This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000569 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN JASON MACK 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV CS
SUBJECT: LIBERTARIAN MOVEMENT PARTY WILL SUPPORT FREE TRADE 
AGENDA 
 
REF: 05 SAN JOSE 2931 
 
¶1.  Summary: On March 6, Ambassador hosted for breakfast five 
of the six newly elected legislators from the Libertarian 
Movement Party (ML) plus one ML candidate who failed to get 
elected.  ML improved its position from fourth party to third 
party in the Legislative Assembly.  The deputies-elect showed 
a willingness to collaborate with the Arias administration on 
some of Arias's main policy objectives.  The ML will support 
Arias on CAFTA-DR ratification and on opening state 
monopolies, but it will oppose the tax increases that Arias 
wants.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  In the first of four planned breakfast meetings with 
newly elected legislators from each of the four major 
political parties, Ambassador Langdale hosted five 
deputies-elect from the Libertarian Movement Party (ML) on 
March 6.  The party won a total of six seats, making it the 
third largest party in the next Legislative Assembly.  A 
candidate who ultimately failed to get elected was also at 
the breakfast.  While the ML won the same number of seats 
(six) that it won in 2002, it has leapfrogged the Social 
Christian Unity Party (PUSC) for third largest party 
representation.  As such, the ML will likely wield power 
disproportionate to its numbers in the Assembly, since 
neither the PAC nor the PLN will be able to muster a majority 
of votes by themselves. 
 
¶3.  Despite the results of February's legislative elections, 
in which the ML saw smaller-than-anticipated gains over the 
2002 election results, the deputies-elect all expressed an 
ambitious agenda.  ML deputies are already taking pains to 
align themselves with the National Liberation Party (PLN), 
which will hold a plurality, though not a majority, of the 
incoming Assembly.  With 25 seats in the Assembly, the PLN is 
four votes shy of an outright majority, and will be obliged 
to seek issue-based coalitions with the various party 
factions within the legislature.  Given that the U.S.-Central 
America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) is 
one of the PLN's primary objectives, ML leadership knows it 
is well positioned to negotiate trade-offs in exchange for 
its cooperation on passing the agreement. 
 
¶4.  From a policy perspective, our breakfast guests toed the 
party line, and there were few surprises on their agenda for 
the upcoming legislative term.  Identifying the party's key 
goals as "responsibility, morality and credibility," Evita 
Arguedas, later chosen as the party's legislative chief, 
described the ML's "Contract with Costa Rica."  Within this 
"contract" are five principal themes: security, controlling 
corruption, cost of living, poverty reduction, and government 
modernization, all of which are addressed at length in the 
party's published platform.  Deputy-elect Mario Quiros 
stressed the importance of creating an "ownership society" by 
conveying full title to property occupied by the poor, 
especially in border areas and in the marginal areas of 
greater San Jose.  Regarding CAFTA-DR, the deputies 
acknowledged that the opening of Costa Rica's most beloved 
public institutions, a priority for the ML, will have to be 
done incrementally, perhaps by opening the less controversial 
sectors as test cases.  Specifically, Carlos Gutierrez, 
deputy-elect from Cartago, suggested that the government 
should have opened the unpopular insurance monopoly ahead of 
the much more popular telecommunications and electricity 
monopoly, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). 
 
¶5.  Comment:  The current crop of ML deputies (2002-06) has 
played the role of spoiler in the Legislative Assembly, using 
the device of proposing hundreds of motions to effectively 
filibuster President Pacheco's fiscal reform package.  We 
expect that the incoming group with which we met and which 
will take office on May 1 will take a different tack in the 
Arias administration, supporting Arias on CAFTA-DR and 
opening state monopolies in exchange for some moderation on 
the tax increases that Arias desires.  ML party leader Otto 
Guevara (reftel), who hopes to be president in 2010, wants to 
show that his party can be more than the "party of no," but a 
serious, influential, and positive force in the legislature. 
LANGDALE