By Tom Louden, Alliance for Responsible Trade, Quixote Center
As we head out to observe the voting on the CAFTA referendum, it seems appropriate to compare the state of democracy in the U.S. with that of Costa Rica. We have only been here a short time, but we've received an intensive course in Costa Rican history and politics. It has become obvious from this instruction that we in the U.S. have much to learn, if we are to prevent the complete dissolution of the few semblances of democracy which remain in our country.
We quickly learned that the referendum campaign has included a permanent and massive campaign of fear mongering from the Costa Rican and U.S. governments and a large segment of the corporate sector here.There are many examples of this operation. Pindeco, a subsidiary of Dole, is the transnational which has the majority of pineapple plantations in Costa Rica. Most of their exports go to the U.S. They have threatened all of their workers that if the FTA is not passed, they will abandon the country, and all of the workers will lose their jobs.
This is a concept which is patently absurd. It is unthinkable that they would abandon all of the investment they have here so easily.In addition, if pineapple exported from here were threatened with a tariff for entry into the U.S., Dole would certainly have sufficient political clout in the U.S. to guarantee that nothing inhibits thier ability to import the pineapple. Yet this lie they are promoting will undoubtedly affect the way the workers on the plantations will vote tomorrow.
In a similar way, DEMASA, a Mexican company which has purchased many of the tortilla making facilities throughout the country is promoting the lie. Every Wednesday they have been meeting in a luxury hotel with all of the plant supervisors, and telling them that if the FTA does not pass, they will leave. It seems unlikely that Costa Ricans are going stop eating tortillas if the FTA is defeated. Somebody is going to need to make them.
The U.S. government, per their permanent custom in Central America, has been up to dirty tricks, blatantly and illegally intervening in the internal affairs of this sovereign country. They seem to be stuck back in the 18th century, acting as if Costa Rica were their backyard. Since about a month ago, Mark Langdale the U.S. ambassador here would go out to the textile factories and threaten the workers that in the event that there wasn't a FTA, the factories would all close. We read in the paper the threat that the sweatshops would all close, and the 14,000 jobs which still remain in this sector would vanish.
The State Department and the CIA always seem to wait until the last days of a political campaign to explode their most powerful bombs. This week their tricks' included a promise from the USTR Susan Schwab that in the event of a defeat of the referendum, there is no possibility for a re-negotiation of the treaty. What a patently absurd notion! Yesterday, President Bush released a statement reiterating the lie that a re-negotiation is not possible.
Other U.S. officials have threatened that the Caribbean Basin Initiative, which provides trade preferences here and in many other countries in the region, would be revoked.
Five minute long television commercials, played over and over, employed the most bizarre scare tactics to instill terror in people who don't easily have access to other sources of information. The Yes' campaign spent piles of money placing these fear-based ads on TV.
What gives hope that democracy is thriving here is that in spite of the plethora of scare tactics, there were multiple spaces where the NO' campaign was able to present their point of view. Every day the newspapers are full of a multitude of stories, including extensive interviews with articulate spokespeople on both sides of the issue.
For the last several weeks, each Thursday night there have been nationally televised debates where knowledgeable people are invited to debate the merit of each position covering a variety of topics. The themes have included the following: FTA and employment, FTA and the environment, FTA and health care services, FTA and Social Security and Telecommunications. For anyone interested in becoming educated on the topic, this provided a powerful opportunity to understand the issues and make an informed decision.
How different than the reality in the United States. With virtually one political position coming from the only two parties which have any space, real debate on important issues is virtually nonexistent. We suspect that this is not an accident.
A week or so ago, in a small meeting with four U.S. Senators who oppose the trade model currently being imposed, the Senators asked if anyone had been successful in getting opinion articles placed in either the New York Times or the Washington Post. In the room were representatives of most of the key D.C. organizations who are working against this trade model. Nobody in the room, including the 4 Senators had been successful in having an opinion piece published related to these FTAs in either of these nationally recognized publications. The only thing these papers publish is the dribble from Administration and business voices, whose sole reason for being seems to be to satiate their unquenchable thirst for profit, regardless of the consequences for people or the environment around the world. TV stations and radio are even more closely controlled. This sad reality bodes badly for our democracy.
Soon we will know the outcome of the referendum, and we will report any process or procedural irregularities we encounter. Regardless of the outcome, it is clear that after the referendum, Costa Rica will never be quite the same. We would do well to learn from the many ways the people of Costa Rica have succeeded in fostering debate and promoting an environment which offers real choices, rather than the snow jobs being stuffed down our throats in the U.S. Somehow we need to recover our democracy from the group of corporations who are holding it hostage.
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