The focus of the government and free trade opponents has shifted to Limón where dock workers have upgraded their slowdown to a full-scale strike.

President Óscar Arias Sánchez has reiterated his desire for dialog but insists that he will not do what trade treaty opponents want: withdraw the document from the Asamblea Legislativa.

“This boat has a captain, and the captain knows where he wants Costa Rica to go,” Arias told reporters Wednesday.

Meanwhile, union leaders at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said they would stage another protest and demonstration sometime in November. Workers from that communications monopoly dominated the protests Monday and Tuesday.

The dock workers have other reasons for their strike, although the free trade treaty figured into their grievances too. They are expecting a payment from the government that was promised by the Abel Pacheco administration. The amount is 470 million colons or about $900,000. But they also fear the government will lease the docks to a concessionaire, thereby jeopardizing their jobs.

The tourism minister said Wednesday that the Limón area took a hit because the Carnival Victory skipped a scheduled stop there and went on to Jamaica due to the strike. The loss to the business people and the government was 57 million colons or about $110,000, said Carlos  Ricardo Benavides of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo. The boat held 3,000 passengers and 1,050 crew members, he said.

More cruise ships are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and Benavides asked union leaders to consider the impact their actions were having on their neighbors.

Reports from the Caribbean say that both the Moín and Limón docks are at a standstill. Workers had been conducting a slowdown that was ruled illegal by a judge.

Central government officials said that since the strike has been declared illegal, the agency that runs the docks, the Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica, could apply unspecified sanctions. They also plan to take steps to make sure the cruise ships can dock.

The government also is considering holding up paying the money owed to the dock workers and using it as a lever. Much of the nation’s agricultural exports pass through the docks on the Caribbean.

Arias, in his discussion Wednesday, said that the government was flexible. He noted that he had promised that he would not let protesters Monday and Tuesday block traffic. But when Universidad de Costa Rica’s anarchist club set up barriers on a main road, Arias pointed out that he declined to send in police. He said he did this in part because the police had been disarmed at his order and they would be facing youngsters with sticks and bottles of flammable liquids.

The government is disposed to make concessions when it has to, he said.

He also chided the students for covering their faces with ski masks and bandannas. He said hiding one’s identity was not very Costa Rican.

A committee of the legislature probably will send the free trade treaty to the assembly floor in the next few weeks. A debate will begin. Assembly leaders anticipate a vote in January or February.