Two jobs are being rushed to ready on time for the transfer of powers event on May 8 where Carlos Alvarado will be sworn in as the 48th president of the Republic, and receive the ‘presidential sash’ from Luis Guillermo Solis.
The first. The event is being held in the Plaza de la Democracia, in the hear of San Jose. The plaza is a public square, accessed by the three roads, the wall of the Museo Nacional the only physical barrier to permit some form of security for participants, that includes a large number of foreign dignitaries – ambassadors, foreign ministers and high officials of governments from around the globe.
The work includes the erection of a stage for a capacity of 300 and covered from elements, mainly the rains. Typically the rainy season in the Central Valley doesn’t kick in until the middle of May, this year, it seems to be already here.
Also part of the work is a complete cleaning of the place so that it looks impeccable.
According to Fabio Solano, member of the Comision de Traspaso (Transfer of powers commission), the assembly of the main platform is ready, this week they will be working on installing the roof.
The work this week will also focus on the installation of the 3 platforms for the public, with a capacity of 2,000 people who obtained the free passes through the official transfer of powers website.
“On May 5 all works will have to be finished because on the 6th (Sunday) there will be safety tests with the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and the Bomberos (Fire Dept) and on the 7th (Monday) sound tests will be done to have everything ready on by the 8th,” said Solano.
The second. Just as important, mostly for the image of the country, is the rush to get the work outside the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport in Alajuela finished.
As mentioned before, there will be a lot of foreign dignitaries arriving for the event and can we have them met by the construction mess on the intersection east of the airport?
The work was to have been finished more than a week ago. At least enough to “make it look nice”. So, this week, hopefully, the weather will hold out, there is a rush to finish. Or least make it look nice.
Many of the foreign dignitaries will start arriving on 6th, the rest on 7th.
The transfer of powers ceremony will start at 9:00 a.m. on the 8th.
