The demonstration took place on Avenida Acceso Sur, from 8 in the morning and lasted until 12 noon.
María Lea Melgarejo, president of the Association of Frontiersmen, said that the Central Government, through the Ministry of Public Works (MOPC), is the one that must solve the problem.
“They are responsible for the work and they did not foresee that this is a commercial area. What was the ‘Metrobús’ is being replicated. The saddest thing is that there are many people with small businesses, who lived day to day from their businesses and who now have nothing more, ”he lamented.
From 2016 to 2018, the MOPC carried out the failed Metrobús project. The construction company Mota Engil was only able to complete 800 meters of the 11 kilometers established by the project. This resulted in 200 businesses closed and 1,500 labor lost. The Tres Bocas frontists fear the same fate.
REGULATION
Car parks, rentals, cooperatives and flower shops, to name a few items, are being affected in the area.
From the Government, the answer is that the only thing missing is the signature of Abdo Benítez for the regulation of article eight of Law 5,389, which establishes the procedure for the expropriation and compensation of the real estate included in the domain of the works. However, this has been delayed since last October.
“There are people who have gone into debt to have a hairdresser. Now he does not have any clients because everything is cordoned off, vehicles cannot enter his premises. We did not know that this way these works would harm us. He is now in charge of Huttemann”, affirmed the interviewee.
In principle, Mr. Alfredo Bordón, responsible for the Tres Bocas tunnel project, informed them that 100% of the losses would be returned to those affected. That is to say, the MOPC was going to study the invoices, balances and inventories and according to that they were going to pay the compensations.
For example, a business that generated G. 140 million a year, the same amount would be returned, if the works lasted a year. There are also informal workers who were going to receive only subsidies because they do not operate legally.
DEMAND
Melgarejo expressed that they are analyzing suing the Government for this situation. Something that they do not want to reach because, if it happens, the works will stop, harming all parties.
“Access South is an exit to the interior of the country. There is money, since they received a donation to carry out the works. This is humanitarian aid for US$150 million, of which US$24 million was to be allocated to the works, US$17 million to the contractor and US$7 million to compensation”, she detailed.
The interviewee estimates that the Government will need around G. 3,000 million to be able to pay for the compensation.
HUTTEMANN
Hernán Huttemann, chief of the civil cabinet of the presidency, affirmed that the decree would be published on Monday afternoon. However, at the close of this edition, it had not yet been finalized.
