The Public Security Ministry sent police officers to guard the Legislative Assembly in San José yesterday in response to a false bomb threat and protests Wednesday.
After an anonymous caller warned of a bomb in the building Wednesday afternoon, legislators evacuated and were greeted by about 200 shouting protestors, officer Jorge Barrantes said.
A handful of officers guarded the building throughout the day yesterday, while a bus full of backup officers waited nearby in case chaos erupted, Barrantes said. At press time, there had been no disturbances and the legislature held its usual afternoon session.
The bomb threat came exactly one month after Costa Ricans voted in favor of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) in a referendum. The protestors oppose the treaty, as well as the 11 laws legislators are now discussing to implement it.
The assembly's executive director Antonio Ayales also stepped up security inside the building yesterday. Assembly guards were more vigilant about checking bags and identification cards, and the main meeting room was searched before the afternoon session. Still, Ayales said, the building is vulnerable.
“Assembly security does not have the capacity to deal with such outside pressure,” Ayales said. “Our building doesn't lend itself to good security measures because it has fences” that troublemakers can climb over without guards noticing.
As legislators filed into the assembly yesterday afternoon, Jorge Eduardo Sánchez, of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), said the CAFTA opponents should express themselves in other ways.
“The debate has to be in Costa Rican style, which has always been argumentative, vehement and forceful, but never violent,” he said.
Public Security Ministry officials are investigating the phone call, which they believe came from a public telephone in Cristo Rey, a neighborhood in southern San José. |
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