Si or No, An Important Decision

David: The big day has come and gone. On September 7th Costa Rica had a nation wide vote to either accept or reject the Central American Free Trade agreement. Costa Rica is the last of the Central American countries to decide upon this agreement. Many Costa Ricans think that the other Central American countries hastily agreed to CAFTA without truly looking at the implications. Costa Rica took the opposite route and locked up the CAFTA vote in congress for four years and when it looked like the congress would never be able to decide the president decided to put it to a popular vote and let the people decide their own fate.

The referendum vote was set for September 7th and both sides started their campaigns to convince the people to vote either si or no. The “yes” side claims that CAFTA will create more jobs, further development, improve public services, etc. The “no” side says that there are too many parts of the agreement that do not put Costa Rica and the U.S. on the same playing field and the U.S. has many more benefits from it than Costa Rica would. The kind of development that CAFTA would bring is not the kind of development that will improve the lives of the people here, only the lives of those who are already rich. In the end, the CAFTA agreement pulls rank on a country’s constitution, just as NAFTA does. If Costa Rica ratified CAFTA they would essentially be allowing their sovereign national rights be 2nd place to the rights of a trade agreement.


So, the vote was this last Sunday and we happen to be in the city in the morning and back here in the valley in the afternoon. The patriotism was impressive. We saw si and no representatives all day. We thought we would document a little of the excitement with a few pictures.

At the end of the day CAFTA was passed by just a 3% margin which represents about 50,000 people. Now begins the process of implementing the agreement. To be honest, Sarah and I are disappointed because we feel that this agreement is not in the best interest of the majority of Costa Ricans. And it does not make easier the already difficult task of protecting the environment, God’s creation. CAFTA jeopardizes the rules and regulations Costa Rica’s government has in place to protect the land, air, and water. It will be interesting to see what changes will occur in the next decade and will they be considered positive or negative. We hope that Costa Ricans will continue to exhibit the behavior they are known for, pride in their land and their quality of lives. Hopefully they will always fight to maintain this pride.