COSTA RICA: Demands for economic alternatives
When the government of Costa Rica struck a deal with the IMF to borrow US$1.75 billion for its post-pandemic recovery plans in September, part of what it agreed to in return was to increase taxes. For many people, in an economy hit hard by the pandemic and with unemployment standing at 20 per cent, the idea of tax rises was simply a step too far.
The protests highlighted unresolved structural problems in Costa Rica. They brought together unsatisfied immediate demands and structural problems related to the distribution of wealth, tax evasion by big business and the control of the economic elites over the state apparatus, which materialises in the social inequality of migrants, Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and rural people.
Carlos Berríos Solórzano
