Democracy is the majority, right?”. “Then, we ask our comrades for respect and that once the event is over, if they wish, I will receive one of you to be able to listen to you,” she said. After the public event, Sheinbaum held a meeting with objectors, whom she reproached for the protest during her speech, although she reiterated that they would be heard. “I told you from when I was coming, that I was going to dialogue with you and anyway you manifested, even though I told you I was going to receive you. Anyway I am receiving you, even though at a housing event, where we are delivering housing to people, you came to manifest”. The objectors demanded the cancellation of the project by warning of possible environmental and health impacts, in addition to denouncing lack of prior consultation and technical information. The demonstrators pointed out that the plant would be located near homes, schools, and hospitals. During the protest, slogans were heard against the governor of Puebla, Alejandro Armenta, as well as direct demands: “You are a bit of a liar governor”. In the exchange with the president, a woman told her: “We voted for you, now support us”. During the public event, President Sheinbaum responded to the protests and defended the project as an environmental alternative to open-air landfills. “Look, they are manifesting because they say they are against the Welfare Pole. What do you prefer, an open-air landfill or a clean recycling plant? It is a project that, in addition, will be worked on and consensed with the communities”. She also asked to continue with the event before attending to the objectors: “Who votes for us to finish speaking and then, already, we attend to those who are manifesting? Who votes for them to keep talking, right now?”. “Second, I already told you that it is about avoiding pollution, not provoking it”. Sheinbaum proposed to hold an informative assembly with federal and state officials: “So that there are no problems, there will be an assembly in the town. I will ask the corresponding secretaries to go and the people will be heard”. She stated that the decision will not be made against the population, but asked for disposition to dialogue: “We are not going to do anything that goes against the people, but you also have to listen, because if you let yourself be carried away...”, she pointed out, while being interrupted by the demonstrators, who continued with their demands. Last Friday, the governor of Puebla, Alejandro Armenta, defended the project by ensuring that it is a modern waste management model and not a sanitary landfill. “The model that the president proposes and that we want in Puebla is one that solves an old problem, with this we are going to change the model of sanitary landfills and dumps, the transformation centers work properly,” he affirmed. Faced with the criticisms, he stated: “There are interests that misinform, garbage will not be buried. Plastics are transformed, paper, cardboard, glass and organic waste into compost, and the 10 percent that cannot be taken advantage of, will be incinerated in high-capacity furnaces that do not pollute”. He also called on the population to back the project: “We have to be rational, think about the future and take care of the environment”. The tense exchange was documented on video by the newspaper Reforma and other media present. After the protest at her event in Puebla against a waste recycling plant project, President Claudia Sheinbaum scolded the inhabitants of San José Chiapa like this. “But if you are going to listen to me you are going to listen to me,” she reiterated after some demonstrators tried to speak. “Okay, it's a majority. The visit of President Claudia Sheinbaum to the Puebla municipality of San José Chiapa resulted in a protest by residents who reject the installation of a recycling plant, presented as a Circular Economy Pole, which motivated a direct exchange between the head of state and the residents amidst questions about the project. Around 200 people demonstrated before and during the Housing for Well-being event headed by Sheinbaum. “What do you prefer?”, she posed, to which attendees responded: “The recycler!”. She added: “We are not going to take anyone's land away, we are not going to buy land, don't let them deceive you. Lower your hands,” she said.
