Resumen

CORTES SEQUEIRA, Sofía. An approach to the neoliberal and conservative channeling of social discontent in Costa Rica (2019-2020). Reflexiones [online]. 2025, vol.104, n.1, pp.132-164. ISSN 1659-2859.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/rr.v104i1.54217.

Introduction: At the global and regional level, neoliberal sectors, neo-Pentecostal and neo-integrist organizations, and in general the «new right», have directed efforts to channel social unrest and discontent towards the reinforcement of the neoliberal and conservative project. Within this framework, they have played a leading role in collective actions with a diversity of repertoires of action.

Objective: To reflect on the presence of neo-Pentecostal and neoliberal discourses, demands, and actors to channel and guide social discontent in Costa Rica in collective actions and social protest movements, based on two «protest swarms» that occurred during the government of Carlos Alvarado Quesada (2018-2022).

Method: A chronological and analytical description is made of two "protest swarms" that occurred during the government of Carlos Alvarado Quesada (2018-2022), based on press information and records compiled from the Collective Actions Database of the Institute of Social Research of the University of Costa Rica. The first, are the student and transportationprotests of June-July 2019. The second is the citizen protests against the agreement with the International Monetary Fund in October 2020. For its analysis and interpretation, national and Latin American bibliography on social conflict during the Alvarado government, neo-Pentecostalism, new right-wing and conservative protests is used.

Results: A chronological and analytical reconstruction of the two protest swarms was achieved based on about 100 press articles collected from the Collective Actions Database of the Institute of Social Research of the University of Costa Rica, which were complemented with some publications on social networks of the protest actors.

Conclusions: Both in the 2019 and 2020 protests, the presence of demands and actors linked to the neo-Pentecostal and neoliberal political agenda can be found. In the first case, the inclusion of the demand against the creation of «neutral bathrooms» by neo-Pentecostal sectors within the demands of the high school student movement, within the framework of the implementation of protocols against bullying of sexually diverse people in public schools, stands out. In the second, it highlights the ability of big business to position the demand for «no more taxes» in the October 2020 protest days, and to use the generalized malaise derived from the approval and implementation of the 2018 tax reform and the economic deterioration of the country, to avoid any discussion or initiative aimed at increasing the tax burden of large companies to address the severe economic, social and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Palabras clave : Protests; Social conflict; Neoliberalism; Neo-pentecostalism; Conservatism.

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