The Cámara de Comercio, Industria, Turismo y Servicios de Cartago has demanded that the Municipalidad de Cartago withdraw an order requiring businesses around the Palacio Municipal to close tomorrow and that it publish the documents justifying the decision.
The order reached business owners on Friday as a circular from the municipality’s Departamento de Patentes, three days before the celebrations marking the 205th anniversary of Costa Rican independence. Establishments that fail to comply face administrative sanctions and, in the municipality’s terms, possible closure of the premises.
Mario Redondo, mayor of Cartago, confirmed that the closure originated as a request from the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública. He said he had asked the ministry to reconsider it.
According to Redondo, authorities grounded the order in security incidents recorded in the area over recent months, the large crowds expected for the civic act, and threats directed at President Laura Fernández. The president and other Executive Branch officials are scheduled to attend the reception of the Independence Torch outside the municipal building from 6 p.m. Monday.
The terms of the order have shifted since it was issued. As first communicated, the closure covered establishments within a 200-metre (660-foot) radius of the Palacio Municipal, an area merchants describe as 18 city blocks, with general commerce ceasing at midday and food service at 3 p.m. The restriction was to hold until the civic act concluded, at around 9 p.m.
Following the criticism, Redondo announced an agreement reached with Seguridad Pública under which businesses may operate normally until 4 p.m. and the affected perimeter is reduced to 100 metres (330 feet). He presented the change as a balance between security requirements and local economic activity, saying the objective was to provide security without disrupting merchants’ operations.
The chamber says the additional four hours do not resolve its objection. In a statement issued on September 12, the organisation demanded that the order be left without effect and that the municipality disclose the record behind it.
If the closure was requested or ordered by the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública or another institution, the chamber wants the corresponding oficio made public. If it was a municipal decision, it is asking for the administrative act, the technical report, the legal criterion, the security studies, and the identity of the authority that drew the perimeter.
The organisation has focused in particular on the role of the Departamento de Patentes. It argues that the department’s powers to inspect and shut down businesses over licensing matters do not necessarily extend to ordering a preventive, blanket closure of establishments that hold valid patentes and have committed no infractions. It has asked the municipality to identify the specific rule granting that authority.
The chamber also argues that security is not built by closing businesses or emptying streets, and that premises left open, with staff, customers, lighting and foot traffic, help keep public space active. It called it contradictory to summon people into the city centre while simultaneously ordering the closure of the businesses that would serve them.
According to the records the organization holds, no general measure of this kind has been applied in Cartago during Independence celebrations in previous years, and it has asked the municipality to explain what new and exceptional circumstances justify it now. Merchants say it is the first commercial closure of its type in the city for these dates.
The chamber further objected to the timing and to inconsistencies in the terms, pointing to the 200-meter perimeter cited initially against the 100 meters announced later by the mayor, and to a lack of clarity over when businesses may reopen. Notification arriving on Friday, it said, left little room to reorganize staff, deliveries, suppliers and operations.
The Ministerio de Seguridad Pública has said that it reinforced its preventive and operational protocols because of disputes between organised crime structures and the execution of Operación Cacería.
Two Cartago legislators from Partido Liberación Nacional, Salvador Padilla and Janice Sandí, questioned the decision before the agreement was announced. Padilla said that a visit by the national government, with security grounds cited for closing businesses, was not sufficient reason to act on one of the most important dates in the province’s calendar. Sandí said a presidential visit could never become an excuse to paralyse a city, and that security is guaranteed without sacrificing people’s work.
A separate municipal instruction attached to the original perimeter set waste collection for businesses within 200 meters between 11:30 a.m. and midday on Monday, after which garbage may not be left on public roads. The chamber said it will accompany affected merchants in defense of their rights, their employment and local economic activity.
