By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

Government officials yesterday expressed concern over the potential closure of a Venezuelan state-owned aluminum plant in Costa Rica they say would be the result of political differences between President Oscar Arias and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The closure of CVG Aluminios Nacionales S.A. (Alunasa) – which appears likely after the company stopped ordering prime materials for production and began making layoffs yesterday – could further freeze already icy diplomatic relations between two nations whose leaders are on opposite sides of an ideological rift in Latin America.

The future of the plant, which employs about 400 people in the Pacific-slope town of Esparza, was called into question after Arias criticized Chávez for usurping power and “negating democracy” in an interview that aired on Radio Columbia earlier this month.

In a letter last week to Arias, Alunasa workers said Chávez may have decided to close the plant due to Arias’ comments, though Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said the government couldn’t confirm this since there is little communication between the two governments.

In attempts to find a resolution, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias met yesterday with Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, Labor Minister Francisco Morales, Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) legislator Bienvenido Venegas and representatives of the company.

“We don’t know if they’re going to close operations, or if they want to move part of the plant or something else,” Arias told reporters at a press conference in the Casa Presidencial Monday.

Meanwhile, Alunasa employees sent a letter to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez asking the socialist president to reconsider.

Of 6,000 GSM cell phones being sold by the phone company ICE, only 2,200 remain unsold and those are available only at authorized outlets, reported the daily Al Dia today.

The phones retained by ICE, the government monopoly phone company, sold out in a rush, according to al Dia staff writers Erick Bonilla and Yensy Aguilar. The phones are Erickson and have excellent coverage, according to ICE spokesman Geovanni Bonilla.

But, reported the newspaper, plenty of complaints were heard from purchasers from the company’s offices about long lines and slow service. Costa Rica is one of the “talkiest” countries in Latin America with thousands of cell phones in use and customers all but stampeding to buy new ones.

In another article in the same edition, ICE executive president Pedro Pablo Quiros told the paper that he is not at all concerned about competition if, as many desire, the communications market is thrown open to free enterprise. However, it appears that the ICE employees’ union is not so confident the company can go head-to-head with private firms and will join a huge demonstration planned by groups opposing ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, a pact that would open the communications market.