Street vendors removed from the Metro in CDMX; relocate feminists

After holding work tables — in which the local Human Rights Commission also participated — the Mexico City Metro and the Ministry of Government agreed with more than a thousand street workers who had settled in corridors of 68 stations to free up the spaces.
At the moment, confirmed the Secretary of Government of the capital, Martí Batres, with two thirds of these sellers an agreement has already been reached.
The feminist collectives that began with the occupation – in September 2020 – in protest of the economic violence they are experiencing, explained the secretary, were offered alternatives to settle in public squares and parks so that they continue with their activity in an orderly manner. The other street vendors who took advantage of the women’s protest to occupy spaces inside the Metro have been removed and will not be allowed to re-install.

Read more | It started as a protest, but now street vendors take over metro corridors in CDMX
“There is a new phenomenon that we do not ignore and that is the so-called ‘mercaditas’ and there are women’s organizations that have sought alternatives to the economic situation,” batres said.
At the most critical point, between October and November, one thousand 500 positions placed in corridors and correspondences were counted. According to Metro data, in the Pantitlán complex there was an average of 100 irregular merchants per day; while in Chabacano the average was 70 and in Santa Anita 7 people

Between November and December, these collectives were sought and work tables were set up in which the Union of Collectives of Love and Union without Limits participated. As a result of this work, their withdrawal from the Metro facilities was agreed with the agreement that they would be found a suitable space to continue with their activity.
The Bombilla Park, the surroundings of the Monument to the Mother, or some esplanades of Metro stations, such as San Pedro de los Pinos, Batres added, could be some of the options where the ‘mercaditas’ can be relocated.
In an interview with Animal Político, Martí Batres, secretary of the capital’s government, reported that 65 stations have already been released and confirmed that at the moment there are only three pending to be released.
After this work, he said that it will not be allowed under any circumstances that the street vendors are placed again inside the facilities of the Collective Transport System because the priority is to guarantee the safety and mobility of the more than 5 million people who occupy the Metro network every day.
“We are working on the direction of the Metro, the Secretariat of Citizen Security and the Secretariat of Government. The objective is to free up all the Metro stations, since practically the entire system was invaded by street trade. 65 stations have been released and between them we had 15 key stations,” the official said.
Among the key stations he referred to were Pantitlán, Centro Médico, Mixcoac and Chabacano, for example, which are spaces that, due to their location and connectivity, receive a greater number of users.
“This is firm, it goes very well and they make a very positive aspect of the people, because it also means safety and comfort for the users of the Metro,” he added.
Although most of the groups have been receptive, Batres said that with the Feminist Front in Struggle Against Economic Violence no agreement was reached because their demand was that the spaces of the Metro facilities be returned to them, a request that “was not subject to any negotiation.”
In the liberated stations, the presence of elements of the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) has been observed, who with the support of plastic barriers and yellow tape, are placed along the corridors and correspondences in order to deter and prevent these spaces from being occupied again, because according to Martí Batres, there are still some groups that try to enter the Metro and occupy those places.

They also dialogue with the Feminist Tianguis
With whom dialogue has also been held has been with the members of the Feminist Tianguis that are in the vicinity of the Glorieta de Insurgentes, outside the Insurgentes station, however, at the moment no agreement has been reached.
“The dialogue has been complex because it is crossed by several circumstances, for example, the type of profile that its activity has, but they are also acts of commerce and we are going to insist on dialogue because they are also in an area of the Metro that is a passage area (…) we are going to insist with them that they allow a relocation,” Batres shared.
“There are alternatives. In this case the Tianguis -who want to give a perfil of cultural character and sexual diversity to its commercial activity-, well, because it can have parallels with other types of cases, such as El Chopo that is an alternative cultural and is a commercial space … it can be done somewhere other than the Metro.”
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Original source in Spanish