BRIEFS. health

La Chorrera market without a refrigerator

Merchants at the Mercado Público in La Chorrera complained to authorities yesterday that they have been without a refrigeration unit since it broke four months ago.

Esmeralda Aguirre, who owns a stall at the market, said that the Ministerio de Salud requires the market to have a refrigerator for the safety of its meat products and that tenants pay additional fees for lighting and use of refrigerator space.

Market administrator Yasmín Monasterio insisted that the merchants got along fine without the cooler. "The unit is not as necessary as the shopkeepers claim," she said. "They buy and sell their meat the same day. Those who have meat leftover store it in freezers."

Monasterio asked that the merchants be patient, as the new parts she has ordered are expensive and difficult to find.