They Protest On A Street In Puerto Vallarta.

The protest began at 10 am on June 25, 2024, in front of the Sheraton Hotel, blocking the main avenue, and remained so for about half an hour before marching to the Municipal Presidency following the arrival of Interim President Jose Martínez Gil. At the Presidency, the leaders were invited to attend the City Council session where the administrative accounts would be presented, explaining why they had not been able to continue the construction on San Salvador Street in the 5 de Diciembre neighborhood.

"Well, through the neighbors of the 5 de Diciembre neighborhood, most of them vendors from the Mar Market and residents of San Salvador Street, a call was made to protest and close Mexico Avenue, at the Andariego section, between San Salvador Street. We left at 10:30 in the morning, all this in the name of free expression, stipulated in Article 6 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, which is the freedom of expression because: 'They had neglected the San Salvador Street project,' it had been abandoned for quite some time. They only broke the street and left it with ditches and piles of sand. Of course, with the recent rains, cracks have been forming. And, well, it's been about six months since they started, dug, and then abandoned it," said Vicente, a resident of the 5 de Diciembre neighborhood.

The authorities said that the budget was exhausted. So now, after the neighbors' protest to demand the project's completion, which was attended by traffic personnel near the Sheraton Hotel on Americas Avenue, the neighbors had to move a bit further to make this request, allowing the flow of cars to pass through to downtown Puerto Vallarta.

Jose Martínez Gil, Interim President of Puerto Vallarta, attended the protest to address the issue, only to give his approval of the protest and ask why they were doing it. He ended up agreeing with them. He invited them to the City Council session, emphasizing the importance of hearing what was happening with Puerto Vallarta's economy and how the budgets were being managed. The surprise for the citizens was that the council members were in a session to decide what to do with a small missing budget. They were concerned about the absence of a few million pesos.

Now the Municipality does not know the following:

1.- How is so much money missing?

2.-How will the issues that the people need to be resolved be addressed without resources?

The problem could intensify because the Municipal Government started by Luis Alberto Michel Rodríguez has no option but to go into debt to meet the citizens' needs. In other words, they must find or reduce various areas to allocate 23 million pesos to carry out this project.

Next Friday morning, on June 28, another working meeting will be held with the council members to decide where to get those resources, whether by cutting other areas or eliminating non-essential activities to obtain resources and complete this unfinished project that causes many issues for the residents of the 5 de Diciembre neighborhood.

"The H. Ayuntamiento of Puerto Vallarta has other debts, around 62 million pesos that are missing from the budget and can't be found anywhere because resources are lacking from one side and the other," mentioned Vicente, who was present at the City Council session.

Despite being a very organic protest with no defined leadership, Enrique Cueto, president of the Mar Market vendors, has stood out as the head of the movement, acting as a sort of representative. He is obligated to attend the civil resistance activities as he represents the market vendors, but the 5 de Diciembre residents also see him as their representative, keeping himself well-informed on the issue. We will wait until Friday for more details on this new challenge for the Municipality.