Car-hire company Uber under fire in Uruguay.

AutorGaudin, Andres

The powerful intrusion in various Latin American countries of the transportation system Uber, a US company, has generated a wave of protests by taxicab owners and placed governments in a difficult bind. Uruguay, for example, was quick to characterize the service as a "pirate activity" but at the same time, warned that impeding it would amount to a violation of labor and free commerce rights.

Uber, of its own accord and backed in some cases by interim legal measures that offer no long-term guarantees, has begun to operate precariously in the region's principal cities, even at the risk of sparking violent confrontations between drivers who use the service and regular taxi workers, with passengers caught in between.

In Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, as well as in various European cities, "legal" taxi drivers have blocked roads, highways and airport entrances. In Mexico City, cabbies--convinced that Uber violates their rights but with no other legal recourse available--filed a suit before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the region's top international legal body. In Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, they have blocked Uber drivers from receiving training courses and even registered the company's name in the Patent and Trademark office as a way to keep it from operating. And in Bogota, Colombia, automobiles identified as working with Uber have been followed and targeted. On Feb. 12, some 50 taxi drivers blocked the passage of a vehicle carrying Carmen Santos, the oldest daughter of former Vice President Francisco Santos, holding her virtually captive for more than half an hour.

'Your private chauffeur'

Uber executives operating in Latin America use the language of the tech world--words like "platform" and "application"--to describe their "Internet-based" business. "We're not a transportation company, but rather a technology [firm] that functions as an intermediary," said Soledad Lago Rodriguez, Uber's spokesperson in Uruguay.

The company does not have its own vehicles, and the drivers it works with are not direct dependents. Each is left to cover his or her own costs: third-party insurance, social security, vehicle registration, fuel, and maintenance. As such, Uber has no fiscal or labor responsibilities, and the drivers are not considered to be employees but rather associates who receive 80% of the revenue generated. Users of the Uber service--which takes its name from the German prefix meaning "above" or...

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