COMMISSION OF EMINENT PERSONS DELIVERS REPORT ON

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SAN JOSE 002181

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

WHA/CEN
EB FOR WCRAFT, BMANOGUE
E FOR DEDWARDS
WHA FOR WMIELE
WHA/EPSC FOR KURS, LGUMBINER
H FOR JHAGAN
STATE PASS TO USTR FOR RVARGO, NMOORJANI, AMALITO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECPS ECON PREL PGOV SOCI CS
SUBJECT: COMMISSION OF EMINENT PERSONS DELIVERS REPORT ON
CAFTA-DR; CONTENTS NOT YET REVEALED

REF: (A) SAN JOSE 02090

(B) SAN JOSE 02047
(C) SAN JOSE 02037
(D) SAN JOSE 02051
(E) SAN JOSE 02105


1. (U) On September 16, 2005, the five-member Commission
of Eminent Persons delivered its final report on the United
States-Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA-DR) to President Pacheco. According to a
Presidential press release of the same day, the only copy
of the 66-page report was delivered to President Pacheco so
that he could study it in preparation for a meeting with
his cabinet on September 20, 2005, after which the
Commission members and the President will hold a press
conference on the report. None of the five eminent persons
nor President Pacheco have made any substantive public
comments about the contents of the report. The delivery of
the Commission's report culminates 60 days of investigation
and interviews related to the text of CAFTA-DR. Via a
Presidential press release dated September 9, 2005,
President Pacheco expressed his desire to delink fiscal
reform from CAFTA-DR (Ref A),thus leaving the Eminent
Persons report as the last known remaining obstacle to
deciding whether to send the agreement to the Legislative
Assembly.


2. (U) The five members of the Commission of Eminent
Persons made it very clear that the report makes no
recommendations to President Pacheco on whether or not to
send CAFTA-DR to the Assembly (Ref B). "We cannot tell the
decision-makers what to do. Our job was not to define the
future of [CAFTA-DR]. What we did was analyze the text of
the document in an attempt to clear up any misconceptions
or distortions," said Gabriel Macaya, one of the members of
the Commission and ex-Rector of the University of Costa
Rica. Another member of the Commission, Rodrigo Gamez,
director of the Costa Rican Institute of Biodiversity
(INBio) said that the Commission did find some "issues"
with the text but would not elaborate more than saying they
involved the areas of agriculture, environment, and the
issue of Coco Island.

--------------
OPPONENTS AND SUPPORTERS VOICE THEIR OPINIONS
--------------


3. (U) In advance of the report's completion and after
its delivery to President Pacheco, several organizations
again voiced their opposition to CAFTA-DR and called for
protests. Albino Vargas, President of the approximately
15,000-member National Association of Private and Public
Employees (ANEP) continues to threaten protests the moment
President Pacheco sends CAFTA-DR to the Assembly.
Reportedly, there are groups of public employees, such as
the workers of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity
(ICE),the National Water and Sewer Company (AyA),
teachers, and university students who are opposed to CAFTA-
DR and may take part in protests. However, recent polls
reveal that a majority of Costa Ricans are in favor of
CAFTA-DR and want President Pacheco to send it to the
Assembly to start the relatively long ratification process
(Ref C). Supporters of CAFTA-DR have also stated that they
would organize demonstrations to urge the President to move
forward on CAFTA-DR.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


4. (SBU) The decision of whether or not to send CAFTA-DR
to the Assembly is now clearly in the hands of President
Pacheco, especially since he has removed his self-imposed
requirement that the fiscal reform bill be approved prior
to sending the agreement to the Assembly. On Tuesday,
September 20, 2005, President Pacheco will discuss the
Commission of Eminent Persons report and his intentions
with his cabinet and may announce when he plans to deliver
the legislation to the Assembly. While we have heard that
this could be as early as the end of September 2005 from a
number of sources (Ref E),we have also been told that the
President may host several public meetings to allow
opposition and supporters of CAFTA-DR to air their
concerns, which could further delay sending the agreement
to the Assembly. Costa Rican security officials' views on
the handling of possible protests were discussed in Ref D.
FRISBIE