Costa Rican Taxi Driver Shows Disdain for Uber by Chaining Herself to a Tree? [Details]

A lady driver in Costa Rica decided to show her protest against Uber by tying herself to a tree in President Luis Guillermo Solís' frontyard, declaring that she is there to fight for her rights.

A report from Tico Times revealed that Virginia Moreira, a 54-year-old taxi driver in the Central American country, wrapped herself in a Costa Rican flag and shackled herself to a tree near Solís' Escalante home on Wednesday.

"I'm here to fight for by children's bread. It's my job," she told the outlet, adding that she has no other means of earning to finance her children's daily needs.

According to the outlet, Moriera had been driving her 16-year-old cab and just lost permission to drive passengers in Costa Rica because her vehicle was a little too old for the job as stated under the law.

What the lady driver condemns is the fact that the government strictly applies the law to traditional taxi drivers like her but not to unlicensed taxis or Uber-managed passenger vehicles.

"Today the government does not support us. They apply the law to us, who are legal, and they don't apply the law to those who aren't," she said.

As law enforcers closed in on the area, some of Moriera's fellow taxi drivers parked nearby to show their solidarity and support for the 54-year-old mother with words of protest written on their cabs' windows: "Uber out."

While taxi drivers in Costa Rica have a history of expressing their dissent toward the ride-hailing mobile service with violence, the demonstration in the Escalante neighborhood remained peaceful.

In the past, traditional taxi drivers have taken it unto themselves to compel Uber drivers to quit by assaulting them or shaming them in public.

In August, Reuters reported that two vehicles from the ride-hailing service were taken out of circulation and an Uber driver taxi was attacked by Costa Rican cab drivers during the first weekend of the highly controversial company in the country.

Aside from that, the Solís himself issued a warning to the business that the government would apply stern vigilance in the streets of Costa Rica for law-breaking Uber drivers via Costa Rica Hoy.

Uber is a popular and notorious cab-hailing mobile service that has remained under close check, not only by Costa Rica but by other countries as well.

Just this Wednesday, Montreal drivers of black taxis organized a protest against the company which resulted in traffic stoppage.

According to the Montreal Gazette, the rally involved hundreds of taxi drivers and affected flights at the Trudeau airport.