September 14, 2007 Global Exchange
	Costa Rican Natives: Are They Being Considered In This Referendum Process? -- I’m not a native Costa Rican, so I am far from figuring out how our indigenous people should feel in face of this new violation against their inner nature. Let’s face it: forcing native Costa Ricans to decide YES or NO in a referendum process they don’t understand, in order to decide upon the fate of a law (CAFTA) nobody understands is nothing but a new violation against these people, whose world vision doesn’t even have room to see this vote as a human right. I wonder if indigenous people feel “equal” to the rest of Costa Rican citizens just because their vote also counts.
September 14, 2007 Global Exchange
	Costa Rican Natives: Are They Being Considered In This Referendum Process? -- I’m not a native Costa Rican, so I am far from figuring out how our indigenous people should feel in face of this new violation against their inner nature. Let’s face it: forcing native Costa Ricans to decide YES or NO in a referendum process they don’t understand, in order to decide upon the fate of a law (CAFTA) nobody understands is nothing but a new violation against these people, whose world vision doesn’t even have room to see this vote as a human right. I wonder if indigenous people feel “equal” to the rest of Costa Rican citizens just because their vote also counts.
September 14, 2007 Inside US Trade
	Costa Rican Memo Prompts Investigation Into CAFTA Campaign -- Costa Rica is embroiled in a new election scandal over its upcoming Oct. 7 public referendum on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), though sources expect the referendum to take place on Oct. 7, as scheduled.
July 25, 2007 Tico Times
	Anti-CAFTA Camp Protests Outside Tribunal -- Leaders of the movement against the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) spoke to about 200 people yesterday outside the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) in San José.
July 18, 2007 IRC Americas Program
	Guatemala and Costa Rica: In and Out of CAFTA -- It was a short, but eloquent, announcement: after nearly a year in CAFTA's orbit, the same traditional exports as always are growing, outside of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The message is overwhelming: the country "sacrificed" itself to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States for nothing. The CAFTA model, pushing the Central American economy toward the export of non-traditional goods to the United States, has been a pretext for imposing expensive foreign pharmaceuticals as opposed to cheap, national generic drugs, overwhelming the peasant farmer with subsidized imports, and granting extra-territorial jurisdiction to foreign companies.
July 13, 2007 Inside US Trade
	Costa Rican Court Rules CAFTA Is Constitutional; Oct. 7 Referendum Set -- Costa Rica’s Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) this week set October 7 as the date for a public referendum to approve the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which must have 40 percent of registered voters take part for the result to be binding. Failure to meet that threshold would then allow Costa Rica’s Congress to take CAFTA back into the legislative process and move it under a special ‘fast track’ procedure, which was cleared by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court last week, sources said.
June 25, 2007 Bloomberg
	Costa Rica Opposition Leader Calls for Renegotiation of Cafta -- The top opposition leader in Costa Rica said he wants to renegotiate a free-trade agreement with the U.S., citing as a precedent the U.S. revamping of a similar agreement with Peru.
May 25, 2007 Inside US Trade
	Costa Rica Court Review Adds Uncertainty To CAFTA Approval -- On top of a pending public referendum on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court this month added a new hurdle for CAFTA passage when it agreed to review the agreement’s constitutionality in terms of civil liberties and human rights, sources said.
May 17, 2007 Written by SOA Watch
	Costa Rica to Cease Police Training at the SOA/WHINSEC -- Costa Rican President Oscar Arias announced Wednesday that Costa Rica will cease to send police to train at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas.
May 04, 2007 Inside US Trade
	CAFTA Faces New Uncertainty In Costa Rica With Public Referendum -- Approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) faces a new uncertainty with a decision by Costa Rica’s Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) that there be a national referendum on the trade deal instead of a vote in the National Assembly, where pro-CAFTA forces have a majority. The party of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who seeks CAFTA approval, has the largest block of votes in the assembly. Costa Rica is the only signatory who has not yet ratified the agreement.
March 08, 2007 IRC Americas Program Citizen Action Focus
	Costa Rica: Why We Reject CAFTA -- On Feb. 26, tens of thousands of Costa Ricans took to the streets in a demonstration to block ratification of the free trade agreement and reject approval to implement legislation demanded by the United States. Costa Rica is the only country included in the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) that has not yet ratified the agreement. A broad grassroots movement in the country is trying to make sure it stays that way.
December 08, 2006 Oxfam America
	Inside U.S. Trade -- The U.S. last week agreed to offer significant new market access benefits to the Costa Rican wool apparel industry in exchange for that country accepting a rules of origin change for pocketing fabric under the Central American Free Trade Agreement, according to a Dec. 1 letter exchange reprinted below.
December 01, 2006 AFL-CIO
	Costa Rica Faces Challenge in the Implementing CAFTA by March 2008 -- Costa Rica is facing an uphill fight to have its Congress approve the necessary legislation implementing the Central American Free Trade Agreement in time for a March 2008 deadline set by the FTA, even though it is poised to ratify the agreement as much as a year earlier, sources this week said.
