Environmental groups that oppose mining and drilling for oil are making their voices heard because they expect that President Óscar Arias Sánchez might favor those projects more than did Abel Pacheco.

The Unión Norte por la Vida and the Frente Oposición a la Minería in San Carlos said that it was preparing a letter with thousands of signatures asking Arias to maintain a moratorium on mining.

Oilwatch said it was getting ready for a big fight because it believes that the Arias administration and  Roberto Dobles, the new minister of Ambiente y Energía, might not maintain a moratorium on offshore drilling.

Costa Rica’s Sala IV suspended the contract with Harken Petroleum in late 2001. When Abel Pacheco took over as president he declared a moratorium and provided no help for Harken to bring its offshore exploratory operation into judicial compliance.

Harken is preparing to hail Costa Rica into international arbitration to collect on anticipated profits.

Since Pacheco declared the moratorium world oil prices have soared putting into question the decision.

The mining moratorium issued at the same time did not cover two companies that already had operations under way. One at Miramar has not reached production. A second project in northern Costa Rica near the Río San Juan is approaching production.