Citizen group presents thousands of signatures to President Solis calling for end to fuel monopoly

Hundreds took to San Jose’s Plaza de la Democracia earlier this month. (Facebook)

November 17^th, 2015 (ICR News) A citizen action group known as “No mas RECOPE” (No More RECOPE) has presented a proposal accompanied by thousands of signatures calling for a national referendum to end the monopoly of the state-owned Costa Rican Oil Refinery (RECOPE).

Spokesman for the group, Mauricio Sanchez told CRHoy.com that the package was delivered to the desk of president Luis Guillermo Solis on Monday.

The citizen action group was one of the groups that organized a protest earlier this month at San Jose’s Plaza de la Democracia to call for an end to the state-owned oil company RECOPE’s fuel monopoly, as well as to protest alleged abuses by public-sector labor unions, calls for new taxes by the Solis administration, government waste, and corruption.

In organizing the protests, Sanchez’s group said it demands that the country no longer depend on an institution that threatens to paralyze the country when its demands are not met, referring to RECOPE workers refusing to distribute gasoline, diesel and even jet fuel during a mass public sector union strike on October 26^th.

Sanchez’s group says it is not calling for the elimination of the state-owned company, rather only its legal monopoly on hydrocarbon sales, saying that competition would force RECOPE to “improve and become more efficient.”

Costa Rica has long held the distinction of having the highest fuel prices in Central America.