Arias Returns to Pro-CAFTA Campaign
by Rod Hughes
President Oscar Arias has returned from his convalescence from an inflamed tendon to the campaign trail to promote a yes vote on the referendum to approve or deny participation in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). In an exclusive interview published today in the daily La Nacion, the President criticized opponents of CAFTA for lying to the public.
He listed a number of myths perpetrated by the opposing campaign such as that it will eliminate public education, would weaken the Social Secuirty system (CAJA) by prohibiting the purchase of generic medicines, would take away the water and the marine riches from the waters around Cocos Island (commercial fishing is forbidden in this protected area), that the country would manufactures arms, etc. He said the latest question he had been asked was, “Is it true that if CAFTA’s approved that my son will have to fight in Iraq?”
But he also had some criticism of the proCAFTA campaign. He said he watches little TV but what he had seen appeared weak to him. Indeed, the “heart” symbol is now gone from the “yes” vote ads and a more direct approach touting the benefits of the pact has been announced. Both sides used the heart as a symbol, beginning with the opponents who used it to replace the “o” in the word “no.” It was an urging to follow one’s feelings when voting.
Arias said he had no plan B in case the vote failed to favor CAFTA but expressed complete confidence that CAFTA would be approved. He reacted to the threat by the Citizen Action Party and a couple of dissident congressmen to recognise the result of a favorable vote for the treaty by saying calmly, “They have to. A yes vote would be the will of the people.”
The President had reacted by calling “unacceptable” the recent memo by former Vice President Kevin Casas that suggested that mayors who did not deliver a yes vote in the referendum should be punished by having funds withheld from their municipalities He acknowledged that the resulting scandal in which Casas resigned (see article 1349) may have effected the campaign slightly.
Both Casas and memo co-author Fernando Sanchez apologized for the proposals. But the President observed acidly that no one had apologized for the graffito he saw reading, “The Constitutional Chamber (of the Supreme Court) is Arias’s whore…” or for questioning the court’s legitimacy “every time a decision went against their interests.” (This is an indirect reference to several union leaders who have made similar statements.)
Meanwhile, both campaigns are white hot with the anti-CAFTA forces planning more media advertising. Most of their propaganda has been confined to spray-painted graffiti and placards, plus buttonholing passersby at agriculture fairs and like events. However, they must hurry. Although they have 12 days to the Oct. 7 referendum, all parties are forbidden to procelytize after Oct. 4.
Both Casas and Sanchez, the latter a congressman who refuses to resign from his seat despite a clamor from CAFTA opposition, are gone from the “yes” campaign. But still, rumors circulate that a voting fraud is planned, a fabrication that Supreme Election Tribunal chief Luis antonio Sobrado vigorously denies. The tribunal was created in the 1949 Constitution as an independent body to prevent just such political frauds and is unique in the world.
The rumors are passed by bulk e-mails and claim that 5 million ballots were printed so that false votes could replace or duplicate the real ones or that a special software would distort the result. Sobrado says that less then 3 million ballots were printed.