July 15, 2023, 10:38 PM
July 15, 2023, 10:38 PM
not everything was celebration. There was violence before the vervain paceña. Vendors and municipal guards “braided with blows” at noon this Saturday because of the location of the stalls. The fight was to be as close as possible to the stage set up for the festival in the square Saint Francis of La Paz.
From the struggles they came to blows with the municipal guards, who tried to preserve reserved areas for special guests where plastic chairs were located with privileged view spaces towards the main stage.
The saleswomen they were not allowed set up their posts of sale near these spaces and began to raise the metal fences and then, to collect the plastic chairs in some cases and throw them away in an attempt to set up a preferential place.
The Plaza San Francisco became a battlefield, the gendarmes were overwhelmed by the vendors. They not only attacked with the chairs, but also with their kitchen instruments to prepare the hot drinks that they would sell at night.
Enrique Villanueva, municipal secretary of Mobility and Citizen Security, indicated that the unions took by force an area reserved for the development of the Verbena Paceña. He explained that the guard and the police tried to retake the area, but the intransigence and violence of groups present in the place, cornered the officials. “They beat them. We are starting legal processes, ”he denounced.
“There was a lack of respect for these areas defined and coordinated with these sectors. They did not respect the agreement. Clarify that there were defined areas arranged with trade union associations for the peaceful party, but when the abuse and intransigence exceed common sense, they dirty the La Paz party and that is how they generated these problems and violence,” lamented Villanueva.
He also noted that exalted union members they threw stones, bricks and they beat municipal officials and police officers with sticks for the purpose of occupying a reserved area that is designated for security issues.
