Coverage of King Ham gets frosty reception

MEDIA representatives got a hostile reception from residents of El Chorrillo on Tuesday December 23 when they turned up to cover the annual distribution of hams by deputy Sergio ‘Chello’ Gálvez, presumably without government funding.
Telemetro and TVN reporters were received by the inhabitants of this populous area of the city with insults in the Amelia Denis de Icaza park and La Prensa photojournalist Luis Garcia, was the target of verbal attacks and insults during the coverage.
Last year, with an election in the offing, Gálvez turned the event into a media circus as he posed for photos while he distributed tax-payer funded largesse

“They threw cups and filled juice cartons They also insulted us and told us to leave the place,” said Garcia.
Since Monday night, hundreds of chorrilleros sleeping rough, linedup round several blocks to get a Christmas ham handed out by the deputy.
Gálvez was elected in 8-7 circuit formed by the districts San Felipe, El Chorrillo, Santa Ana, Calidonia, Curundú, Ancon, Bella Vista, Bethany and Pueblo Nuevo.
“The delivery of God pays for the hams; man pays no work “has come to mean the deputy when in the past has been asked from where the funds for the purchase of these hams.
In 2013, the deputy, then president of the National Assembly was denounced in the Supreme Court for the purchase of 30,000 hams with $675,000.government funds The claim was dismissed a month later by the court.
This time around he had no access to massive funds to distribute to his potential election supporters. How Gálvez managed to corner such a large amount of government money has still to be explained
Ana Matilda Gomez, now an independent deputy distributed no hams, but earned more votes when she was elected in May.