On 7 October, Costa Rica became the first nation in the world to approve a free trade agreement by popular vote. More than 60 percent of voters turned up at the ballot box, and the ‘yes’ carried the day by 51.6 percent.
At issue was the DR-CAFTA pact concluded between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in 2004. The treaty has entered into force for all parties except Costa Rica, where wide-spread and organised opposition held the administration back from introducing implementing legislation to Congress. The government eventually decided settle the fate of CAFTA through a national referendum.
The pre-referendum debate reached fever pitch after a strategy memo on CAFTA approval was leaked to the public on 6 September 2007. The memo – addressed to President Oscar Arias by second vice president Kevin Casas and parliamentarian Fernando Sanchez – recommended that the government engage in an all-out media campaign portraying a ‘no’ vote as equivalent to violence and disloyalty to democracy.
The government should imply, the memo suggested, that a failure to approve CAFTA would lead to massive job losses, as well as increased instability and vulnerability to interference from countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Although the administration stressed that the strategy proposed by the memo was never acted upon, vice minister Casas resigned on 29 September and Fernando Sanchez has given up his position as president of two key legislative commissions.
In related news, Costa Rica will host the initial round of negotiations on a Central America-EU Association Agreement on 22 October. That treaty is expected to be slightly less controversial than CAFTA since it will include development co-operation and political dialogue, as well as trade liberalisation.