Amid smoke, embers, and songs, Tijuana residents held a barbecue as a peaceful protest against Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda and Mayor Ismael Burgueño Ruiz this Saturday, May 24.
At 5:00 p.m., people began arriving at the esplanade of the Mother Monument at the Municipal Palace, carrying their barbecues, grills, kilos of meat, tongs, speakers to set the mood with music by Juan Gabriel, including the typical song “La mera, mera,” which speaks of Tijuana; and tents to help protect from the sun, which still scorched with its rays in the afternoon.
Once settled in, the citizens, who took on the role of cooks, began grilling the meat that they or other attendees had brought to share. At around 5:30 a.m., the first 100 people began arriving in the space designated by the Municipal Civil Protection Department to prevent the event from spilling into the esplanade above the underground parking lot, which doesn’t support much weight.
Half an hour later, at 6:00 p.m., the esplanade was already packed with a thousand attendees, who, amidst the smoke from the grills and even with taco in hand, raised their signs and banners with various slogans, such as: “We love you Marina, but get out and away from Baja California”; “No visa, no shame”; “No more putting your heart first”; while they marched and shouted “Out with Marina,” “Out with the narco-government,” “The people put in, the people take away.”
Among the issues that motivated people to attend this protest, according to what they said, were issues such as the privatization of Boulevard 2000, the approval of the 40-hour work week reform, the lack of justice for the disappeared, environmental pollution, the increase in public transportation fares, and, of course, the lack of security in the state.
“We don’t have security, there’s a lot of injustice. Here in Tijuana, we’re very helpless; we have to defend ourselves; there are many dead, people sheltering in place, and everything. I want the governor and Burgueño recalled, because they only came to fill their pockets, and they raise the price of food and bus fares for us,” said a resident of the Vista Alamar neighborhood.
