If you need to get across eastern San José or downtown tomorrow, plan around a national march against cuts to public university funding. Marchers start gathering in San Pedro at 8 a.m., and a rally outside the Legislative Assembly is scheduled to run until 6 p.m.
The main march leaves at 9 a.m. from the Fuente de la Hispanidad roundabout in San Pedro and heads to the Legislative Assembly on Cuesta de Moras. University of Costa Rica students and staff are meeting first at the Pretil on the main campus at 8:30 a.m. to walk over and join the others. By 11 a.m., marchers plan to converge on the Plaza de la Democracia, across from the Assembly.
Organizers have scheduled cultural activities there through the afternoon, and the day is set to close with a vigil. Expect slow traffic and possible closures around the Fuente de la Hispanidad and on the main roads between San Pedro and downtown from about 8 a.m. until late morning. After that, the pressure shifts to the blocks around the Plaza de la Democracia, the National Museum and Cuesta de Moras until early evening.
If you are driving between the airport, Escazú or Santa Ana and the east side of the city, give yourself extra time or stay off the downtown avenues. Buses that run through San Pedro and past the Assembly could be delayed or rerouted. Planning a visit to the University of Costa Rica on Tuesday? Check before you go.
The university has allowed its administrative offices to close between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. so staff can take part, and it has postponed exams and graded work scheduled in those hours, according to a circular from Rector Carlos Araya. Organizers say smaller marches will also set out from other parts of the country, so check local conditions if you are traveling outside the capital.
The protest targets cuts proposed for the country’s five public universities in the 2027 national budget. The National Council of Rectors (Conare) says reductions to the universities’ main state fund would hit scholarships, admission slots and regional campuses. Among the specific cuts Conare has cited are ₡462 million for student science olympiads and ₡492.9 million for the Technological Institute of Costa Rica’s campus in Limón. TEC Rector María Estrada has warned the Limón campus could be forced to close.
Education Minister Leonardo Sánchez accused Estrada of political extortion over that warning and said the institute holds more than ₡20 billion in cash and investments. Estrada responded that capital and surplus funds cannot legally be used to pay a campus’s day-to-day operating costs.
The date was chosen with the budget calendar in mind. Tuesday is the deadline for the Assembly’s budget committee to finish its review of the 2027 budget and send it to the full Assembly, where ruling-party Pueblo Soberano deputies have pushed for the reductions. National University Rector Jorge Herrera has confirmed his institution is taking part, describing the march as a defense of opportunities for people in the country’s regions.
Farm organizations, culture and human-rights groups, and opponents of Costa Rica joining the CPTPP Pacific trade pact have also been invited to join. Conare has asked marchers to act with respect and responsibility. Former Frente Amplio presidential candidate Ariel Robles has gone further, urging people to camp outside the Legislative Assembly and the Presidential House to keep up the pressure.
Once the committee sends the budget to the floor, the full Legislative Assembly has until November 30 to approve the 2027 spending plan.
