In another great fair attached to La Salada they demand that they also be allowed to sell again

Ariana Lopez Pasquare

08/02/2021 19:30

• Clarín.com

• Zonal

Updated 08/02/2021 19:30

A few blocks from

La Salada

, crossing Camino de Cintura, the

Olimpo Fair

-an informal walk that gathers some 4,000 stalls-, today it has a yo-yo cadence.

Officially, the fair is closed.

But when the police controls go away, approximately 10% of the manteros (which are many) go out to sell.

When they know that the police are going to reappear, they leave.

Unlike the walks in La Salada, Olimpo was not authorized to reopen after the toughest phases of the pandemic.

From the

Municipality of Lomas de Zamora they

assure that "it will not work again because it is illegal."

The fair occupies about 12 blocks of the district of

Lomas de Zamora and about four on the Esteban Echeverría side.

Historically open Wednesdays and Saturdays, with stalls selling all kinds of new and used items.

Now the order of the fairgrounds is to be able to reopen, even if it is on Saturdays from 6 to 14.

The manteros denounce five months without work and are compared with the other fairs in the region that they opened while the authorities do not allow them to set up their positions.

They also maintain that the issue of the pandemic was used to eradicate the fair, something that the authorities admit, although as something positive.

A few weeks ago they organized

a court in Puente La Noria

to make visible the demand and the request to return to work, something that seems unlikely.

The fair is over 30 years old.

"Before illegal things were sold but now we are laburantes", assures a seller.

"Taking advantage of the fact that it was eradicated since last year,

it will not work again.

They were manteros in the street and there were people who charged them for a blanket," they comment.

In addition, they maintained that stalls were offered to go to work at the "free fairs", in 40 points that the municipality has in all neighborhoods.

"The only requirement is to register, and 95% of the fairgrounds accepted, although there was a small group that resists being relocated," they indicate from the mayor's office.

Oscar Corrales is a showman who has been selling cacti and bazaar items in Olimpo for 10 years.

"

30 years ago illegal things were sold. But now we are working people.

It is understood that we are outside the system, we interrupt an avenue. But we need to work," he claims. 

"Let them tell us if they don't want us there, where we can locate ourselves because

a lot of people depend on the fair,

" he says.

Liliana Celaya is 58 years old and for eight years she has been selling used things.

"It is a lie that they are relocating us, they don't want us," he complains. "We want to work there, if we don't bother anyone. Once a week,

who can we screw for a while in the morning

."

"When I went to the Municipality of Esteban Echeverría, they told me that I do have an address in Lomas de Zamora, I cannot go to claim there," he adds.

A month ago, vendors demonstrated in Puente La Noria, but they did not get what they asked for.

Liliana says they went to Plaza de Mayo and La Plata where they had a meeting with

Axel Kicillof's

secretaries

.

"They told us that they had no knowledge that the mayors raised the fair. But this is serious. I remember when Kicillof walked in the Clio in the small squares of all the areas to raise votes.

We voted for him and now they leave us alone

" he exclaims.

"The relocation of the Municipality is only for the people who sell new items," says Gustavo, another vendor.

"Those who cannot be relocated are 80%," he adds.

Now, on Saturdays the street vendors move in the moments when the operations with four or five policemen per block are withdrawn along the avenue.

"

When they leave (around 2 o'clock) we try to set up four, five or six fairground blocks

so that people can work for a while.

If the police come they kick us out

. They take vehicles out of you, search you and they can even take you into custody. "Gustavo adds.

"This is selling at random. Before we had 16 blocks full of people walking. Now they are the ones from the neighborhood who go shopping," he laments.

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