Costa Rica: It’s more than just the numbers
26-10-07
Costa Rica: It’s more than just the numbers
Just over half way through the stipulated time period before certification of the referendum on CAFTA will take place, a meticulous counting of every vote is happening in front of TV cameras, accompanied by a detailed accounting process. For the uninitiated, this provides the illusion of squeaky transparency; how could there be voter fraud here?
However, the fraud was committed long before the voting even started - and so far, there is no institution or mechanism willing to name that.
Just as we have experienced fraudulent elections here in the U.S., the real rigging of the election cannot always be detected through vote counts.
The recently formed civic committees are working diligently to document the pervasive fraud which was committed in the referendum process including: direct interference by the U.S. government, funding from foreign sources, threats and coercion by transnational corporations, illegal use of Costa Rican governmental resources, the continual violation of the 48 hour silent period stipulated under the law with no action taken on the part of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (SET) to censor it.
Many in civil society are not surprised by the unfolding of event, having long understood the double discourse; the illusion of transparency swimming in a pool of corruption. From the outset, many articulated a distrust of entering into the referendum process precisely because of this contradiction. However, despite a healthy skepticism on the part of many sectors, Costa Rican people decided to participate whole-heartedly in a historic attempt to voice their opinion through democratic process.
The ’loss’ on Sunday, after one year of intense organizing efforts and consistently favorable polls leading up to the vote, came as a heavy blow. However, the population carries a collective memory and wisdom. The strong public system and social structures that exist in Costa Rica have not yet been dismantled through privatization because when push comes to shove, the people have gone into the streets, and mounted effective resistance to defend their system. Ultimately, there is too much at stake for the Costa Rican people for them to let the model be reversed.
It is significant that in 1948, the creation of a new social contract in Costa Rica, went hand in hand with the dismantling of the military. These two remarkable events are interconnected. Despite multiple attempts to "legislate" away the social contract on the part of elites, without an army to repress the population, the government has ultimately had to negotiate with society’s demands for justice. For example, in 2000, civil society mounted a 3 week-long national strike to protect the social contract and the government elite was forced to retract the legal maneuver promoting privatizing of services.
The struggle to defeat the referendum has set in place a new, non-partisan multi-sectoral structure of representative local committees. Their existence will play a role in the future of Costa Rica and the implementation of CAFTA . A communication was issued recently by the spokesperson of the National Committee, Eugenio Trejos, to the local committees, calling for specific actions. The principal points of the document include:
1. The local committees should be declared permanent.
2. That each committee should compile their own list of irregularities and send it to a central location as quickly as possible.
3. That the committees should each reflect on the referendum and do their own critical analysis of the process.
4. A national meeting has been set up for representatives of all of the local committees for once the results are made known. This meeting will decide on next steps, based on the declared results and the input for action from the local representatives.
It remains to be seen what the final outcome of the referendum will be. What seems clear is that for the people of Costa Rica, the future will be determined by something much more than the vote count of the referendum.
An interesting aside: While the IMF insists on cutting social spending in poor countries through ’structural adjustment’ programs, it does not generally condition funding for the military or weapons procurement, except perhaps in Nicaragua for ideological, rather than budgetary reasons. Salaries used to pay soldiers in other countries, can be used in Costa Rica to hire more teachers or health care workers. Without doing the exact math, it would not be hard to calculate that money be used to buy an advanced aircraft (and stimulate a foreign economy), could probably build and equip a modest hospital, providing jobs and other tangible benefits for the developing country. However, the IMF and the World Bank are not making these calculations
For years soldiers from the Americas have been ’training’ at the U.S. based ’School of the Americas’. This center for enforcement of U.S. hegemony has a tragic history of teaching the most ’advanced’ torture techniques to soldiers from the throughout the hemisphere. ’Friendly’ authoritarian governments are kept in power by militaries committed to repression as a means of social control. In Costa Rica this type of instrument has largely been absent, requiring the government to cede in the face of massive protests. Perhaps this is a more ’democratic’ response, but not the one preferred by the U.S.
Copyright © 2007 Alliance for Responsible Trade
coordinated by the Quixote Center
P.O. Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Tel: (301) 699-0042 Fax: (301) 864-2182
Coordinator: Tom Loudon
Costa Rica Solidaria
Tel 223-2128 Fax 221-3128
escríbanos a: crsolidaria@gmail.com
