Legislature Threatened With Blockage If Government Moves Ahead With TLC Parallel Projects
While the nation gets ready for the public vote or referendum on the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA) - legislators may soon begin working on parallel laws that form part of the trade deal package.

Legislators will soon begin discussion on the telecommunications project that would strengthen the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) - the state telecommunications and insurance agencies - to face competition with the opening of the respective markets under the TLC.

Though the Legislative Assembly's president and the majority of the legislative deputies belong to the ruling party, the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) , the deputies of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) are committed to do all possible so that the projects are not approved.

The PAC, led by Ottón Solís, who lost to PLN's Oscar Arias, by a small margin of votes in the February 2006 presidential elections, have vowed to make sure that the TLC does not become a reality and are ready to blook and paralyze the Legislature.

The threat is serious enough that Solís has written to president Arias to withdraw the projects, projects that are vital to the government and the integration of the TLC.

Solís has said that if the government withdraws the projects from the current legislative session, he will not put up any barriers if the referendum vote results in a "yes".

In reality what the actions of the PAC mean is that laws like the reforms to the Ley de Tránsito y Concesión de Obra Pública, will be entangled in the politics and become stalled in the process as the PAC slows down the legislative agenda.

Last week, the ministro de la Presidencia, Rodrigo Arias, brother of the president, said that there may be room for negotiations. Minister Arias was firm, however, that the projects will not be withdrawn, though the government could delay the voting on same.