Social Movements in Costa Rica

ICT for social capital

Tags: Central America & Mexico , Civil Society Building
Additional tags: Movement , Trade , ICT

The discussion about the approval of the RD-CAFTA in Costa Rica positioned two opposed postures about the economic model that should be followed by the country and was the seed of a social movement self-called “Movimiento Patriótico del NO”. The dynamics developed around this movement against the approval of the DR-CAFTA were very complex and different, for they integrated a huge quantity of key actors of the country, that joined for a shared in common objective, in despite of their divisions, and ideological and philosophical differences. Social organizations such as students groups, women movements, sexual diversity, workers unions, environmentalists, farmers, intellectuals and different enterprises created a very organic movement, to establish a systematic opposition against the trade, developing alternative communication strategies supported by virtual platforms.

The main objective of this collective was to make information available to as many Costa Ricans as possible: the use of Web 2.0 and Internet was a very good option, because of the lack of money suffered by the movement. The creativity became an ally to all the organizations and individuals that worked together in the creation of information platforms, the intermediary processes and the delivery of information to the communities.

A network of “Patriotic Committees”, information and knowledge sharing venues distributed around the country, the innovative uses of ICT tools to strengthen the communication strategies, the strong work done by artists groups such as the “Movimiento Cultura”, the intermediary processes developed by diverse sectors of the population in order to bring the full agreement to a more accessible language that could be understood by the citizens of the country, the innovative practices of information management of the platform “Con Costa Rica” that lead the virtual manifestation “Las caras del NO” (The NO faces), and the fundraising campaign “Al NO lo financio YO”(The NO movement is funded by ME) where vital to involve the population and generate consciousness about the DR-CAFTA and its consequences for the country.

The rest of the story is not as interesting as the hole process: the RD-CAFTA was consulted through a Referendum, and there are many irregularities around it. The final result was very closed (51% to 49%), but still is is considered as a victory for the opposition: a great social capital was generated during this action. It is the social capital that demands more accountability and transparency of the government, that denounced the irregularities related to the right to public potable water in the community of Sardinal, and that is hardly protesting against the open-pit mining in Crucitas using the same tools in new innovative ways.

*Adriana Sánchez González is a member of the Reseach Team of the Cooperativa Sulá Batsú www.sulabatsu.com and has been working with the team, with the support of the Hivos Knowledge Program, in the research of strategic uses of ICTs in the social movements in Costa Rica, specially focused in the RD-CAFTA Trade.