October 25, 2006 Costa Rica Solidaria
	Costa Rica Says No to CAFTA! -- On October 23rd and 24th, a popular movement, owners of small companies, former Presidents of the Republic, businessmen and the major opposition political parties, public universities, environmental and labor unions, students, womens and all kinds of social organizations all over the country, demonstrated in a national journey and strike demanding the government the immediate removal of CAFTA from Congress.
October 18, 2006 Prensa Latina
	Costa Rica Questions US Trade Pact -- San José, Oct 18 -- Costa Rican unions and social organizations confirmed their participation in a national strike against the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, currently being evaluated in Congress.
August 29, 2006 Inter Press News Service (IPS)
	Companies Eye Pull-Outs if CAFTA Flounders -- Weary of the snail's pace ratification process of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which continues to dominate Costa Rica's political and social agenda, some companies are weighing the idea of moving to other Central American countries should Congress reject the treaty.
June 18, 2005 Infocostarica
	Pacuare River Dam Rejected -- Costa Rica’s tour operators, foreign visitors and the community of Turrialba have much to rejoice about now that the proposed Pacuare hydroelectric project has been rejected. The proposed dam, which had been planned since 1996, would have produced 158 megawatts annually, according to officials from the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), which is managing the proposed project. The dam would have begun operations in 2010, approximately 70 kilometers east of San Jose.
June 04, 2005 Resource Center of the Americas
	CAFTA Stalled -- Thousands of workers and citizens gathered in San José May 18 to protest Costa Rica’s possible ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). During the demonstration, the National Farming Union (UPA), the Costa Rican Electricity Workers (ICE), the National Association of Public Servants and the Private Sector (ANEP) and the Teacher’s Association, among others, reiterated their intention to ensure CAFTA’s failure through continual demonstrations and a general strike.
May 08, 2005 Resource Center of the Americas
	Thousands Protest CAFTA -- For the second year in a row, thousands of workers and students marched on May 1 in San Jose, Costa Rica to demand that the government reject DR-CAFTA.
April 29, 2005 Tico Times
	President Seeks Advice on U.S. Trade Pact -- In an unexpected move that confounded business leaders and political observers this week, President Abel Pacheco unveiled a plan apparently designed to help him reach a decision on one of the most divisive issues facing his administration: the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
March 18, 2005 Third World Network
	Costa Rica: Wildlife in Danger -- San Jose, March 18 - The peninsula of Osa, a strip of land in the southeast of Costa Rica and home to some of the most unique flora and fauna in the country, is in danger due to illegal logging. For years, the territory has been the victim of a systematic attack by loggers and their power saws - the main enemy of ecosystems there, which is growing stronger.
March 15, 2005 BBC
	Costa Rica Ex-Leader Held at Home -- Former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez, who faces corruption charges, has been allowed to leave jail to be held under house arrest.
January 07, 2005 Tico Times
	President Pacheco Investigated -- Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese gave President Abel Pacheco a Christmas Eve surprise this year: on Dec. 24, the Prosecutor's Office announced it has reopened its investigation of foreign donations to Pacheco's 2002 presidential campaign.
November 24, 2004 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
	Costa Rica Declares Emergency After Quake -- President Abel Pacheco declared a national emergency in Costa Rica on Tuesday, a move that frees up government funds for hundreds of families driven from their homes by a strong earthquake that rattled the country last weekend.
November 23, 2004 The Nacional Association of Public and Private Sector Employees
	TLC of Free Trade Agreement: an overwhelmingly unjust struggle. -- The Costa Rican people are calling for International Solidarity to resist the final Neo-liberal attack against our society. This message is addressed to our brothers and sisters in trade unions, to all social movements and to all progressive political organisations. The Government of the United States of America has injected, via the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the sum of $700,000, for the promotion of the Free Trade Agreement between Costa Rica and the USA
October 29, 2004 Tico Times
	Three Former Presidents Scrutinized -- Former Costa Rican President Rafael Ángel Calderón Jr. (1990-1994) is in prison. Former President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is in house arrest (1998-2002). And former President José María Figueres (1994-1998) is now under the watchful eye of the Prosecutor's Office.
October 10, 2004 Resource Center of the Americas
	OAS Loses Its Head -- A week after being hit by corruption charges in the Costa Rican media, former Costa Rican president Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002) suddenly announced on October 8 that he was resigning from his position as secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).
September 19, 2004 Resource Center of the Americas
	Costa Rica Leaves the Coalition in Iraq -- On September 9, the Costa Rican government asked for formal removal from the coalition that U.S. President George Bush has gathered for the war in Iraq.
September 17, 2004 Resource Center of the Americas
	Scandal Plagues Costa Rican Leader, Allies -- SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco has tapped several low-profile junior officials to fill the gaping holes in his Cabinet left when his entire economic team walked out amid political turmoil.
September 10, 2004 Tico Times
	Government Corruption Scandal Explodes -- Prosecutors are investigating former President Rafael Angel Calderón and several top government officials for allegedly having received large sums of money to arrange a multimillion-dollar government contract for a pharmaceutical company.