Cancun, Q.R. — With tons of garbage in the streets, Cancun city council approved a temporary intervention into the city’s garbage collection and transportation of solid waste. The vote came after two weeks of “inefficient” waste removal by the concessioned company Inteligencia México.
In a vote, the Cabildo de Benito Juárez approved an agreement by which city council intervenes and temporarily assumes the collection of garbage and transportation of solid waste. In the statement of reasons, the city points out that the work carried out by the concession company is considered “inefficient.”
The Benito Juárez city council also voted unanimously to suspend payment to the concessionary company Inteligencia México SA de CV, who is in charge of collecting solid waste in the Benito Juárez municipality, due to non-compliance during the last two weeks.
Cancun mayor Mara Lezama took the floor stating that the people come first, so payments to the concessionaire company are immediately suspended until they restore 100 percent of operations.
“As all of you have known for several weeks, the garbage collection service is totally inefficient. As of today, 6,000 tons of organic and inorganic garbage waste has accumulated that, when outdoors, become sources of infection, putting the health of our people at risk,” she said.
She made it clear that the city council is not against the working people of the concession company, “they are also fighting for just causes. With the company, we were respectful and looked for all forms of negotiation, but with the people, there is no gambling.”
After the vote, a special operation was ordered to immediately start the collection of garbage in various parts of the city.
The move came after two weeks of garbage collection issues across the city with Inteligencia México workers holding protests claiming layoffs and lack of payment.
“For weeks now, the company responsible for garbage collection has been totally inefficient in its service. For this reason, we have made the decision to intervene in its concession and hold ourselves responsible as the Benito Juárez city council,” she disclosed on social networks adding that the city will not “pay a peso to companies that do not fulfill their responsibility.”
Inteligencia México SA de CV revealed that it has no payment problems from the Benito Juárez City Council for providing the service, saying that the situation regarding employees will be resolved as soon as possible, as it is internal.
In a brief press conference, Dagoberto Ollin, who identified himself as the operational director of Inteligencia México, said that the workers were heard and that they will try to reach an agreement with them to restore the service.
“It is an internal matter. We will try to restore service as soon as possible,” he insisted. He also asked the community to “have a little more patience” with them, because internally they are trying to reach a solution.
