80% of Costa Ricans said they agree that “protesters have the right to express their points of view publicly, but not to block streets and stop traffic,” according to a survey by the company Enfoques Estudios de Opinion.
The measurement conducted 800 interviews with people across the country between October 9 and 14 and has 95% confidence. During the interview period, protesters were establishing roadblocks in different parts of Costa Rica.
About this, 80.9% of those surveyed said that “protesters have the right to protest, but not to block streets and impede traffic.” 18% disagreed with the statement and 1.1% did not respond.
The vast majority of those surveyed, 80%, also agreed with the phrase “at this time, authority and order are needed to maintain peace in the country.” Only 17% disagreed and 3% did not respond.
When consulting on the handling of the blockades, opinions were more divided: 50.3% affirmed that “the government must negotiate with the protesters while there are blockades,” but 44.3% disagreed.
Also, 44% agreed that “the leaders of the demonstrations should be criminally charged for the blockades and damage to the property of third parties”, but 52% were not. Another 4% did not respond.
This survey also shows that the general population had little knowledge about the group “Movimiento Rescate Nacional”, despite being the group who called for the roadblocks
81.9% of those surveyed stated that they did not know what the “Movimiento Rescate Nacional” is, while only 18.1% indicated that they do know what the group is. 62% could not name a single one of the leaders who organized the demonstration. Even so, 72.6% said they agree with the reasons for the demonstration. When inquiring about what those reasons were, 52% said it was the tax increase.
