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COSTA RICA |
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Porteadores To Paralyze Country Today
The Porteadores (the informal taxi drivers)
say they will paralyze the country today
with protests and roadblocks to pressure the
government into stopping its plans to
eliminate the "porteo" or informal taxi
service from the current legislative agenda.
Germán Lobo, president of the Cámara
Costarricense de Porteadores, said the
government has been warned of the
consequences if it does not back down.
Lobo warned that if the government allows
the proposed law to move to next phase, the
"Comisión Plena Segunda", a step closer to
proposal 16136 becoming law, the porteadores
will react to not permit that their
livelihood is taken away.
Propoal 16136 allows non licensed taxis to
transport goods, animals or whatever, except
people.
Lobo represents about 7.000 porteadores who
are expected to participate in protests all
over the country, picking out 38 strategic
points of concentration.
"The objective is not to block but to slow
things down", said Lobo.
Lobo added that the porteadores will not
amass in front of Casa Presidencial or the
Legislative Assembly, a custom of
protestors, since there is nothing more to
talk about.
The service of "porteo" grew from a need of
the public's access to transportation in
areas where the formal or legal taxis would
not provide service.
The concept of the porteo is a
"door-to-door" service, where a private
individual or company is contracted to pick
up a person from one point and transferred
to another, for a set or agreed upon fee.
However, many porteadores have taken to
provide the services of a taxi, that is
using a "maria" or "taximetro" (meter) and
picking up customers on the fly, just as
formal or legal taxi would.
The latter is what has angered taxi
operators, drivers and associations and
pressured the government into producing
legislation against the porteo.
The clash between taxi drivers and
porteadores, with the government in the
middle, has been for ongoing for years. The
Arias administration, under the guidance of
the outgoing MOPT minister, Karla González,
have worked to keep a peace and calm between
the two sides, which in some cases has
turned to violence.
Lobo emphasized that there is nothing more
to add to the subject, that all has been
said and done and now all that remains is
using protests as way of forcing the issue. |
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