In February 1998 PUSC candidate Dr Miguel Angel Rodrguez was elected president, thus continuing the trend in Costa Rican politics for the past half-century, wherein power has been traded more or less evenly between the PLN and the PUSC. The new government committed itself to solving Costa Rica most pressing problems, making improvements to the country dreadful road system top priority, but financing this and other major public works by private investment. Increasingly, courting private money and catering to foreign interests are the order of the day. Still, problems dog the economy in the shape of increasing balance of payments difficulties, as well as pressures on the banana market from Ecuador growing competition.The new millenniumRodrguez was succeeded in April 2002 by Abel Pacheco de Espriella, a psychiatrist also from the PUSC; it was the first time that party had been re-elected. One of the key issues Pacheco faced was CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, known in Spanish as TLC, Tratado de Libre Comercio. The proposed trade agreement with the US alarmed antiglobalization movements worldwide and aroused widespread fear in Costa Rica of the definitive erosion of the advanced social system that has been in place in the country for the last half-century. The son of a banana farmer, Pacheco was initially wary of the accord, but finally added Costa Rica name to those of all the other Central American nations, but fierce debate within the country would continue to stall its ratification. Meanwhile, in 2004, Costa Rica squeaky clean regional image was shattered by a series of corruption charges aimed at three of the country former presidents Rafael Angel Caldern Fournier, Jos Mara Figueres and Miguel Angel Rodrguez. All were accused of accepting illegal financial kickbacks from foreign companies: Caldern from a Finnish medical supply firm, Rodrguez from the Taiwanese government as well as the French telecommunications giant Alcatel, and Figueres also from Alcatel. Promising to clamp down on government corruption, in February 2006, Oscar Arias Snchez was elected president for the second time, only narrowly beating rival Ottn Sols of the Citizens�Action Party. The main issue dividing the candidates was the ratification of CAFTA. Sols was against the accord, memorably stating: he law of the jungle benefits the big beast. We are a very small beast.�Arias was a strong advocate, claiming that lowering the trade barrier would bring much-needed investment and jobs to a nation with few natural resources. Post-election, CAFTA continued to split the country, sparking fiery nationwide protests. Labour unions, universities and environmental groups remained among CAFTA chief opponents, arguing that free-market policies would result in widespread job losses, a flood of cheap food imports that would undermine small-scale farmers, and international interference in Costa Rica economic sovereignty. The issue of whether to ratify CAFTA was finally brought to a national referendum in October 2007. In the lead-up to the referendum, street protests calling for a o�vote drew an unprecedented 100,000 Costa Ricans. But on the day, with voter turnout at 60%, the i�camp scraped through with just over 51% of the vote. The result was a huge relief to Washington, who see Costa Rica position in Latin America as a counter to the socialist regimes of Cuba and Venezuela. Yet hostility to CAFTA continued to plague Arias and prevent its ratification,C ON TE XTS| History417