The Christmas fair was set up in the El Tambo district, but not on Mariscal Castilla Avenue as announced before, but along 6 blocks of the Sebastián Lorente jirón, from the Nemesio Raáez jirón to Huancavelica avenue, which caused discomfort. among merchants.
And, as explained by the leader Indalesia Valencia, three months ago they managed the installation of the fair on the main avenue of the district, for 420 merchants; However, with the change of location it was only enough for 350 positions of 2 meters each. “Where do I locate 70 merchants who were not enough?” he pointed out. Without enough space, there was chaos and disorder in the first hours of installation. A saleswoman who was evicted for trying to accommodate her position accused the Valencia leader of having prioritized her family members. Accusations that the aforementioned denied.
Complaints from formal merchants
But, those truly affected are the formal merchants of the block located between Nemesio Raez and Av. Castilla.
There, hair salons, flower shops, wineries, restaurants, chifas and even a pre-university academy do not have access to the street and the hope of selling and receiving more customers during these Christmas holidays disappeared.
“The officials never came to inform us or coordinate with us. The (fair) vendors have the right to work, correct, but so do we. Our businesses pay from 2 thousand soles for rent, excise taxes, salaries of employees and others and now we are going to lose customers.”said Humberto Abad.
“I sell flowers and they go bad over time, the vendors have gone to the sidewalk and they will be there until January 2! Our losses are great,” said Lea Veliz.
The same story is repeated with Paula Espíritu, owner of a grocery store who will now stop earning around S/500 per day. “I only ask that you leave me a reasonable space to enter and exit,” she claimed.
Fair will stay 11 days
Despite the discomfort that has plunged formal merchants and fairground vendors into a confrontation, the manager of Citizen Security of the El Tambo district, Carlos Pérez Condezo, totally unaware of the chaos, assured that the fair was changed location after a series of coordination meetings with the prosecutor’s office, the police and other institutions. Despite what the leader of the fairs said, Pérez indicates that the same number of merchants who had requested the fair has remained the same.
He confirmed that this will stay for 11 days, he did not comment on the discomfort of the formal businesses in the area.
The Citizen Security Manager of El Tambo, Carlos Pérez, pointed out that 248 troops and drones from the Condor squadron will protect by flying over other critical points in the district, such as around banks and busy areas.