“Jorge”, a 50-year-old man who used to work as a Unofficial seller in the streets VillavicencioAnd the He denounced the existence of gangs that seized the streets and parks in the city centre. In order to take advantage of the public space in the metropolitan Mita and thus collect money from street vendors.
We have already filed these complaints before the relevant authorities, but they have done nothing. And it is that although the whole world is aware of the existence of these mafias, no one dares to interfere, ”this was confirmed by the traveling salesman with some bitterness.
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“What they told us was that the authorities were unable to find evidence that would allow those responsible for these charges to be prosecuted and imprisoned,” he added.
And while nothing is happening, it appears that public space dealers will charge unemployed informal workers and Venezuelan immigrants between 10,000 and 20,000 pesos and up to 5 million and more to rent corners and sidewalks in the center of Villavicencio.
The situation is alarming, given that in the capital, Mia, there are approximately 1,000 people working informally in public spaces in the city center, which can no longer handle such a large number of informal sales.
said Ongrid Carrillo, a shopkeeper in the Centauros shopping center, who showed how informal trade had grown in the past year. , especially in the city centre.
Faced with this disturbing panorama, Llano SIE7EDÍAS spoke with Anderson Pardo, one of the leaders of the Association of Vices, which includes many unofficial sellers from the center of Villavicencio.
According to the leader, “There are no gangs that control public space in the center of Villavicencio, these are lies. The person who spoke of the presence of gangs in public space was the mayor of Villavicencio, Felipe Harman, who said that they would pursue the case and later they would be arrested, but so far it has not been sue anyone.for such acts.
However, it should be noted that unofficial vendors from the city of Bogota, called ‘los rolitos’, have denounced on several occasions that leaders of vendor associations in central Villavicencio have asked them for money in exchange for occupying public spaces.
Faced with these complaints, Anderson Pardew said: “The lap comes and stretches with three meters of rubber, and then the leaders of the associations arrive to tell them that they cannot be present in some places, so they go where they are. like that “.
After explaining what is happening in the public space in the city center, the Vice President of the Association said that the problem of finding informal vendors is caused by the local administration itself, which has given permits to some vendors to occupy public spaces and others not. .
Now they want to resolve the situation with subpoenas. This week or this week they will start issuing subpoenas for improper occupancy of public places, the funniest thing is that they will come to harass vendors who have been in public places for 20 or 30 years, but on the other hand the physical control office is opening calls To rent the public space next to Villa Giulia,” Anderson Pardo noted.
“The problem is not us, it’s the local administration that intends within a month and a half to fix what they haven’t been able to fix all year, And here the old sellers will be affected by these ridiculous laws that they want to impose on usThe leader of the unofficial sellers warned.
Faced with this situation, Llano SIE7EDÍAS contacted the Director of the Physical Control Office, Mónica Turriago, pBut until the closing of this edition, the official did not judge the situation that takes place in the public space in the center of Villavicencio.
The municipal police authorities did not refer to this issue either.
