President Oscar Arias and the government of Costa Rica
Nominated for Worst National Disgrace
Thursday 01 May 2008
Reasons for this nomination
In 2007 president Oscar Arias pushed at all costs for the approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in Costa Rica, and with its passage he has furthered the commodification and privatization of biodiversity, seeds, and biological life forms. Oscar Arias was first president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, when he helped introduce Costa Ricans to neoliberalism and supported structural adjustment policies that began to dismantle their prized social welfare state. He also promoted an export-oriented model of agriculture that undermined the production of basic grains such as rice, corn, and beans, leaving the country dependent on imports and vulnerable to the current global food crisis. Arias came back to power as president in 2006 with the primary goal of overcoming resistance to CAFTA and completing the neoliberal reforms he helped initiate twenty years earlier.
Broad-based popular opposition to CAFTA in Costa Rica led to an October 7, 2007 popular referendum, where Arias manufactured a narrow victory through a widely documented campaign of fear, intimidation, and electoral fraud. CAFTA now requires Costa Rica to implement far-reaching intellectual property rights reforms that go beyond obligations under the WTO TRIPS agreement, such as adopting restrictive plant varieties “protection” standards with UPOV91, adopting the international Budapest treaty to facilitate patents over micro-organisms, and making “all reasonable efforts to patent plants.” Many experts have also warned against inevitable reforms to the 1998 Biodiversity Law, reforms that will loosen or remove current restrictions on the application of intellectual property rights to life forms.
Furthermore, numerous articles and annexes throughout the CAFTA text contradict the Biodiversity Law, redefining “bio-prospecting” as a “scientific and research service” to be regulated by free trade rules on “cross-border trade in services,” “foreign investment,” and “market access.” Basic rights currently guaranteed in the Biodiversity Law—such as equitable distribution of benefits derived from biodiversity use; promotion of technology transfer; collective rights enjoyed by local communities and indigenous peoples; requirements for prior informed consent and disclosure of origin; and the definition of biodiversity as part of the public domain—will all be undermined by CAFTA as “barriers” to free trade.
Supporting info
“Cambios a Ley de Biodiversidad: Amplían patentes sobre microorganismos.” Comunicado de Prensa, 29 de noviembre de 2007, Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica. Diputado Jose Merino del Rio, Partido Frente Amplio. http://frenteamplio.org/bitacora/index.php?blog=1&p=288&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Chacón, Lorna y Vinicio Chacón. “Grandes bufetes serán los ‘ganadores’ con obtenciones vegetales.” Semanario Universidad, 31 de enero del 2008, No. 1744, paginas 3-5. http://www.semanario.ucr.ac.cr/archivo_digital/nuevas_ediciones/ediciones2008/M01Enero_2008/1744_ENE31/index.htm
“La Vida Patentada: Agenda de Implementación y Medio Ambiente.” Diálogos Ambientales. Publicación Periódica de FECON, Costa Rica. Diciembre de 2007. http://feconcr.org/images/stories/dialogos-agenda.pdf
Mata Fonseca, Esteban A. “Costa Rica adopta reglamento internacional para protección de microorganismos con Convenio de Budapest.” La Prensa Libre, 19 de noviembre de 2007. http://www.prensalibre.co.cr/2007/noviembre/19/nacionales07.php
Mora Jiménez, Henry. “La privatización de la vida.” Noviembre de 2007. http://www.comitespatrioticos.com/index.php/opinion/87-la-privatizacion-de-la-vida
Rodríguez Cervantes, Silvia. 2008. “¿Será mi semilla ilegal? ¿Mis plantas medicinales estarán ya patentadas?” http://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/40107
Rodríguez Cervantes, Silvia. 2008. Interview. “Resistance to UPOV and the privatisation of life in Costa Rica.” Published in Spanish by Biodiversidadla.org (http://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/40104) and in English by Bilaterals.org (http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=11939)
Rodríguez Cervantes, Silvia. 2005. “La Propiedad Intelectual en El Tratado de Libre Comercio: Mecanismo de Apropiación del Patrimonio Bioquímica y Genético.” Tratado de Libre Comercio Estados Unidos-Centroamérica-Republica Dominicana: Estrategia de Tierra Arrasada, eds. Maria Eugenia Trejos Paris y Mario E. Fernández Arias (San José: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia), pp. 348-385. (También una versión de este artículo de 29 de agosto de 2004 está disponible en http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=864)
Maria Eugenio Trejos with the collaboration of Eva Carazo, Isaac Rojas, Silvia Rodríguez and Luis Paulino Vargas, "The opposition to CAFTA in Costa Rica: Institutionalisation of a social movement", in Fighting FTAs, published by bilaterals.org, BIOTHAI and GRAIN, February 2008 (English, Español, français) http://www.fightingftas.org/spip.php?article4
Villalta Floréz-Estrada, José. “UPOV-91: La privatización de las semillas.” 15 de abril de 2008, http://www.notlc.com
Other websites:
http://yofirmo.com/
http://www.bloqueverde.blogspot.com/
http://www.feconcr.org/
http://www.notlc.com