Caribbean & Central America - November 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The legislature’s failure to approve the 2012 state budget is fast serving as the latest political and financial problem facing the government of President Laura Chinchilla. While the third proposed fiscal reform plan continues to be held up by the unicameral national assembly, the wrangling over the government’s US$11.8bn financial plan has increased animosities and promises to set the stage for a new political confrontation.

   The opposition Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) and Moviemiento Libertario (ML), which together have more seats in the national assembly than the ruling Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), had called in early October for a reduction of the budget of several ministries of between US$70m and US$110m (or 0.9% of the total budget) in order to re-direct those funds to the ministry of security.

    Luis Fishman, the president of the financial committee and leader of the PUSC legislative bloc, said the adjustments were “minimal” and that the money would be taken from “superfluous” spending such as training, social events and advertising.

   Those ministers whose portfolios faced cuts, such as Justice Minister Luis Paulino Mora, have warned that the re-allocation of funds could threaten the viability of crucial programmes, such as the witness protection programme and the normal operation of the judicial investigative unit. Similarly, the supreme electoral tribunal has said that such cuts would threaten its ability to organise referendums and issue national ID cards, while the ministry of culture warned that it would be forced to shut down altogether.

   However, “motion 91” failed in a closed committee vote as a legislator from Fishman’s own party, Gloria Bejarano, voted against it. The government responded by offering a reduction of ¢4.9bn (US$9.57m), but President Chinchilla warned that “there wasn’t much left to scrape off the bottom of the pan”.

   As we go to print, all proposed amendments to the government’s budget bill (No. 18,234) had been defeated in the financial committee and the proposed budget will be voted on by the plenary in its original form. The government has also said that the opposition should start the dialogue anew if it wanted it to maintain the offered cut, which means Chinchilla is likely to taste defeat once more.

• Public calls for increased security

In a recent poll by the Costa Rican ministry of planning and economic policy (Mideplan), 19.2% of respondents said that increased security is the number one challenge for the government if it is to ensure the country’s development, while another 18.9% said the country should be “more pacific”. President Laura Chinchilla and Planning Minister Laura Alfaro Maykall said the study served to corroborate the fact that the government was addressing the main concerns of Costa Ricans and implementing plans to address these issues in the short- medium- and long-term.