Police hurled tear gas canisters Wednesday to break up a protest by unlicensed street vendors angry at having been forcibly ejected from Calle Obregon, a traditional locale in downtown Guadalajara for sales of counterfeit and contraband merchandize.
Around 350 state and municipal officers took part in Tuesday evening’s raid to remove hundreds of stalls that clogged the sidewalk of this busy downtown street. Guadalajara Police Commander Salvador Caro said 21 people were arrested during the “calm” operation, mainly for possession of various amounts of narcotics.
The following day, several hundred vendors blocked the intersection of Javier Mina and the Calzada Independencia, disrupting the Macrobus BRT service. Riot police lobbed tear gas into the crowd of protestors when they began to throw objects at the officers. Guadalajara city hall has offered 140 vendors space in the nearby Parque Las Trojes to sell “legal” goods over the holiday season.