Only at one point did they evict 1,000 people who were going to start the parade. Municipality says it will sanction offenders with financial fines.
Dressed in the costumes of the characters of the troupe, which is part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ecuador, hundreds of people were ready to begin, clandestinely, with the characteristic troupes of this festival in Píllaro, canton of the province of Tungurahua, that before the pandemic were held fixedly from January 1 to 6 of each year.
However, the Píllaro cantonal Emergency Operations Committee (COE) prohibited the holding of the traditional international festival to prevent COVID-19 infections.
But despite this, hundreds of people took to the streets to, on their own, start this tradition.
Thus, in the streets it was possible to observe the devils, guarichas (men dressed as women) and line couples, who arrived at the places chosen for this activity in the midst of a large number of people, who even consumed alcoholic beverages.
Colonel Manuel Samaniego, commander of zone 3 of the National Police, commented that in order to enforce the provisions of the national and cantonal COE, the institution worked with all the personnel and logistical means, as well as with the competent authorities, to carry out the eviction. of the people who concentrated in different places to develop the clandestine festivities.
He recalled that the cantonal COE decided that the Diablada Píllareña should not be developed, before which they evicted around 1,000 people who were in the San Miguelito sector. They had summoned themselves to, it was said, clandestinely carry out the activity.
Both the police chief and the mayor of Píllaro, Francisco Yanchatipán, assured that operations will continue in a coordinated manner until January 6, in order to prevent these activities from taking place clandestinely.
The Mayor of Píllaro, through telephone contact with this newspaper, assured that in addition to San Miguelito, in San Vicente and Ciudad Nueva the groups of the Diablada Pillareña were also going to be held clandestinely. But they were prevented by operations coordinated between different institutions.
He commented that it was found that in these places they did not have the respective permits for the development of the troupe, so it was suspended, according to the area that corresponds to each institution. The respective sanctions will be imposed.
Yanchatipán assured that in the case of the municipality it will be with the ordinance for COVID-19, which punishes offenders with fines ranging from a basic salary. These will be imposed according to the notification so that the due right to defense process is carried out, he indicated. (I)
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