A cultural predator, by Luis Lama

The problem is that Carlos Canales as mayor is repeating his conflictive performance in CANATUR, where he left due to a controversy that until now has no solution. On the other hand, his time at the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, representing the National Solidarity Party of Luis Castañeda, at the time when Patricia Juárez was Deputy Mayor, explains his time at Renovación Popular and his candidacy for Mayor of Miraflores.

Canales is today considered the worst district mayor of Lima, paradoxically the most prosperous and cosmopolitan in Peru. He claims to know about Tourism but ignores that culture is one of the main attractions for any visitor who comes to the country. If this were not the case, the great museums would not exist in the countries to which one travels especially to visit them. For example, Bilbao in Spain would still be an impoverished post-industrial city without the creation of the Guggenheim and the subsequent recovery that has turned it into one of the most vibrant European cities.

On the other hand, Canales, despite having a budget and only investing 5% of it, has caused the entire traditional Miraflores cultural push to crumble. Last year in the misnamed Municipal Palace (PLAM) there was only a show of interest. Starting in December, the spaces are closed without any explanation to the public, in what I consider a lack of respect for the community.

The cause of the closures has finally been discovered. As of February 1, the traditional Luis Miró Quesada Garland Room, where practically all the great artists of Peru, and many from Latin America, have exhibited, has been dedicated to collecting property taxes and municipal excise taxes for the last 40 years.

Canales says that he is going to remodel the dilapidated PLAM to make it a respectable space. I do not believe you. The demands of the Ministry of Culture must be met and the cost of enabling this space at the required level would not be less than one million soles. Despite having announced it publicly, it is not likely that he will do so. López Aliaga did not make Lima a world power either.

The waste of an emblematic cultural space is added to other nonsense that has to do with the life of Miraflores. The Bonilla Stadium, which is now a refuge for the Municipal Police and the security guards, does not allow public access. There the mayor planned to build a convention center that has now become a “multipurpose” space. Added to this are the limitations on the use of parks, the closure of weekly biofairs, where neighbors and producers met under the common belief that the neighborhood still existed. And something else that I consider very serious: the complicity with the members of “The Resistance”, now “The Patriots”. Until now, the impunity of these tormentors cannot be explained in the face of the scandals they cause at the door of Rosa María Palacios’ Miraflores house.

Canales’ authoritarian style is similar to that of his mentor López Aliaga, but, if possible, with less charisma. If he has any merit, it is that for the first time, there is a practically unanimous opinion about the terrible management of a mayor. Today signatures are being collected for its revocation. See www.revoca.pe/miraflores.

To conclude, I quote Jorge Bruce in an article in La República (Hatred of public space). “Dignity, rights, public well-being are not negotiable. “Whoever attacks you, know that he will find a community willing to replace him with a suitable person.” That’s what it will be like.

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