Jorge Quispe / La Paz
Supported by hundreds of neighborhood associations, the mayor of La Paz, Iván Arias, yesterday pointed to the MAS for misinforming and lying about the adjustment to the cleaning fee and that it only complies with a national law. Meanwhile, MAS councilors, who strike against the norm, indicated that they were attacked and prevented from entering an event at the Mayor’s Office.
“I want to listen to one and the other, but intransigence does not work, it does not allow the common good, lies, pure lies, you see how they cover them on their channels, pure lies, La Paz,” said the mayor in the atrium of the Palace Consistorial.
Before the strike carried out by the councilors of the MAS, Arias suggested that they transfer it to the Legislative. “If the gentlemen (masistas) want the law (2434) to be annulled, they are mistaking the place of the hunger strike, because they have to do it in Parliament so that it annuls it and if it annuls Law 2434 or the Government decides to suspend , we will heed a national provision,” he asserted.
The president of the Municipal Council, Jorge Dulon, insisted that the increase in the cleaning rate is an adjustment by law and that it will not affect the population.
Arias, who yesterday announced the approval of the credit of 174 million bolivianos for works, reported that the increase in the urban cleaning rate is between 77 cents and 1.76 bolivianos. In the Mayor’s Office they point out that if the energy consumption is between 0 and 50 kilowatts, with the adjustment the user will pay 2.87 bolivianos. Last year the payment amount was 2.10 bolivianos.
Councilors of the MAS
The councilors of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Roxana Pérez Castillo, Joselinne Pinto and Eliana Paco, denounced yesterday that they were attacked by municipal officials when they tried to enter a socialization event about the increase in the cleaning rate in the Mayor’s Office in La Paz.
“We wanted to enter that socialization, but they didn’t let us, they did it between four walls and only with their officials,” Paco asserted.
The councilwomen completed their second day of strike yesterday, before what they consider an “arbitrary increase” in the adjustment in the cleaning fee, Mayor Arias pointed out the opposition councilors for not telling the truth.
Pérez announced that they will denounce the officials who attacked them. “The three councilors have been kicked, punched, pinched and insulted so that we stop the hunger strike,” the councilor pointed out.
The pressure on the burgomaster persists. One of the federations of neighborhood associations of La Paz announced a march for this Friday “against the 84% increase in the urban cleaning rate,” the call indicates.
