Traffic jams and blockades likely will return to Costa Rica's roads as private chauffeurs, or porteadores, announced they will resume protests next week. Unlicensed taxi drivers, or piratas, may join the demonstrations.
An audio recording of a conversation calling on private chauffeurs, or porteadores, to intimidate Traffic Police officers started circulating on social media this week.
“I warned them once. That means I will keep my promise,” President Solís said, referring to orders not to allow more blockades, which he issued two weeks ago.
Lawmakers revived the bill to replace prison time with monetary fines for blocking roads the day before private chauffeurs or "porteadores" protested a new special taxi regulation by blocking public roads across the country, snarling traffic.
Flooding in recent weeks and road blockades staged by porteadores on Wednesday caused losses in the tourism sector at a time when businesses expected to profit from the mid-year school vacations.
President Luis Guillermo Solís ordered roads cleared Wednesday evening of private chauffeurs staging protests. He blamed them for the difficult emergency response to a deadly accident, in which an injured child had to be transported by helicopter to the National Children's Hospital.
