Day 2 of TLC Protest Not As Intense
Day 2 of the protest against the TLC - Tratado Libre de Comercio - or free trade deal with the United States (CAFTA) - was not as intense as Monday's, but more militant as university students blockaded the main arteries around Mall San Pedro, at the entrance to the Universidad de Costa Rica.

The number of people attending Tuesday's protest was smaller than the numbers on Monday, during the second and last day of protests. The country should be back to normal today.

Like Monday's demonstrations, the various groups marched along the main streets of San José, ending up in front of the Legislative Assembly building, with placards and chants to pressure the legislators inside to not vote in favour of the trade agreement.

For the most part, like on Monday, the protest was peaceful. However, some splinter groups like the Federación de estudiantes de la Universidad de Costa Rica (Feucr) decided to become militant and challenged authorities to keep the roads open to the public.

Although there were no incidents of injuries reported, several heated confrontations between the students and citizens who wanted free transit, were reported. The majority of the confrontations were in the area of the university.

On Tuesday, all offices of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) were closed, while many of the other public institutions were open and almost back to normal operations. Traffic in and out of San José, especially on the General Cañas - the major route to and from the airport - was almost free of traffic during the morning and afternoon rush hours, as many stayed home or left their cars at home and took public transportation.

The Asociación Nacional de Educadores (ANDE), the Unión de Empleados del Instituto Nacional de Seguros (Upins), and the Frente Interno de Trabajadores del Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (FIT), were the major union groups that took part in the two days of protests.

All said and done, Albino Vargas, representing the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados and Fabio Chavez of the ICE-FIT union, expressed pleasure with the results of the protests, even though the only public institution that was totally paralyzed was ICE.

The union leaders had hoped that all public institutions would come to a stand still during the two days of protests, that would be felt in all corners of the country. However, that was not the case, though the union leaders said that their actions were positive in stopping the TLC.

The union leaders said they will wait a time to get a reaction from the legislators before taking any further action, possibly more more protests like that of the last two days.

For his part, Ottón Solís, leader and former presidential candidate for the Partido Acción Cuidadana (PAC), who campaigned against the TLC, said that though he promised not to take part in any protests, he might be in favour of calling a protest movement in the near future.