Great movie Mutiny on the Bounty but not such a good scene in Costa Rica. Here is a good editorial on the subject.

A ship’s captain is the person legitimately appointed to rule the ship, and must not relinquish power to rebellious sailors who want to set a course that serves their own interests and not the rest of the passengers.

In Costa Rica the crucial debate today is the weight in the country´s economy and productivity, of a minority of state officials who enjoy privileged salaries and working conditions, notably different to other workers, both in the public and private sector.

There is a widespread conviction that these privileges must end, therefore government and the policies of the institutions involved, had started to develop actions to achieve this, which has naturally aroused the discontent of those who will eventually lose these benefits which they refer to as “acquired rights”, trying to assert their perpetuity.

This has led to union leaders calling on those privileged sectors to resist changes to these privileges, decreeing a strike on essential public services such as health, fuel, ports, electricity, communications, besides calling for street demonstrations.

The fact is that both the strike and demonstrations have very little support, and demonstrate the weakness of demands of unions and in particular their leaders, who clearly do not have the ability to call on people to support them that they claim to.

However, the Solis administration did give in to the demands of trade unionists, and even did so before the strike took place, which gives us an idea of the type of parody which characterized the activities and protests.

Among the gains for the trade unionists, is the promotion promised by the administration to the bill on the Minimum Wage, because of the negative consequences that will come from its approval not only in productive sectors but also in the generation of more poverty and informality.

The article by José David Guevara in The Financierocr.com which addresses President Solis saying “Don Luis Guillermo, do not relinquish the helm” , summarizes the current situation in Costa Rica, where the very definition of representative democracy is threatened.