QCOSTARICA – Former legislator Oscar Campos Chavarría, leader of the self-styled National Rescue Movement, assured this Friday that they are going to organize in more than 150 points of the country to confront the Fuerza Publica (National Police).
“It is necessary to organize the people from the base so that, if they are going to blow us up (with tear gas), they will not find us unarmed,” said the promoter of blockades through a live video he made this morning on his Facebook profile ‘Diputado 58‘.
Campos, 62, added: “(…) the shock forces, who will be the first to be in front, will have no fear and rather reach for the bombs.”
He added that after repelling 1,000 or 1,500 gas bombs, “we will then have to sit in a face-to-face conversation with the riot police.”
Campos, in the video, said: “It is necessary that we work from Deputy 58 talking to all citizens so that they buy swim masks, they say they are worth ¢600, and give them to the protesters.
“All protesters must wear glasses and the other mask (against tear gas) instead of this mask (mouth covers),” he said.
At minute 11 of the video, the former legislator referred to the notification he received this Friday, from the Prosecutor’s Office, charged with various crimes related to the blockades, and indicated that he will be in court on October 23.
Furthermore, he alluded to the fact that the Government and the Minister of Security, Michael Soto, have “negotiations with the with (drug) cartels that could possibly even be illegal and criminal.”
“With what moral authority is Michael Soto going to say absolutely nothing after having infiltrated (the protests with) police officers to beat on the same policemen.”
“And it does seem to me that the departure of Michael Soto is necessary at this juncture. There is no other, Michael Soto must leave as soon as possible,” he added.
On October 8, Campos told the press that to him it appears that drug trafficking is involved in the government, but that he has no proof of it.
“It has been said that even the DEA and the FBI have been conducting a series of investigations in Costa Rica,” he said at the time, too, without any support.
Likewise, on that date, he had declared that he did not agree with the roadblocks because he sees it as an extreme measure that hurts Costa Ricans and commerce.
The meeting between directors of Uccaep and leaders of the self-styled National Rescue Movement held on Thursday night, occurred at the request of the Campos.
This was confirmed by Célimo Guido, another leader of the National Rescue Movement, as when he was leaving the San José Courthouse Friday morning, after learning of the investigation that was opened against him for the crimes of public instigation, obstruction of roads and obstruction of public services.
According to Guido, who one of the leaders behind the blockades, there is an agreement with businessmen on issues such as attacking tax avoidance and evasion, as well as customs smuggling.
On this, Oscar Campos said that he hopes that the talks between Uccaep and his movement “are a sign that Costa Rica should sit down and talk and leave aside this childish, unruly, incapable, immature, irrational president, who does not deserve to be the president of this century-old democracy ”.
“There is a new group that is willing to give it a turn, a new vision, a new image to Uccaep, and we know José Álvaro (Jenkins) and Óscar Echeverría, and we know that they want to help and we are willing to give the spaces,” he asserted.
Campos was a legislator for the National Liberation Party (PLN) between 1998-2002, is in the process of forming a political party that would be called the Encuentro Nacional.
Among the aims of the group are “to be a (political) party of participatory democratic collectivism”, direct its forces “to seek to restore sanctity and authority in the home”, as well as “strengthen moral, spiritual, cultural, intellectual and civic values.”
