“La Paloma is not for sale” and “don’t come anymore”: Alejo Umpiérrez is not well received in various spas

2023-09-03 16:01:23

MAYOR ALEJO UMPIÉRREZ WAS BOOED BY LA PALOMA: “DO NOT COME AGAIN”//t.co/aTbdJGTn2j pic.twitter.com/qFUDsB6FQh

– Chronicles of the East (@CronicasDelEste) September 2, 2023

In recent weeks, tensions between the mayor of Rocha, Alejo Umpiérrez (National Party), and the mayor of the municipality of La Paloma, Sergio Muniz (Broad Front) They have gone on an escalation that ended in strong protests this weekend with a round of boos and slogans against the presence of the mayor in the popular spa.

It all started some time ago, at the beginning of the current administration, when Umpiérrez appeared at the premises of the environmental organization The Clean Doveto announce that they had to vacate the premises to deliver it to the mayor’s office.

Notably this organization won a National Environment Award and has been operating in La Paloma since 2018promoted since that year by the municipality and by Abono del Mar. It is a waste management program based on collection by families, companies, entrepreneurs and local cooperatives that voluntarily classify and value waste.

The municipality ensures that the premises belong to the project from the beginning, but there is a technicality: the municipalities do not have legal status, so the mayor’s office can, if it wishes, bypass territorial decisions and keep the spaces. This would collide with the Law of Decentralization and Citizen Participation, which grants certain autonomy to the municipalities and, in that particular, there is conflict in sight.

As recently published Faces and masks, the reason for the eviction is related to the search for a place to install the Animal Welfare kennel. This was being handled by the municipality but it transferred the responsibility to the mayor’s office because, in reality, it corresponds to it, and it charges a tax for that.

However, the Umpiérrez administration outsourced this to a civil organization arguing that they were not in a position to handle the matter. La Paloma Limpia operates on the same property as Abono de Mar, another innovative project in the department that a few weeks ago was evicted and transferred to Rocha, apparently due to the strong odor that emanated at the intersection of routes 10 and 15.

However, there are rumors mentioned by the aforementioned medium that suggest that the construction of a polo field by a French businessman on nearby land may have influenced this decision. The mayor considers that the place is now unoccupied, although La Paloma Limpia has not been moved and there is interest on the part of the mayor in using that space.

Costa Azul, Rocha, a place where works by the Umpiérrez administration caused a serious impact on the residents. Photo: Neighbors in Defense of Our Beach group

“Don’t come anymore”: Umpiérrez booed in La Paloma

Last Friday Umpiérrez participated in the celebration of the 149th anniversary of La Paloma. However, as he left the event, he was met by a group of protesters who strongly disagreed with him and showed him that he is not liked in the town.

In a video shared by the portal Eastern Chroniclesyou can hear slogans such as “La Paloma is not for sale” and “don’t come back anymore”.

This widespread discontent is also related to an environmental disaster in Costa Azul, for which they blame the Umpiérrez administration, since it would have been the consequence of some private homes. As published in August The Dailyneighbors denounced that some works carried out to protect a few private homes and a hotel blocked access to the beach: the measure is criticized by academics who affirm that “you cannot go against nature.”

Although Umpiérrez celebrated the inauguration of this work, which covers nearly 1,000 meters in length, with fanfare, residents say that private beaches were created and access to the coast for the community was blocked.

“Our house was built by my grandfather, he started when my mother was one year old. The house is 63 years old at this time. Our family gathers there, always at the long tables, because we are 17 grandchildren. It’s my place in the world, I can’t say it any other way; We all experience it like this, even the little ones. I always say that I can’t be objective when I talk about Costa Azul”, Cecilia, one of the members of the group, begins by recounting. Neighbors in Defense of Our Beachwhich nation as a result of the work, cited by The Daily.

“What happened was that suddenly they were making wells with machines to an impressive depth. We didn’t know what was going to happen. Suddenly we saw each other a stone wall, no beachAnd we didn’t know why. After all the movement of our group arises, we found out that the mayor decided to make the wall as a measure to contain the sea so that the houses that are on the front line are not affected, ”he added.