Energy situation in Costa Rica still flickers
San Jose, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Costa Rican authorities declared a national emergency due to days of a national power outage, caused by supply deficit that has resulted in a ten million dollar loss.
Union Costarricense de Camara de Industrias lists high-tech, tourism, PVC, textiles and retail as most affected sectors.
Cabinet Minister Rodrigo Arias said the emergency measure will allow the state-run ICE electricity institute to speedup allocations to replace the old deteriorated plants.
ICE union leader Fabio Chavez said successive neoliberal governments denied funds in order to ruin ICE and achieve its privatization.
The situation sparked national debate since Costa Rica signed, but has not confirmed, the US-sponsored CAFTA free trade agreement to end state monopoly on sectors like energy.
Our editors note that on a daily basis, we watch power going on and off throughout town. Today, for example, we had to stop at 4 restaurants to find one that was open. The rest were closed because they had no power… what a pain!! Addionally, the restaurants with generators don’t keep their refriderators at the normal cold temperature, which is forcing me to drink less than ice-cold coronas.