by Rod Hughes

Posturing and strategy heated up this week as the campaigns for and against the Central American Free Trade Treaty (CAFTA) heated up to a fever pitch as the Oct. 7 referendum nears. A hot exchange in the Legislative Assemby between Oscar Lopez, a deputy representing a one-man delegation, and members of President Oscar Arias’s party about the backing of CAFTA by former Vice President Jorge Manuel Dengo interrupted more important business.

The name Dengo is influential in Costa Rica. The ex-vice president was awarded the Benemerito de la Patria title in honor of his service to the nation on Aug. 27 and the family name is associated with the pioneering development of the Electrical Institute (ICE) and rural electrication in the country.

When Dengo, an 89-year-old engineer, came out in favor of CAFTA in an article in the newspaper La Nacion, it did not sit at all well with Lopez, who is the sole congressman from the miniscule Assess without Exclusion Party. His contributions to the anti-CAFTA campaign have been doubtful. He told the audience of a provincial radio station that if the pact passed the referendum indiginous people were in danger of having thei organs harvested for transplants and named three prestigious private hospitals here as benefiting. (See newsfeed 1306)

So Lopez’s latest public utterance was to accuse Dengo of misusing his newly awarded title to influence voters in favor of the treaty. (Apparently Lopez does not favor the Constitution’s freedom of speech guarantees, either.) “I feel ashamed,” Lopez snarled, “to have contributed my vote (to the award) because he doesn’t deserve it…”

Mayl Antillon, congresswoman for the president’s National Liberation Party, replied hotly to Lopez, implying that Lopez evidently would rather wait until the ailing Dengo was dead (and silent) before granting the award.

It was a week for statements. Minister of Foreign Trade Marco Vinicio Ruiz predicably warned that the negotiations for a free trade pact with the European Union would almost surely fail if CAFTA was rejected by the voters. (The English-language weekly The Tico Times reported the same thing last month.)

The Arias Administration Wednesday announced that, if the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) fails to win voters’ approval in the referendum Oct. 7, they will not push in congress for passage of the 13 bills needed to bring Costa Rican laws into conformity with the trade pact.

The statement by Presidency Minister Rodrígo Arias comes on the heels of the statement Monday by Citizen Action Party (PAC) floor leader Elizabeth Fonseca that the 17-member delegation would fight the 13 bills even if CAFTA is approved.

The Arias Administration has bet a large stack of its political chips on passage of CAFTA while PAC is dead set against the treaty. Is the government’s assurance an olive branch extended to PAC? Or is it an effort to make PAC look like sore losers if, despite their opposition, CAFTA wins?

PAC’s deputy floor leader Rafael E. Madrigal seemed to view the Arias proposal with suspicion, as if the olive branch might be a lit fuse. The fact is, that PAC has enough members to paralyze the Legislative Assembly by simply staying home, a familiar tactic that prevents forming a forum.

It’s a jungle out there in congressland.