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SCANDAL TOPPLES COSTA RICAN VICE PRESIDENT, CLOUDS OUTLOOK AS CAFTA REFERENDUM NEARS.

Article Excerpt
Costa Rica's Second Vice President Kevin Casas has resigned after disclosure of a memo he wrote urging a campaign of fear and deception to support the "yes" vote in the fast-approaching referendum on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The vote is scheduled for Oct. 7 (see NotiCen, 2007-07-12). Costa Rica is the only signatory country not to have joined the pact and the only one to decide the question of membership by popular vote. Casas sent up a trial balloon to test his continued viability on Sept. 19. He temporarily ceded his post to allow an inquiry on the matter to go forward. The balloon sank, and the second vice president of the republic stepped definitively away on the Sept. 21.

The memo, sent by email, was first disclosed on Sept. 12 but was written July 29. Casas was joined in authorship of the missive by legislative Deputy Fernando Sanchez. The memo directly recommended a "campaign of fear" about the consequences of failing to pass CAFTA. It also counseled linking the anti-CAFTA campaign to Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua in a strategy of plunging the whole country back into Cold War-style propaganda. The memo suggested exerting pressure on mayors to see that the vote went their way under threat of reducing resources from the central government if the local officials did not perform.

"The propaganda might get on the nerves of some people," voters read in the published memo, "but we can almost be sure that it would have an immense influence on...