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Public Service Announcement for you guys. There's a big anti-Cafta protest planned for tomorrow. Starts at the Parque Central, heads to San Pedro and then to the presidential building in Zapote (I assume that's the route). Expect major traffic disruptions downtown and in San Pedro most of the morning. For those of you on foot in the Gulch, it shouldn't be a huge impact.

That is cool. AS long as I can get to the Sexy Bitches 2 Poker Game by 9pm!! woohoo

Oh Yeah DarkLighter!! Better bring your "A" game !!! Should be another great night in paradise!
See ya tomorrow.
Mikey B.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

anyone know why they would protest the Cafta thing?

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check yourself before you wreck yourself

Solamente,
The main reason CA countries oppose it is that they don't want to open their markets to the US. They can't compete with our economy. The biggest reason why blue-collar people would protest is that wages would not rise in CA, especially in the manufacturing and service sectors, the most labor-intensive. Because with an open market global economy, there is now competition for lowest production costs (i.e. lowest wages). CA countries would keep wages down to attract more foreign (US) investment. Wages would not rise in CA for fears that those firms who invest there would pull out if their labor costs became too high. The CA countries also would lose some control over their own economies and people.

A lot of economists think that the US basically tricked, or coerced, CA into signing it. CR originally walked out of the meeting because they have no desire to open up their national monopoly in telecommunications and energy to international competition. I haven't read anything on this since I finished grad school in May, so I don't know the current situation. Sorry.

I think different sectors of the CA oppose it for different reasons. I know there are parts of the agricultural sector wary of opening our markets to subsidized competition from the US. Others are upset that some sensitive markets in the US stayed protected (sugar for one).
The main reasons for protest in Costa Rica stem from the opposition to opening up some of the public setcor industries (telecom, energy & insurance). Tomorrow we'll see protesters from the public sector unions (ICE more than anything) as well as university students, some agricultural and teachers (I've read some incredibly stupid chain e-mails about how CAFTA threatens teachers).

The next few months will see some heated discussion on this topic. I know there's a big pro-Cafta march at some point as the current government drags its feet on this. I'm expecting a big turnout tomorrow which will make traffic downtown a pain.

This should not keep me from sexy bitches poker 2.