The Los Yaiseros murga has denounced this Thursday the treatment they received from Civil Protection during the Arrecife Carnival Parade and the Burial of the Sardine, which they have described as "harassment". The group has made its complaint public through its Facebook page, focusing mainly on a member of Civil Protection who "shouted" at them and even "confronted" their president, insisting that they go "faster". They also "threatened" to "throw them out of the arena", as its president, Javier Jiménez, explained to La Voz. The murga assures that it understands that the parade must have "fluidity", but they believe that the forms were not "correct at all".
Jiménez, who anticipates that he will file a "complaint" with the City Council for these events, explains that this member of Civil Protection approached them the first time "directly shouting at us that if we didn't go faster, he would throw us out of the arena". The president of this murga emphasizes that the children's queen was parading in front of them in a float with wheels that "goes much faster than the murga". "We are dancing, the batucada has instruments, they are playing, and we cannot have the same speed as a car or a float," he says.
"Shouts" at the murga and in front of the public
According to his account, this was not the only clash with this member of the coordination, who returned at the end of the Parade with a local police officer threatening them again with expulsion from the parade if they did not move at a higher speed. "In fact, they couldn't interview us on TV because we were running because we couldn't even stop to drink water. That was unpleasant," he laments. At the end of the parade, Javier Jiménez even explained what happened to the Festivities coordinator, "so that it wouldn't happen again".
However, according to him, the confrontation with this member of Civil Protection became even more heated during the Burial of the Sardine this Wednesday. In that act, Los Yaiseros were behind a murga and therefore again slower, emphasizes its president, since they are "dancing" and with a batucada that also "carries instruments that weigh". During that act, the member of Civil Protection addressed them again, "already as angry", explains Jiménez, who emphasizes that he did not go to talk to him, "but went to tell a 15-year-old girl". "The girl told him 'we are dancing'. Well, he went to the batucada, then to the public... I was already saying '¡but well!'", exclaims the president of the murga indignantly.
"People thought he was going to hit me, because he was super close to me. I told him that I thought it was a lack of respect that he came to shout at us in front of the whole public and that I was going to file a complaint with the City Council; and I am going to file it. When the discussion ended, in fact, the public applauded. I'm not going to let it stay like this," says the president of Los Yaiseros.
Jiménez emphasizes that in that last encounter this man was accompanied by another younger man, also from Civil Protection, and a municipal police officer. About the latter, he especially criticizes that he "didn't flinch" with what was happening and didn't even make a move to "separate him". "I think it's a disgrace, not only for the tourists, but for the people here. That they have to see something like that when they go to see a show..."
"A murga dances, it doesn't run the 100 meters flat"
"I don't think it's fair that a man outside the group comes to shout at us in front of anyone, it's very ugly," says Jiménez. In the writing that they have made public through the social network, Los Yaiseros claim to feel "disappointed" with these events, which their president describes as a "disgrace".
The murga also considers that "the organization has to dedicate itself to more important things". In this sense, they allude to that "people do not enter in the middle of the arena while we are performing". They also affirm that there were "minors drinking" during the parade and urge the organization to take charge of it, as well as to "distribute water to the groups". Los Yaiseros conclude their publication emphasizing that this "show" is "the opposite of what we want to give, the carnival groups and the public". "A murga dances and plays instruments, it doesn't run the hundred meters flat", they conclude.