Unlike last years Costa Rica's poteadores and licensed taxis quiet protest, this weeks students protest over an arrested corrupt traffic policeman on campus sparked a riot were many were arrested,
This week an event took place that may became a disappointment in what the future of Costa Rica’s society and culture may be. A few weeks ago we wrote about how the new Traffic Laws were causing problems with its loopholes and in some cases corruption (bribes) when an online chatter wrote, how an illegal passing cost her $100 to an open palm traffic policeman.
It appears we were not the only ones that pointed out these problems; obviously government stepped up their efforts to combat this. The Fuerza Pública officers and Judicial agents were operating some sort of sting operations to those officers who they suspect were accepting bribes. When numerous complains were filed against one officer, and when that officer was confronted, he took off running into San Pedro’s Universidad de Costa Rica.
Okay, this is a good thing … catching a corrupt person who is representing the law.
Unfortunately, a few Universidad de Costa Rica students were upset that police entered their campus on Monday in pursuit of this suspect. These students claimed the campus had “some type” of autonomy like the Vatican has with the nation of Italy and a riot was started.
“Get out of here! This is our territory! We are autonomous, says so in the Constitution,” was shouted at police. These were just a few of the nasty phrases that were aimed by the angry students at the cops as they made the arrest.
The crowd got bigger as more students joined in this rebellious act to the point of a full blown riot later that next night with streets being blocked, masked rioters (many were not students) sets fires etc, and finally ended with a few being pushed, shoved and in some case wrestled to ground, and into the paddy wagon.
It did not end, Universidad de Costa Rica students were so “angered by this violation of sovereignty rights” they marched to the Corte Suprema de Justicia. Student leaders and university officials also met with Luis Paulino Mora Mora, president of the Corte Supreme de Justicia, mid-week claiming this autonomy thing.
First of all, the Supreme Court has said that Costa Rica’s Constitution does not recognize the type of autonomy that university officials and students claim they have. In other words, the Universidad is not some church where one can seek sovereignty like the movie, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame where Quasimodo saves Esmeralda, a beautiful Gypsy, from being wrongfully hanged for killing her lover by bringing her to the cathedral under the laws of sanctuary.
And second (the most important), would the students reactions have been the same if this “corrupt policemen” was a child rapists and/or murderer? If so, this is not a good thing for the students of the San Pedro’s Universidad de Costa Rica.
Unfortunately in this case you are not getting your facts the way they should. Consulting on the LaNacion.com, might not be the right strategy.
The Supreme Court president (Chief Justice), has stated that in order to clarify that Court position on this matter they havent agreed or disagreed on the OIJ and General Attorneys Office actions. And they have ordered an investigation by the Court Internal affairs (Indagación Judicial) to see if there was any violations of protocols and procedures that would eventually take to the destitution of some official, that being a OIJ officer or the head of the OIJ.
The court actually recognizes the level of independence that the University has and that is declared on the constitution.And the University has clarify that it respects the Jurisdiction of the Court. Is not as simple as to say that the University or by extension any other main state university is an independent state as the vatican city (which is a really lame comparison). The level granted to the UCR and by extension to the other 3 State Universities is that they can conduct their research, education and social extension (that is programs that benefit from the wealth of information generated by the research to be taken to the rest of the society), in a generally free way. Without being affected on who is in the Presidential seat, and what agenda he or she might have.
Even though I am not here to condemn or support either the students later riot in front of the Law Faculty and the entrance to the UCR, or the student body reaction when the police came into the University Campus, later reactions in media and social websites like facebook is quite freightening. People can get really angry over something they shouldnt, or at least in the level that you dont expect from supposedly democratic loving citizens (pun intended)
If you take into account what either OIJ and the General Attorneys Office has said into the matter you might think,that “bribery, attempted arrest, and confiscation of evidence in campus” were a continous chain of events, which it wasnt.
The attempted arrest of the campus policemen, was clumsy. The OIJ officer should have arrested the guy in fraganti, at the moment of the bribery, which it was outside campus in the vicinity of the University Radio Station. That way this whole thing would have been avoided and the judge wouldnt have let the guy free, the next day without any accusation.
The fact that the OIJ required around 20 officers and god knows how many common “Fuerza Publica” officers to arrest a single guy is very troubling, in consideration that they are considered to be the profesionalized investigative body of the Judicial System.
And last but not least for them to engage in a fist fight with students, which in the videos seem that the OIJ officers started, is not a good thing, for the whole society.
I would like to add a final note. To talk in a generalize matter about the UCR community is not a good strategy at all, the student body is around 30 thousand students, in the whole university with most of that population being in the Main Campus. I didnt see 30 thousand guys girls chatting against policemen or 30 thousand guys and girls sitting in the entrance of the UCR, that would have resulted in a very crowded place.
So not everyone was there, not every professor and administrative body was there, so to talk in such general matter is like when in Fox News, they say “the liberal media”. Just a thought.