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The Costa Rica chapter of the online activist collective Anonymous is calling on Ticos to join them in a virtual protest against Fiscal Reform. Just days after the proposed law was approved by legislators in the National Assembly, Anonymous Costa Rica announced Operacion Plan Fiscal.
The controversial Fiscal Reform Plan won the first round of voting at the National Assembly on March 15th, and on that same day it entered Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall) for the anticipated judicial review. Reaction to the news of the approval was mixed, with the government applauding the 31 to 19 vote and business leaders voicing their opposition, according to digital newspaper El Pais.
The proposed legislation, which aims to introduce new taxes, raise some existing ones and instill aggressive collection enforcement measures, has been criticized by many circles. Protests against Fiscal Reform date back to December 13 last year, when dozens of labor unions crowded the streets of San Jose to voice their displeasure. While many of the new taxes created are targeted towards businesses, the rationale behind the protests is that consumers and wage workers will end up shouldering the burden of the Fiscal Reform.
On its blog announcement, Anonymous Costa Rica cites figures released by the government that indicate a deficit of more than 5 percent of our Gross Domestic Product and wonder how the revenues collected are being spent. The collective also calls attention to increased fees in marchamo (vehicle registration) that were ostensibly collected for building the best highway system in Central America, yet that is not the case today.
The group is calling on the people of Costa Rica to join them in carrying out crowd-sourced Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on government sites over two days in April. The announcement has been analyzed by blog writers at Ticoblogger and Global Voices who compared the DDoS attacks to blocking major traffic arteries in protest, something that Ticos are familiar with. None of the bloggers, however, support the use of unlawful tactics in the name of activism.
