President in an uneasy alliance with "Right-wing Libertarian" Guevara

From Eric Dondero:

Costa Rica President Laura Chincilla Miranda is considering a new 5% tax on on-line gambling and e-commerce.

From the Tax-News:

In the last fifteen years Costa Rica has been an important place to conduct E-commerce, especially in the e-gaming sector. Companies, even when not incorporated in Costa Rica, are permitted to operate e-gaming websites under an all-encompassing, simple data processing license. In addition, not tax is paid on foreign-sourced income. About 380 companies operate under such licenses, turning over hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

But Tax-News explains Chinchilla may face a difficult task, mostly due to opposition from Movimiento Libertario. Continuing:

The likelihood that President Chinchilla can carry her program through has been brought into question, however, because she relies on a pact with the Libertarian Movement leader, Otto Guevara, to get legislation passed and Guevara has pledged to filibuster any tax increases.

Chinchilla's Center-Right Party and Guevara's Libertarian Party have joined in an alliance on the Right. Though, Guevara has proven to be an unsteady partner.

From The Economist, May 7:

She will be reliant on a pact with the right-wing Libertarian Movement, whose leader, Otto Guevara, won 21% of the vote in this year’s presidential election, compared with just 2% in 2002.

Guevara is taking a hardline free market approach to negotiations. Continuing:

“The door to negotiation has opened,” says the confident Mr Guevara, flanked by portraits of his free-market heroes, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. But in return for supporting the government, he wants tougher sentences for petty criminals and the publication on the internet of the names of all those who receive state benefits. He vows to filibuster tax increases...