Street Vendors Protest and Close Businesses in San Jose
This afternoon street vendors repeated a protest that had also shut down businesses in San Jose on Wednesday afternoon when an aggressive mob numbering at least 250 provoked chaos on the central avenue pedestrian walkway. The approach was simple, run down the boulevard in numbers while shouting, threaten stores to close or just yank down their metal security curtains.
For the most part the police just watched as the mob was able to close down the heart of downtown business activity during the middle of rush hour.
Their demands are simple, they want the municipal police to stop harassing them and confiscating their goods. During the last year the municipality has managed to clear illegal street vendors from the pedestrian boulevards with limited success. Many have adapted to keeping small collections of goods on top of improvised plastic tarps, ready to scoop and run at the sight of municipal authorities.
Anyone we has walked the central avenue around rush hour will tell you that the street vendors are militant, taking up a good deal of space in the crowded pedestrian walk way. Their numbers appear to keep growing as Formal Work Opportunities are either diminishing or perhaps more illegal Nicaraguans are entering the country.
Apparently the pressure from authorities and an increasing number of vendors vying for the market on cheap trinkets, pirate DVD collections, and vegetable produce has put a strain on the group. They have become more aggressive and their protest activity is designed to deprive tax paying businesses of income for retribution against the confiscations of the municipal police.
I say “more aggressive” because they have always been aggressive toward the police. A favorite tactic is destroy sections of pavement to mine concrete projectiles for hurling at the police. This video by San Jose police officer Martinez may be in Spanish but you don’t have to understand his words to follow his meaning with the rocks.
Other tactics include employing “lookouts” on the perimeter of the groups or running onto the grounds of the Nicaraguan embassy in San Jose where the police can not follow. I suppose the irony is that is that aside from providing succor for immigrant street vendors the embassy is pretty useless.
The question is will San Jose city mayor Johnny Araya give into intimation?
Maybe he will ponder the questions as he falls asleep in his suburban Escazu bedroom tonight. After all, he is too good for actually Living in the City he Represents, so he should be able to get a good night’s rest.
At least the rainy season is coming soon. I suspect mother nature will be able to at least suppress a problem that the mayor can not.
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Filed Under: Local News
According to la nacion the protest this afternoon was mild in comparison to Wednesday. They could only muster about 40 people, and some arrests were made after several hours.
According to a paper published by the International Monetary Fund, Costa Rica”s “informal” economy comprised around 42% of GDP. Some can see it as a law and order issue, which it is, in part. On the other hand, exactly where are the jobs for these people going to come from in the 'formal' economy? Intel, who account for 20% of Costa Rica's exports, has a workforce of a little over 3000 employees.
The government could crack down hard on these street merchants. But if they do, they shouldn't be surprised by pushback. They shouldn't expect the giant mass of underemployed to go quietly back to their shanties and watch each other starve to death. It might be the law abiding thing to do, but don't count on it happening.
The solution is simple, give them an area to sell their goods, we had the same problem in the Virgin Islands when I lived there in the 80's, they took an old park (parking lot) and gave the area to the street vendors, they all had designated ares and it was just another tourist attraction, In Key West where I live now street vendors are an attraction, they must apply for a new license every year and wear it around their neck, this limits the number of vendors,and non licensed vendors are shut down and fined. There has to be a compromise the cat and mouse game that goes on between police and vendors makes everyone look bad. The real soulation is to be legal you must be legal.
Actually dave the government has tried giving the designated areas, however they quickly overflow these. There is one such area just up the hill from Mas por Menos in downtown, also know as la Cuesta de Moras. The area is just packed with street vendors, and many vendors dislike it because sales are better where there is more street traffic.
In fact many of the vendors making protest are in the country illegally or lack the funds to formalize their status even if they have Costa Rican family (children). Half of what they are selling are pirated DVD, which are illegal.
It's just a problem we are going to see more of, and there is no easy solution.