Vendors at biggest market threaten lockout on alleged cronyism

Santo Domingo.- Dozens of vendors of the country’s biggest farmers market on Wednesday threatened to halt the transport and distribution of products during 24 hours on July 23, to protest the alleged designations of the spaces in the newly opened Merca-Santo Domingo to government officials and people close to Agriculture minister Salvador Jimenez.

The Mercado Nuevo merchants said the market was built with Dominican taxpayers’ money and not to benefit any official or relative of the Agriculture Minister.

In a press conference at the market together with dozens of vendors, Mercado Nuevo Merchants Association president Luis Cabrera s said they’ve been involved in the MercaSanto Domingo project’s design construction since it began in 2001."They want to expropriate that market and we will not allow it."