Cuban Communist Party  Ask Ticos To Vote "No" In Referendum
The official press of the Partido Comunista de Cuba (Cuban Communist Party), Granma, made a call on Wednesday of this week to all Costa Ricans to vote "no" on the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States.

The article titled "El referendo de las definiciones" assures that Costa Ricans have legitimate reasons for saying no to the trade agreement come September when they will be asked to vote on the issue in the first ever referendum vote.

The Cuban newspaper assured that the results of the vote will have a great impact on all of Central America.

The article is one of a series of articles the Granma has been publishing on the subject since the middle of May, where Cuban president, Fidel Castro, is calling on Costa Rican union leaders to "defeat" the TLC.

Cuba and Venezuela have been accused of financing the campaign of unions in Costa Rica in the fight against the trade agreement, something two of the more of powerful unions, the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados (ANEP) and the Asociación Sindical de Empleados del Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (Asdeice), have flatly denied.

Granma has also, indirectly, denied any involvement in financing Costa Rican trade unions as accused by those in favour of the trade deal.

According to Granma, "Arias is using strong measures to win the popular vote with an aggressive propaganda campaign to get a yes vote, favouring private capital and international companies, notwithstanding the sad results of the neoliberal recipies (sic) in Latin America".