QCOSTARICA – The answer to the question of whether Uber is operating in the country legally or not depends on who you ask.
According to the Foro Nacional de Taxistas (National Taxi Drivers Forum) press release, its spokesperson, Gilberth Ureña, says the Public Transport Council (Consejo de Transporte Público – CTP) has determined that the private transport of persons is outside the law and thus Uber in Costa Rica lacks the foundation to operate legally.
Ureña says that “a historic agreement” between the CTP and the Ministro of Transport, Carlos Segnini, “is very clear that vehicles providing the service by way of the Uber app is illegal”.
Deputy minister of Transport, Sebastian Urbina, told Crhoy.com that it was too late on Thursday to respond to questions of the press and that declarations would be made today, Friday, during business hours.
The director of the CTP, Mario Zarate, would not answer his phone.
But, for legislator and former presidential candidate, Otto Guevara, Uber is providing safe and cheap transport and “does not need specialized regulation”.
Guevara justifies his position referring to various articles of the Constitution, including Article 28 that says “everything not forbidden is allowed“. Guevara also cites Article 33 on the “principles of equal rights”, Article 45 on “private property” and Article 46 “the promotion of competition and the prohibition of monopolies”.
Ureña is calling on all legal taxis – the “red force” (fuerza roja in Spanish) – to join a national protest for Sunday, September 13, that includes a big protest march in downtown San Jose, starting at 9:00am from the Parque La Merced to the Plaza de la Democracia.
Taxi drivers have expressed their full support for the Foro.
No word from the legal porteadores (informal taxis with permits) and the illegal, who are also affected by the CTP and MOPT decision to ban private transport services.
So if a friend asked me to take him to the airport and pays me $20 to do so, is that illegal? Sheesh
I’m getting a little tired of Otto Guevara shirking his responsibilities as a legislator.
He knows as well as everyone else does that Uber is illegal according to the law–and all he or anyone else needs to do is read the law to realize that.
Sure, if he or anyone else wants to challenge the constitutionality of the law, he can take a case to the Supreme Court. If he prevails, the existing law will be overturned, and Uber will be legal. However, until he or someone else does that (and wins), Uber is illegal.
Far simpler (especially for a fellow in the legislature) is to pass a bill ammending the law to make Uber legal. That Guevara doesn’t do this but spouts untested constitutional opinion instead tells me that he prefers to grandstand as an ideologue rather than do the legislative job he is paid to do.
And should it ever dawn on Guevera that as a member of the government’s lawmaking body he is actually responsible for passing and ammending laws, he might want to draft a bill capping or even lowering the salaries and pensions of public employees rather than continuing to run his mouth about them but failing to do his job.
For the rest of us, having opinions about the law is the best we can do. But for a guy in the legislature that actually has the power to make laws, you have to ask yourself why on God’s green earth he prefers to spout opinions rather than make the laws that conform to his opinions.
Since it’s hard for me to believe that Guevera is so clueless that he doesn’t realize that he is actually one of the few empowered to make the laws, I have to infer that he doesn’t bother since he expects that any law he favors will just be outvoted by his fellow legislators. If this is the case, then not only is Uber currently illegal but the body that makes the laws also wants it to remain illegal.
The upshot is that Uber is illegal no matter what Otto Guevara says, and the country would be far better off if Guevara stopped running his mouth and started doing the job he’s paid to do.