Government officials have worked hard over the weekend to occupy the moral high ground as free trade opponents begin two days of protest today.

President Óscar Arias Sánchez has ordered that police participating in crowd control not wear guns.

Both Marco Vinicio Ruiz, minister of Comercio Exterio, and Fernando Berrocal Soto, the security minister, have called on protesters and the public in general to respect the democratic institutions. Berrocal said in a statement that to do otherwise would be treason.

Protesters have styled the marches today as revolution in the streets, although now they are calling it civics in the street.

The marchers in San José will begin from multiple points. They will start about 10 a.m. and head toward the Asamblea Legislativa where the free trade treaty they oppose is being considered. Columns are to come from Sabana Norte where the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad is located, from the Estación al Pacifico in South San José, from Parque La Merced on Avenida 2, from the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Pedro.

Teachers are supposed to join the march, leaving students either without supervision at schools or on holiday.

Employees of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social plan to march. These are hospital and clinic workers. The Arias administration has made much of the fact that surgeries will not be performed, prescriptions will not be filled and clinic  appointments will not be kept.

A survey released by Casa Presidencial said that 74 percent of the Costa Ricans reject the idea of traffic blockades and 53 percent support the trade treaty.

The march today is filled with contradictions. Teachers would not be affected by the free trade treaty, yet they are marching.  Caja workers would not be affected except that more private hospitals like Clinica Biblica and Hospital CIMA could follow increased foreign investment in the country.

Even Ablino Vargas himself deals in exaggeration. He is the secretary general of Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados and a prime mover of the general strike.

On the union’s Web page and in a Saturday newspaper column Vargas said that “this hateful treaty will convert us into a gigantic spot for the fabrication of arms, changing for always our international image of a people who love peace.”

This is a false statement that has been promoted by treaty opponents because it plays so well with the public.  Its use suggests that Vargas might have problems getting a big turnout Monday.

A legislator has latched on to the arms theme because a Costa Rican registered the name Raytheon S.A. and used the company to buy land on the Nicoya Peninsula. The U.S. arms manufacturer Raytheon Corp. has denied any knowledge of the company or the transaction.

At the same time the free trade treaty would not force Costa Rica to change its laws to allow arms manufacturing.