More than 250 national police officers took over the Caribbean port of Moín early this morning to put an end to three days of protests by port workers using tortuguismo, or slowing down their productivity to a minimum, to oppose government plans to privatize the port’s management. These protests have cost the government $5 million in lost goods, Public Security Ministry Fernando Berrocal told the press this morning.

The transport minister said Wednesday that construction of the San José-Caldera highway would begin in November at the same time that work begins on reconstructing the San José-San Ramón highway.

The minister is Karla González, and the San José-Caldera route will reduce the travel time from the Central Valley to the Pacific coast.

The bridges for the Caldera highway have been in for years, but the Pacheco government was unable to get the roadway built due to challenges to the concession law.

Minister González said that land is being expropriated and rights of way acquired for both projects, and the work is advancing. In addition, the utilities companies, such as the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados have signed on to the project and will relocate their services.

The projects are concessions, and the company doing the work is Autopistas del Valle. The concessions are for 25 years. The Caldera route is an extension of the Autopista Próspero Fernández which runs along the south side of Parque La Sabana. The highway is complete through Ciudad Colon. The new stretch will be 78 kilometers and will cost $140 million. The San Ramón project is 65.8 kilometers and costs $170 million.

Both projects have been anticipated by real estate investors who expect appreciation of properties as a result of the new highways. The November starting date was first proposed by the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes in May, but obtain rights-of-way proved to be more work than anticipated.

Police carrying gas masks were in position early today to take over the docks at Limón and Moín on the Caribbean.

Workers there have been engaged in a slowdown and demand that the government promise not to privatize the operations.

Early in the day President Óscar Arias Sánchez said the dock workers were doing great harm to Costa Rica. Shippers of perishable products estimate their loss at $5 million or more. Meanwhile police riot units were being transported to the area. Some 200 are believed to be there.

Arias noted that the dock workers are only loading two containers an hour when they should be loading 60. Trucks carrying containers are backed up for miles. Many hold pineapple or bananas.

Police have taken control of the docks in the past, usually without much resistance. The police units usually moved in before dawn.

Dock workers won one round late Sunday when it appeared they will get about 470 million colons promised by the Abel Pacheco administration.

But workers quickly changed their demands to a promise from Arias not to convert the dock into a concession as has happened in Caldera on the Pacific.

Arias was not at all diplomatic. He said in San José Wednesday afternoon that he promised to improve the docks while he was campaigning in Limón before the Feb. 5 election.

To do that a company has to be brought in that has money, he said. And he said he was not going back on his campaign promise of privatizing.

The docks are now run by Administración Portuaria y Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica, a government agency.

Over the weekend officials learned that the dock administration has about $19 million in a slush fund, and dock workers want this money used for modernization.