It has recently been announced that Costa Rica's electricity is going to have to be rationed until the beginning of the green season! This is due to demand for electricity, before the rationing, coming extremely close to the amount being produced, which has seen a 25% cut in production capacity in recent months. The cut being due to Panama's decision to cease selling power to Costa Rica, and the low amount of water available to power Costa Rica's hydro electricity turbines after an extremely parched dry season and a series of damaged turbines at one of the oil buring themal power stations.

The reported power ration was announced shortly before a power cut left the whole country without power for up to 3 hours in some parts 11 days ago. The power outage was caused by a circuit explosion at the heart of the main power distribution center, at lake Arenal at 8pm on april 19th, plunging the country into darkness! There was chaos on the roads, with queues backing up for miles, many businesses losing thousands of dollars, including intel who lost 150,000 microprocessors on their production lines.

This all comes weeks after the ICE, The Institute of Costa Rican Electricity, had a proposal for a 23% rise in electricity prices turned down by the Public Services Regulatory Authority, who then asked the ICE for a detailed report on the April 19th blackout and why they feel the need to increase prices by such a large percentage!

It is unsure as to how long the electricity rationing will continue, but what is known is that something needs to be done, and quickly, to avoid a repeat of the expensive April 19th outage!

The justices of the Supreme Elections Tribunal now have a big decision to make over the CAFTA referendum. They must decide whether to convene the vote on the Central American Free-Trade Agreement on the United States (CAFTA): the joint assembly-Executive Branch decree, which could bring about a referendum as soon as August, or a signature-collection process by a group of citizens, which could take as many as 14 months.

Anti CAFTA activists are supporting the move for a signature collection. They say that it is because it will mean that voters will be much more educated on the policies involved with CAFTA, but some people say that it is because there is a chance, that the votes may not be collected by the March 2008 ratification date, which would see Costa Rica miss out on their chance, even if there were enough votes in the end! So the choice is likely to have a big impact on Costa Rica's future. Check back next week for the latest news on the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States.