The Fall-out

Casas and Sánchez began to apologize immediately. La Nación published an editorial on Monday in which they ask for forgiveness and explain that the memo was written in a moment of anger and hot blood, because they had just returned from a debate which ended in an exchange of insults between the yes and the no representatives: Casas and Eugenio Trejos. In an interview on Tuesday, Casas said he learned a great lesson: never write anything when you are annoyed. He apologized especially for the comment about the TSE (what the campaign should do to “cover our backs with respect to the TSE”) and affirmed his respect and support for this institution.
The first thing that happened was that vice-president Casas officially retired from his work in the Yes campaign and (was(?))stepped down from his position as Planning Minister. The TSE (Supreme Electoral Tribunal) condemned the memorandum as unacceptable, disrespectful, and contradictory to the TSE’s repeated calls for prudence and respect in the national debate over the CAFTA. And then it odered an audit of the Planning Ministry to verify whether public moneys had been used to support theYes campaign. Although this does not require Casas to step down, it was probably deemed inappropriate for him to stay on during this audit. The TSE would not commit to finishing the audit before the Referendum, however, as some sectors had demanded. (see “Contenido del memorandum sacude ambiente politico” in Semanario Universidad, 13 Sept.)
At the same time, deputy Sánchez was relieved of all his seats on legislative committees based on requests made by the PUSC and the ML (Movimiento Libertario). Deputies of the opposition Partido de Acción Ciudadana (PAC) remained standing throughout the discussion of the memo and its implications on Monday afternoon to show their protest. The session had begun with an apologetic speech by Sánchez. But when deputies from the PAC, Frente Amplio (FA) and Partido de Accesso Sin Exclusión (PASE) were getting ready to respond, PUSC faction leader Lorena Vazques requested a 30 min break, which PLN assembly president Pacheco granted. Opposition law makers neverteless remained standing behind their seats until the session reopened. Extra time had to be added later to accommodate all speakers, many of which expressed great indignation. PAC, PASE, and FA deputies all demanded that Casas and Sanchez step down. (se La Nacion, Sept.11 “Vicepresidente Casas se aparta de campaňa del Sí”)
Especially embarrassing for the PLN was the arrival of Movimiento Libertario leader Otto Guevara, who then joined in the calls for a relief from duty for Casas and Sánchez. The Libertarians who now have five deputies in the legislative assembly have up to now been in close cooperation with the government party, supporting the CAFTA and most other legislative projects of the PLN. But the memo scandal should have some interesting results for this alliance. Casas and Sánchez make reference to the extortionary practices of the ML regarding their support for the CAFTA, deeply embarrassing the ML faction in congress and forcing them to assert their independence in order to save face. When Guevara showed up in the assembly, he informed the government that it had only two options: remove Casas and Sánchez now, or suffer through a campaign of obstruction by the ML until the government does so. It will be interesting to see how this break will affect voting on legislative projects relating to the CAFTA.
Representatives of various social movements, among them the ANEP (Public Employees Union), ASDEICE (Union of the ICE workers), and CNE (Comission Nacional de Enlace) gave a press conference in the TSE building demanding more drastic actions against Casas and Sánchez. When they emerged from the building, which had been closed off with the help of yellow rope and police officers, they claimed to have been purposefully given wrong information by TSE guards regarding the location of the press conference, so that some showed up late. A handful of representatives also got stuck in an elevator on their way to the press conference. Although none of them explicitly blamed the TSE with obstr\hood of exactly their elevator getting stuck at exactly that time, for just enough time to make them late.