(QCOSTARICA) San Jose, 10:17AM – “There was violence, a policeman has is teeth knocked out Today we will not negotiate,” were the words of Mauricio Herrera, the ministry of communications with respect to the protest by taxis today.
In statement to the press this morning, the government of Luis Guillermo Solis reiterated: if there were blockades, there would be no dialogue.
¡Continuamos trabajando por su seguridad! pic.twitter.com/4n8dyCUGCM
— Seguridad Pública (@seguridadcr) August 9, 2016
“Right now there is nothing to talk about and they know it,” said the government statement.
President Solis was at the central command post from 4:30am this morning, working with his minister of Security, Gustavo Mata and the Chief of the Fuerza Publica (police) and dozens of other officials, monitoring and coordinating efforts in the face of the threatened violence by the taxi drivers.
The police official that had his teeth knocked out, injured by a taxi driver with a rock in his hand during a confrontation in the area of Mall San Pedro, was identified as Erick Chaves Sibaja, a member of the Unidad de Intervención Policial (UIP) – a specialized police unit dealing with manifestations (riots).
Click here to follow the Tweets by the Ministerio de Seguridad
The Security Minister in a Twitter post holds up the nails strewn on the roads, allegedly by taxi drivers.
Este tipo de clavos habrían colocado los taxistas en carreteras. Decomisados, hay 35 detenidos. #Conferencia pic.twitter.com/wUkg8xlmYj
— Seguridad Pública (@seguridadcr) August 9, 2016
Another Tweet shows the injury suffered by the police officer.
Detuvimos a 4 taxistas en la hispanidad y 3 frente al Juan Santamaría, hay un policía heridohttps://t.co/JyKNafZix5 pic.twitter.com/USPuRwBRoo
— Fuerza Pública CR (@fuerzapublicaCR) August 9, 2016
