by Rod Hughes

ICE, the telecommunication monopoly, is preparing for battle as the Legislative Assemby begins discussion of one of 11 remaining bills needed to implement the CAFTA free trade treaty with the United States. The bill is, of course, the opening of competition in the area of cell phones and Internet access.

President Oscar Arias’s congressional delegation has placed the bill on a “fast-track” path but that road may prove rough for everyone. ICE employees this week announced plans to go out on strike early next week, continuing a scorched earth retreat begun when CAFTA lost in the nationawide referendum in early October.

The fast-track procedure means that the opposition will have only two days (ending today!) to present amendments, preventing a tactic of multiple amendments used in regular procedure to drown a bill. A special committee considers the bill’s amendments for seven days and reports it out within 20 days maximum for floor discussion before the vote.

Chief opposition consists of the Citizen Action Party (PAC)of 17 members plus a handful of allies. After agreeing with the Administration not to paralyze congress by en mass absenteeism that prevents a quorum, they have proceeded to do just that at times. (Recently, The English-language weekly The Tico Times, normally mild, editorially took PAC to task for dog-in-the-manger blocking tactics that freeze not only action on CAFTA-related bills but on others even more important.)

Voting to place the bill on the fast track was very much along party lines, PAC opposing while National Liberation and Social Christian Unity voted in favor, although the Liberatian Movement split on the measure. This split might endanger passage if the normal 38 votes (3/4 of 57 deputies) were needed. But Majority Leader Mayi Antillon of the Liberation Party says her legal advisors tell her that only 29 votes (a bare majority) are needed to pass a fast-track bill.

Meanwhile, three PAC deputies have accused Presidential Minister Rodrigo Arias and Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz of keeping secret their agenda on the timing of sending the rest of the CAFTA implementation bills to congress. One even questioned the validity of the “magic date” (Feb. 29) that the President says is the deadline for bringing laws into alignment with the treaty. The trio say the alleged secrecy is part of a plan the administration will use to rush the bills to the floor at the last minute to mute opposition.

But PAC is not the only one with a complaint. Several of the 38 deputies who favor the CAFTA implementation bills have reported to police that protestors from the so-called “patriotic committees” organized by the CAFTA opponents before the referendum approved the pact are demonstrating outside their homes in the evening hours. Moreover, the small mobs toss trash and stones into the yard, the deputies say.