Itinerant Vendors to Get 2000 Pesos a Month to Stay Off Mexico City Subway Aristegui Noticias
go to original March 2, 2014

The Government of the Federal District will pay 2018.40 pesos [US$152.00] per month to “vagoneros” [literally: car vendors, itinerant vendors] so that they stop carrying out their activities in the Metro Public Transport System (STC) [subway].

The head of the Secretariat of Government of the capital, Héctor Serrano Cortés, announced the Program for the Integration into the Formal Economy of Merchants. He explained in detail that, as of February 16, they will receive monthly financial support that corresponds to the current minimum salary in Mexico City [about US$5 per day].

The payment will be for up to two thousand five hundred individuals for a period of six months. If all of the “vagoneros” collect the funds, they would distribute up to 30,280,500 pesos [US$2,275,771]. For this, he emphasized that the funds will come from revenue from transportation. The “vagoneros” that fulfill the requirements will also be added to other support programs that the local government offers.

Serrano added that he will continue with efforts to inhibit this activity of the “informal economy”.

MV Note: The Mexico City "Metro" (above and below ground trains) are one of many public spaces in which informal vendors ply their wares: pirated CD's, candy, personal care items, self-help books, you name it, usually for "diez pesos", US$.75. Sixty percent of Mexican workers work for cash in the "informal economy", which the federal government is trying to reduce.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Janine Rhyans

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