Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:38:42
From: Stephen.Deal@elca.org
Subject: National developments in Costa Rica

Dear Friends in Christ,

If you were to ask me what has been going on recently in Costa Rica, my immediate answer would be: the Oct. 7 referendum on CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement).

Prior to October 7, Costa Rica was the only country in Central America where this controversial trade agreement had not been officially approved by its legislature. The country was sharply divided. Those divisions prevented the Legislative Assembly from bringing CAFTA to a vote. To break this legislative impasse, politicians opted to let Costa Rican voters decide in a binding national referendum.

That decision set in motion several months of public debate over the pros and cons of CAFTA. The debate became especially intense in the final month. To my knowledge, ELCA’s companion church, the Iglesia Luterana Costarricense (ILCO), was the only church in Costa Rica that took an official position on CAFTA – in opposition. That was not a last-minute decision.

Going back several years to the origins of CAFTA, ILCO (and the other Lutheran churches in Central America) had consistently expressed a series of theological and ethical concerns about the likely effects of CAFTA, especially for the poor and other vulnerable sectors of society since those are precisely the population groups that Lutheran churches throughout Central America accompany.

Attached to this message is an interview with ILCO president Melvin Jiménez released by the Lutheran World Federation news service just prior to the Oct. 7 referendum. While certainly not the only public statement by ILCO on CAFTA, this interview offers a concise summary of some of the church’s principal concerns.

At the beginning of August, Rev. Jiménez was asked to become a member of the “Junta Patriótica del NO” (Patriotic Movement against CAFTA), the only church leader among this group of distinguished Costa Ricans who volunteered their services to lead one of the largest and most diverse citizen movements in the country’s history. His visible public participation in the “NO movement” brought unprecedented national attention to ILCO and to its opposition to CAFTA based upon faith principles.

Despite a last-minute surge in the NO movement in the closing days of the campaign, CAFTA was narrowly approved in the Oct. 7 referendum. Voter turnout was just over 59% (which makes the result binding) and the official vote count was: YES – 51.6%, NO – 48.4%.

Also attached to this message, you will find the English translation of an official statement issued by ILCO president Melvin Jiménez several days after the Oct. 7 referendum.

As his statement indicates, the results of the referendum may have ended the legislative stalemate over CAFTA, but the manner in which the referendum was conducted has raised serious questions about the credibility and integrity of the electoral process in Costa Rica – historically considered one of Latin America’s democratic success stories.

All of this is to say that the Oct. 7 referendum probably represents a watershed moment in Costa Rica’s political history, and post-referendum developments will continue to be a dominant theme in the life of the nation and in the life of ILCO.

Please remember our companion church in your prayers as ILCO, and Costa Rica as a whole, deal with the longer-term consequences of the CAFTA referendum.

With peace,

Stephen