http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B04A21086-F56C-407C-807B-5A07D5D7F1CD%7D)&language=EN
Costa Rica and the Shout of the Excluded
Havana, Oct 23 (Prensa Latina) The Costa Rican people are in the streets and on a general strike Monday and Tuesday to challenge the free trade agreement with the United States, which President Oscar Arias has approved to accelerate.
Convened by the National Coordinator of Struggle against the project, the demonstration is composed of teachers, health workers, farmers, transport workers and students, as well as several grassroots and union organizations.
The agreement is not good for Costa Rica, said National Public Employees Association head Albino Vargas, who insisted on putting aside the accord as it is a swindle that severs independence.
The administration expects ratification in the first trimester of 2007, and arrogantly declared it is the Legislature and not the streets that will have the last word.
So as to have no doubt which side the government is on, it warned of sanctions against those supporting the strike.
Arias said on national television that he would not permit holding up traffic nor preventing the majority from working.
Demonstrators reaffirmed their right to protest however, an example of the great rejection of the agreement by the Costa Rican people.
In the last university surveys, 70 percent declared that if the pact is endorsed, the United States would be the winner.
FULL story at link above.