In video | "Hey, how much is the empanada with a fine?"

Under the hot sun of Barranquilla, hundreds of kiosks with fries and fruit juice are in fashion. "Hey, how much is the empanada with a fine?" Ask some of Barranquilla's guests. "Be careful, I am eating in the street because I do not have to introduce myself," say others.

In daylight, as they have always done, diners enjoy whey, spices and guacamole that enrich the empanadas, arpas and carimañolas that they buy in stalls that they know already and already recommend by reference or by tradition.

From the beginning of the morning, when the traffic of fried dishes began in Barranquilla, thousands of pedestrians and drivers stop a few minutes in front of hundreds of windows that protect, like safes, this treasure of currambero.

From Monday to Sunday, whether for not having breakfast or to kill a whim, pbaders-by of the city delight in the traditional delights of the streets. The shopkeeper, who knows his buyer for years, continues to settle it with the 'ñapa & # 39; and the buyer, smiling, converses with those who also come to consume.

Fine

After learning that a young man in Bogota had been fined US $ 833,000 for buying a pie in the street, in the corners of Barranquilla, the warning is one: "Pay attention, they punish me for eating empanadas ".

About the event occurred last Friday, the metropolitan police of Bogota said in a statement that the uniform was conducting a procedure of control of the public space, in accordance with the decision of guardianship issued against the Mayor of Barrios Unidos, capital, which was introduced by the sector community in search of suppressing street vendors.

The authorities explain that "in the middle of the operation, five citizens came to consume in the food stall of the man" involved in guardianship "and" they were warned "of the procedure, of so that they refrained from buying.

The salient point of the police is "taking into account that this activity promotes or facilitates the misuse of public space, in accordance with Article 140, No. 06 of Law 1801 of 2016 , National Code of Police and Coexistence ".

The merchands

The sellers, who have been marketing the beloved merchandise for years, laugh and appreciate the situation, but do not hide their concern. "It is unacceptable for this to happen," said Martín Trejos, owner of Palacio del Patacón, in northern Barranquilla.

"Everybody, from the police to the celebrities, comes to eat their fried food.If this measure was imposed here in Barranquilla, it would end our culture and our idiosyncrasy," he said. For 20 years, his company has sold empanadas, arpas and patacones to all kinds of characters "from the highest and the lowest clbad," he says.

"It's a free country and people have the right to eat on the street, I do not understand how it is possible that you have to go to a shopping center and pay more, when here (on his stand of fast food), it is sold at a better price, "says Besaida Gamero, who has been selling fried foods for 38 years. Barranquilla

For other vendors, the fast food stall is the only source of food that they have found to support their families and they badure that they find a job, "they would not sell not in the street ".

"I understand the font because she has to take care of the public space, but if I had a job, I would not sell here." It's very difficult, he is difficult to stand in the sun and get up from three in the morning.

I hope the government will help us for something, even though it has to organize us, "said Leonardo Salas, a street vendor for 48 years.