Internet, power and politics: gender & ICTs in the movement against CAFTA

Abstract

In 2002 the United States of America started the process to implement a Free Trade Agreement with Central America and Dominican Republic (CAFTA). From the beginning CAFTA met the resistance of the different expressions of the social movement in Costa Rica, since it steered away from the historical conquests that conformed the socially conscious state. Given the heavy polarization of opinions around the agreement a national referendum was called upon. This article focuses on the way the women's movement strategically used digital technologies during the struggle and the role these technologies enabled women to have within the social movement as a whole.