A POPULAR Vote: In the company of his Cabinet, President Oscar Arias announced Friday he will call for a referendum on the controversial Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). If approved by the Legislative Assembly, the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) will then have 90 days to get Costa Ricans out to vote on the agreement.

In the second round of debate, Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly Thursday passed a law that significantly increases penalties for those convicted of violent acts against women, from verbal insults to murder, the daily La Nación reported Friday.

Juan Santamaría Day Observed
Although the traditional holiday to celebrate this national hero was April 11, it will be officially observed today. Schools, government offices and many banks and private businesses including The Tico Times will be closed. The Tico Times office will reopen with its normal office hours, 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m., tomorrow.

Concert
Celtic music by Peregrino Gris, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, east of San José.

By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

It took President Oscar Arias nearly 24 hours to respond to a surprising decision from election officials to allow a popular referendum on a controversial trade pact – but once he did respond, he left no doubt about his support for the ruling, which he called “a blessing from God.”

During a press conference Friday morning, Arias announced that he plans to convene a referendum on the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), a step that would circumvent the requirement that referendum organizers collect 132,000 signatures in favor of a public vote before it can proceed. Arias said he will send a referendum decree to the Legislative Assembly tomorrow; if at least 29 of the 57 legislators approve the decree, the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) will then have 90 days to hold the nationwide vote, which would be the first referendum in Costa Rican history.

Arias' announcement came one day after TSE officials released a statement that said it is legal to hold a referendum on CAFTA. The statement, a response to a query from former legislator and CAFTA opponent José Miguel Corrales, gave him and other organizers the green light to begin collecting the required signatures, a process they would have had as long as nine months to complete.

The President's decision, which has the support of the five pro-CAFTA parties in the assembly, speeds up the process. Rodrigo Arias, the President's brother, spokesman and legislative liaison, said at the press conference that the assembly will have only one session to vote on the decree.

The assembly will continue discussing the pact but cannot vote on it unless voter turnout for the referendum does not meet the required minimum, still to be determined.

President Arias, who has long maintained that the only place for a decision on CAFTA is the assembly, admitted Friday that the TSE statement caused him to change his mind.

“It surprised some of us – including me,” he said of the ruling. However, he praised it as “a historic decision… a new era in our democratic development.”

Costa Rica is the only signatory country of CAFTA that has not ratified the pact, signed in 2004.

In the largest seizure of suspicious money in the history of Costa Rica, police recently seized about $2.1 million from two Guatemalans at Juan Santamaría International Airport, just outside San José, according to a statement released by the Public Security Ministry Friday.

Two men identified by the last names Cabrera, 29, and León, 47, were arrested Wednesday night accused of carrying $1.1 million and $969,600, respectively, in packets of $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills.

The money was wrapped in carbon paper so as not to be detected by airport security machines and smeared in mustard to prevent police dogs from sniffing it, the statement said.

Costa Rican police were tipped off to the possible trafficking of money here by Salvadoran authorities, who arrested a Guatemalan identified as Bolaños, 24, accused of carrying $319,000 through San Salvador's international airport.

Since Bolaños was scheduled to fly through Costa Rica on his way to Panama, Salvadoran authorities let their Costa Rican counterparts know that more alleged money launderers could be headed here.

After searching several suspects, Drug Control Police at Juan Santamaría arrested Cabrera and León.

The money seized from their luggage combined with that confiscated from Bolaños in El Salvador totals about $2.4 million.

Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal applauded his officers' collaborative work with Salvadoran police and said he believes the money was connected to a drug trafficking operation, the statement said.

-Tico Times

In the second round of debate, Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly Thursday passed a law that significantly increases penalties for those convicted of violent acts against women, from verbal insults to murder, the daily La Nación reported Friday.

The law punishes men convicted of killing their partners with 20-35 years in prison, while those convicted of rape spend 12-18 years in jail and those who “insult, ridicule or intimidate” their partners get a six-month to two-year sentence.

This year marked the sixth the assembly has discussed the bill. During the previous five years, it was approved in the first round of debate only to be sent to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) by assembly members who cited flaws in the legislative process and claimed the bill discriminates by singling out women as victims (TT, Dec. 17, 2004).

Although at least one legislator, Mario Quirós of the Libertarian Movement, had previously told the press he would once again complain before the court, he failed to obtain the necessary 10 signatures to do so, La Nación reported.

Meanwhile, women legislators who supported the bill celebrated their victory, including Mayi Antillón of the National Liberation Party (PLN), Elizabeth Fonseca of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), Ana Elena Chacón of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) and Evita Arguedas of the Libertarian Movement.

Support for the bill gained momentum after a slew of women were shot by their husbands at the end of last month. Last year, 30 women were killed by their partners, and the National Institute for Women (INAMU) attends to “dozens” of calls from victims of domestic violence each week, the wire service ACAN-EFE reported.