest electoral fraud
by Guerry Hoddersen

On October 7, Costa Ricans went to the polls to vote on the highly
disputed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the U.S.
The day before the vote, the Bush administration issued a statement
saying it would not extend trade preferences to the country if voters
rejected the treaty. It was the last dirty trick in a long campaign by Bush
and his henchmen in Costa Rica--President Oscar Arias and U.S.
Ambassador Mark Langdale—to mislead and threaten Costa Rican voters.
With 96.3 percent of the vote counted, 51.6 percent of voters backed the
agreement while 48.4 percent opposed it. Voter turnout was 60 percent.
Rural areas voted more strongly against the measure than did the urban
centers. A manual recount of ballots began on Tuesday at the request of
anti-CAFTA forces.

Costa Rica is the first country where a free trade agreement has been put
to a public vote. The extremely narrow margin of victory shows that the
steam has gone out of the free trade engine. (Even the U.S. Congress
only approved CAFTA by a two-vote margin.) Furthermore, this election
has little legitimacy in the eyes of many Costa Ricans or anyone, for that
matter, who has followed this important fight.

Today the Costa Rican government and its U.S. corporate co-conspirators
are celebrating the spoils of their unethical and illegal campaign. A full
account of their tactics--including bribery, blackmail and fear—is found in
"CAFTA referendum in Costa Rica: Dirty tricks and repression
mount as vote nears,"
http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol28no5/28511CAFTA.html.

After this article was published in the Freedom Socialist, a major scandal
broke out over an internal government memo that exposed a high level
campaign to manipulate the outcome of the election. In addition, managers
of public institutions like the National Security Institute brazenly erected
banners promoting a "yes" vote in blatant violation of prohibitions against
using public resources to sway the vote. At the same time, the Institute
imposed a gag order on public employees, teachers, and
university students.

Join them in contesting the outcome of this sham election. Write the head
of the Costa Rican Supreme Elections Tribunal and demand that the
results be invalidated because "yes" votes were obtained through illegal
means and in violation of election laws the tribunal is responsible
for upholding.


Send your letters or emails to:
Luis Antonio Sobrado Gonzalez, President
Tribunal Supremo Elecciones
Apartado Postal: 2163-1000
San José, Costa Rica
Email: sobrado@tse.go.cr
Please send a blind copy of your message to Guerry Hoddersen at
fspnatl@igc.org
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