Mérida, Yucatán, (June 10, 2021).- Given the mobility restrictions, bars across the state have announced that if they close, as instructed by the State Government, it would be a definitive closure, so they ask for a dialogue with the local authorities to reach agreements and that they are not affected.
Said Farah Ceh, owner of ‘El Cardenal’, commented in an interview that they would not bear one more closure and that there are dozens of businesses that do not have enough resources to temporarily close down again.
“We were just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but if we close, we can no longer bear it. At ‘El Cardenal’ we were complying with the measures they asked us to operate with a restaurant license and now they can’t blame us. We had eight months open and they had not reported an upturn in infections but it was the last two or three weeks due to the elections and the political campaigns, ” Farah Ceh said.
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Like other voices from business chambers, Said indicated that they know of massive events that took place as a result of political campaigns, so the food and drink industry sector is not responsible for the increase in coronavirus infections (Covid-19).
“We have complied with all sanitary measures, inspectors have come to visit us to supervise that we comply with the restrictions, and they had never told us anything, we do not have a warning,” he emphasized.
Although he said he understood the concern of the authorities, Said wanted to make it clear that they are not ignoring the existence of a pandemic but rather suggest that strategies be implemented so that they can continue working and thus, the families that depend on these establishments continue earning an income.
“If they don’t let us work, how we are going to survive? Throughout the pandemic, we have not been mentioned as canteens, in fact, we had to get a provisional restaurant license, and we have been paying for that license on a monthly basis, ” he said.
He explained that for that to be possible, they had to adapt their facilities and thus comply with the protocols to be able to work, but so far everything they have done has not been enough.
“We are in limbo now, we are not contemplated in some important turn when we are a tourist and cultural attraction and above all, generators of employment,” he said.
In this sense, he added that suppliers of ice, cleaning material, and meat are also affected, for example, so they would not be the only establishments damaged by these provisions, but it would be a side effect.
Along with this positioning, the ‘La Negrita’ cantina also shared through its social networks the impact that these measures entail.
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“It is unfair that our economy is affected due to the lack of co-responsibility of the State Government, it has been pointed out that our businesses have assisted the increase of Covid cases in Yucatan, however, we have worked for almost eight months without this rebound that has clearly appeared after the electoral campaigns, ” they published.
Source: La Jornada Maya
