In the second day of the country wide strike organized by the labor unions in Costa Rica, the number of protesters in the streets are reportedly less that yesterday.

Movements have mainly affected the areas of La Sabana, Avenue 10, La Merced Park, Uruca and San Pedro in San Jose; Barranca in Puntarenas and isolated groups in Cartago, Alajuela and Limon.

The actions of the Government seem to have, so far, maintained the movement under control; institutions took coordinated actions and implemented contingency plans to continue with their normal operations and reported a small percentage of workers that joined the protests. At 10 a.m. this morning the government confirms that 27 public institutions have presented their formal requests to courts to declare the strike illegal.

Train service, bus services, water, electricity, and all government offices are working normal hours.

The two main services that continue to be the most affected are public education and hospitals, in the case of hospitals the main problem has been that many nurses and personnel that work in the laundry rooms have not showed up to work, which has caused limitations in the day to day tasks, particularly surgeries; however, the services are NOT paralyzed and hospitals are providing regular service in most areas, in fact, they report that less absences’ of personnel today in comparison to yesterday. The Mexico Hospital in La Uruca hired additional personnel to care for the patients properly.

The Government highlighted that the strike has other effects for the country, since they are forced to designate resources to ensure that every service continues to run normally instead of focusing on other problems.

Red taxis didn’t join the strike this Tuesday, since their protest has nothing to do with the fiscal plan, the Government intervened to get them to drop the protest, according to congressman Pablo Abarca from PUSC, congress agreed with the Ministry of Transportation (MOPT) to grant 30 days for MOPT to present a proposal that satisfies both Uber and the red taxis; leaders of the red taxis agreed to the terms

The Costa Rica Star will continue to report on this matter as the day progresses.