WORKING the Harvest: The coffee harvest is now in full swing in Costa Rica, where thousands are out in the fields collecting ripe beans for processing. Johnathan Navarro, 17, works on a plantation in Santa María de Dota in the southern region of Los Santos.

By Katherine Stanley with ACAN-EFE reports
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

The Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), slated to make its grand debut on the Legislative Assembly floor this week, remains in the wings as the National Printer works to reprint the massive pact and accompanying texts – a requirement that must be fulfilled before debate can begin.

The assembly's Foreign Affairs Commission, which debated CAFTA for more than a year and voted in December to send it to the assembly floor, also voted that the official government daily La Gaceta must republish the agreement, along with the interpretive statements the commission had approved and the supporting and opposing opinions presented by various parties in recent weeks.

The National Printer, which publishes the daily, told wire service ACAN-EFE yesterday that the massive publication won't take place until Jan. 26, making it unlikely that discussion will begin before February.

La Gaceta first published the text of the more than 2,000-page agreement in November 2005 at a cost of almost $70,000; Legislative Assembly Executive Director Antonio Ayales has said the re-publication of CAFTA and the additional documents will cost more than twice that amount (TT, Jan. 12).

The Citizen Action Party (PAC), which, with 17 legislators in the 57-member assembly, is the largest anti-CAFTA group, has long made CAFTA's public dissemination, or lack thereof, an issue in the debate about the agreement. In July, PAC legislator Alberto Salom filed a case before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) alleging that the government had not printed enough copies of the agreement – in 2005, it published 1,500 copies, down from its normal run of 4,000 – but the court rejected his claim.

The National Printer is expected to announce the details of the new printing today. Depending on those results, Salom may take up the issue again, his chief of staff Jens Pfeiffer told The Tico Times yesterday.

According to Pfeiffer, the small print run and poor distribution meant many citizens in outlying areas had no access to the text of the pact, which would reduce or eliminate most tariffs on items traded between the United States and Central America.

Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal yesterday issued a personal note to journalists apologizing for alleging corruption among previous officials of the Immigration Administration Thursday during a press conference.

The conference was held to announce the arrest of two people allegedly connected with a ring dedicated to trafficking Chinese people to Costa Rica.

Officials had been monitoring the group since the end of last year, when a representative approached Immigration Director Mario Zamora and offered him $5,000 for every visa he would approve for a Chinese citizen. With the backing of the Judicial Branch and investigators, Zamora accepted the offer, and cash payments that totaled approximately $20,000 were made to a Judicial Branch bank account, officials said. 

Berrocal said he is sure Immigration had corrupt high-level officials who accepted such bribes during previous administrations, but would wait for investigations to prove him right.

“This was how it worked in recent years,” Berrocal said at the press conference, visibly emotional. “This has many, many implications.”

In yesterday's statement, the minister said “I lament that the declarations I made last Thursday at the press conference... could have hurt honest officials from previous administrations.”

“The investigation of this case is in the hands of the Prosecutor's Office. I am sure judicial authorities will establish the truth,” he said. “The fight against corruption should be a commitment to national unity and should not be politicized.”

Berrocal said he will abstain from commenting to the press about this case in the future.

-Tico Times