Moín, Limón -- Flames several stories high and clouds of dense black smoke consumed the chemical plant Químicos Holanda Costa Rica S.A. in the Caribbean port city of Moín yesterday, leading at least 300 residents to evacuate their homes and at least 15,000 people in the Limón province without water as firefighters worked to control the massive flames.

At press time, the blaze had been raging since about 11:15 a.m. and 90 firefighters were working to control it, according to firefighter Ronald Carballo.

Firefighter Corps Director Héctor Chaves told The Tico Times at about 5 p.m. that the fire was mostly contained, thanks to several dikes that firefighters had set up, though chemicals had leaked outside of the plant's 20,000-square-meter perimeter. Still, The Tico Times observed massive flames shooting into the sky above the plant, which remained clouded by dense black smoke.

Chaves said the fire is feeding off a mixture of chemicals, but he was most concerned about the 118 tons of the chemical toluene and the 40 tons of xylene stored at the facility.

 “On their own, they are not dangerous,” said University of Costa Rica (UCR) chemist Ariel Alfaro, referring to the toluene and xylene. “The problem is that the fire caught the storage tanks.”

According to Alfaro, the flames cannot completely burn the chemicals because of the quantity involved, meaning very toxic gases are produced and carried on the wind along with other chemical particles.

The chemicals present a serious danger to the environment as well, since one liter of any sort of fuel or petroleum derivative can contaminate 35,000 liters of water, Alfaro said. Chaves confirmed that a "very small" amount of chemicals from the plant had leaked into a nearby river, which passes through an estuary and spills into the ocean.

About 15,000 to 16,000 people in the Limón province are without water after the National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) shut down a nearby pumping station and sources of water as a security measure, according to AyA Director Ricardo Sancho. Additionally, about 300 people from homes near the plant were evacuated to shelters in the neighboring port city of Limón, said a spokesman from the National Emergency Commissino (CNE).

See this Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

Supporters of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) -- including perhaps the agreement's most vocal supporter President Oscar Arias -- yesterday applauded the Legislative Assembly's Intern ational Affairs Commission's vote Tuesday night to send the agreement to the assembly's main floor for debate.

The nine-member commission voted 6-3 in favor of pushing CAFTA forward at 11:30 p.m. The majority vote clears the way for the pact to be sent to the assembly floor next month, putting it one step closer to a final vote.

CAFTA took effect in the United States, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic this year. Costa Rica remains the only country yet to ratify the trade pact.

It appears to be a small victory for CAFTA supporters in a country notorious for its suffocating tramites- or bureaucratic processes – known for strangling government projects and businesses with red tape.

Meanwhile, CAFTA opponents say the legislative majority has violated minority rights by setting a deadline for the commission to vote on the trade pact and that 14 months wasn't enough time for the commission to debate it. They promise to take their complaint to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (IV).

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias yesterday dismissed these complaints in a statement released by Casa Presidencial.

“Since it entered the commission, CAFTA has been discussed for 278 hours. Well, in no country in the world has a treaty had so much debate in a commission to pass it forward. Whoever says that there has not been enough time to say what they want to say, I don't know what else they want,” Minister Arias said.

See this Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

A Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) commission is meeting with Nicaraguan authorities to prepare for President-elect Daniel Ortega to take office Jan. 10.

Paul Oquist, an international expert on government who is coordinating the change of hands, said the Sandinista party hopes to step into an “organized” office.

The commission met yesterday with economists who have offered “concrete ideas on how to proceed to maximize the situation for the transition,” Oquist said, adding that any type of transition in government can cause problems, but Ortega's administration will try to minimize them, keeping the best interests of the nation in mind.

Economist Luis Angel Montenegro said the new Sandinista government is likely to find fault with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI), which has failed to carry out projects, and with the National Lottery, which has administrative problems.

The commission met last week with Foreign Minister Norman Caldera and his team of advisers. Additionally, Ortega has met with representatives from multilateral financing credit organizations in Nicaragua.

Ortega will assume the presidency in the Plaza de la Fe Juan Pablo II during a ceremony expected to be attended by 250,000 people, according to organizers.

Police plan to have at least 2,000 security agents on hand, and the Foreign Ministry hopes to accredit at least 1,000 Nicaraguan and international journalists to cover the ceremony.

Ortega is coming back to power 16 years after he served as President from 1985-1990.