- Albino Vargas
Albino Vargas is a
syndicalist leader andcommunist inCosta Rica .Vargas is the secretary general of the
Public Employees National Association (Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos, [ANEP] http://anep.or.cr/). He also writes a column every Wednesday in "Diario Extra ", the sensationalist newspaper (published in Costa Rica). In recent years he has attracted attention for his opposition to theCentral America Free Trade Association (CAFTA ), organizing protests and demonstrations. Costa Rica signed CAFTA in 2004 but, as of August 2008, the congress was still in process to ratify the agreement [ [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14085 CorpWatch : COSTA RICA: Companies Eye Pull-Outs if CAFTA Flounders ] ] .Recent protests and demonstrations organized by Vargas have attracted fewer than 10,000 people each. . [http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/octubre/24/pais871613.html] He has been described as a "irrational, selfish and an individual that does not like to dialogue about the issues." Fact|date=February 2007
Vargas rejects the democratically elected government of Costa Rica, declaring that he believes in the "democracy of the streets". [http://www.diarioextra.com/2006/noviembre/01/opinion03.php]
He is perceived as a lazy leader on the syndicalism environment who promotes false nationalistic ideals; basically sustaining the concept that Costa Rica doesn't need any relationship with other countries and USA wants to control the country as "they did" to other Latin American countries. He continuously sells the idea of the self-sufficient country in the global context. His only perceived interest is to protect the privileged system established primarily for the public sector employees. This sector of Costa Rican employees has a list of benefits not available to workers from the private sector.
Costa Rican lawmakers and the judicial system just recently have started to legislate and ruling against this unbalanced system.
He's against foreign west hemisphere based investors and he only wants to protect the state-owned public services system, Monopolies have given control to the CR Government to own the most lucrative public systems: water, electricity, insurances, telecommunications, internet and even alcoholic beverages. This individual has freely taken the position of speaking for the supposed majority of the Costa Rican population.
Costa Rica is negotiating a free-trade agreement with U.S. The treaty (CAFTA) would bring down the most strong state owned monopolies and will improve working conditions to most of the population.
References
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