Solis Vows to Obstruct CAFTA
Presidentia candidate Ottón Solís, of the Partido Acción Cuidadana, disapproves of CAFTA. Soís said that CAFTA would "bankrupt Costa Rica's agricultural sector" if approved.

The leader of now Costa Rica's second largest political party has vowed to obstruct efforts to ratify the Free Trade agreement with the United States.

Solis flatly ignored arguments from foreign trade experts that CAFTA cannot be renegotiated saying that "if the government does not renegotiate the agreement, we will vote against it."

Solis believes that CAFTA will increase access for Central American products entering the US in return for opening the region's economies to greater competition. He says that many local economists warn that Costa Rica will fall behind its neighbors unless it ratifies CAFTA quickly.

Costa Rica is the only Central American member that has so far failed to ratify CAFTA. El Salvador, which had held back, has said it will now ratify CAFTA, leaving only Costa Rica behind.

Although, unofficially, Oscar Arias and the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), who is pro CAFTA,  will form the next government, Solís' Party will end up with 18 of the legislative assembly's 57 seats, enough to cause Arias difficulties in obtaining the qualified majority needed to ratify CAFTA.

Solís' fear that in ratifying CAFTA are that the state-owned telecommunications and insurance monopoly, which would be privatized, would cost Cost Rica in the long run as competitors would carve out the best part of the business and cost the Costa Rica's economy.

"The private multinationals are not going to come for the bad parts of the telecommunications market. They are going to go for the beef, which is what allows our state institution to subsidize the losses in the bad markets and achieve universal access," said Solis