The call for a nationwide strike by public workers’ unions on Monday had only moderate support. But it did lead to the cancellation of at least 86 surgeries at three hospitals.
If you're driving in Costa Rica's capital Monday morning, there's a good chance you'll need a little patience. Several public services unions united in a group called Patria Justa – a "Just Homeland" – are mounting a general strike starting at 6 a.m. that could snare traffic at several points in the capital and beyond.
The Public Services Regulatory Authority is evaluating a general cut in electricity rates starting next month, but three public utility companies have filed requests to raise them.
Following a record period of 94 days running exclusively on clean energy, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute was forced to burn fuel to generate electricity in August.
Costa Rica's publicly-owned National Power and Light Company is requesting an increase in electricity rates that could raise basic rates for its customers by 36 percent.
After a morning of whitewater rafting with his family, President Luis Guillermo Solís signed a decree banning dams from the Pacuare and Savegre rivers for 25 years, then thrust the document into the air and said, “For Costa Rica!”
Whitewater rafters, indigenous people and other advocates of the world-famous Pacuare River say it would be a disaster to dam this national treasure to produce electricity. They're currently in talks with the Solís administration to produce a presidential decree preventing the damming of this river for the foreseeable future. But with the Costa Rican Electricity Institute having promised in 2009 to build nothing on the Pacuare for 20 years, how real is the threat?
