Will The Future of the TLC Be Decided On The Streets?
Today and tomorrow, Costa Rica will be in protest, as public sector employees will take to the streets starting this morning and continuing tomorrow, to voice their opposition to the Tratado Libre de Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

According to the Coordinadora Nacional contra el TLC., joining the protest today will be workers of the:
• AyA (water and sewers)
• Hospital workers
• ICE (telecommunications and electricity)
• Fuerza y Luz (light and power)
• Universities
• Schools
• Public institutions

More than 1.000.000 will be affected by  the protests that will be felt in every corner of the country, not just in San José where the major concentration of the protest will take place.

Schools will be open, but teachers will not be in the classroom. Hospitals say they will keep the emergency rooms open, however, scheduled medical appointments, including surgeries, are cancelled.

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) will keep its agencies closed today. The light and power company, as the water and sewers will only attend to emergency repairs.

Though public institutions like the Registro, the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (Insurance), Recope (oil refinery), etc., will be open, however, it is difficult to say how employees will show up for work.

Joining the protest will be the dock workers of the JAPDEVA in Limón, who have been on a work to rule for weeks for the effects of the TLC that will privatize the docks.

Costa Rican president Oscar Arias has maintained firm that those public employees who take time off work to take part in the protests will have their pay docked.

The unions have called on all public employees and anyone else who opposes the TLC to join them to make their opinions known to the country's legislators.

The protest will gather at five distinct points: in front of the ICE building in the West; the rotonda La Hispanidad in the East; the Parque La Paz in the South; in front of the offices of the La Republica newspaper in the North: and in the Parque La Merced in the downtown.

All the groups will leave their gathering place and will move along the main streets to gather in front of the Legislative Assembly building.

The Mministro de Seguridad Pública, Fernando Berrocal, said this morning on national television that he received a number of calls from president Arias yesterday, ordering that all police officials controlling the protest be unarmed and be dressed in "regular" uniform. Minister Berrocal said that the president stressed that police should not provoke the protestors.