It’s time for another installment of the municipal soap opera known as “Alfaro vs. the Carriage Drivers,” which was for some time a once-monthly affair but has started broadcasting to increasingly exhausted observers about once a week.
In this week’s episode, Alfaro accuses a political opponent of bribing carriage drivers, or calandrieros, to keep up protests against the mayor’s initiative replacing horse-drawn carriages with ones powered by electricity.
The calandrieros’ protest is in response to the confiscation by the Guadalajara municipal government of operating licenses from those who refused to sign a document pledging cooperation with the impending transition. The drivers allege that coercion and intimidation was used to get them and others to sign the agreement.
For the past week, a handful of calandrieros have staged a hunger strike under the colonnade of the municipal palace. The men have been using a single tent as shelter just a few meters to the right of palace entrance.
This week, the calandrieros and their supporters took to the streets for a protest march which held up traffic on busy Avenida Vallarta, as well as other important thoroughfares.
Alfaro chose to delegitimize this action by claiming his political opponent – and independent candidate for governor – Fidel Alejandro Kosonoy Ayala has been keeping the hunger strike going by handing out bribes to its participants.
“I want to show people this farce of a protest by this group of calandrieros who are being manipulated behind the scenes by the shameless lies of those who pretend to defend them, but who in reality are using them, putting them at risk for their own political ends,” said Alfaro, who will take a leave of absence next week as he starts his campaign for Jalisco governor.
The mayor furthermore denied Kosonoy’s accusation that calandrieros will have to pay for the new electric models.
“I’ll say it again very clearly: no-one will be charged a peso for the calandrias,” said Alfaro. “No-one will be paying insurance premiums for the calandrias. The city will loan out fully insured electric calandrias to drivers, at no cost to them.”
According to authorities, the electric calandrias are set to begin swapping out the horse-drawn as early as next week. Those who refuse to accept them can, in Alfaro’s words, “find other work.”