A group of young people are trying to move La Herradura towards autonomy. As we know, the village has to rely on the Town Hall in Almuñécar for all political decisions, but for many weeks now the group have been meeting to lay the foundations of a new project which they say “will not repeat past mistakes,” with their aim being a Local Autonomous Entity (ALS), within two years. Other local villages, such as Carchuna-Torrenueva and Calahonda, are proof that it can be done.
The next step, which would take at least six years, would be to bring a case for independence to the Junta and lobby public opinion, whilst trying to impress on locals and the Junta that it be approved “because the inhabitants deserve independence for La Herradura,” explained Juan Carlos Cacín Barbero, one of the young drivers of this new movement, along with Jorge Lorenzo Barbero and Garciolo Marcos Muñoz, among others.
Cacín Barbero accepts that the independence movement in La Herradura has been completely static for some six years. In fact, since the 2003 elections when the Partido Independiente de La Herradura (PILHA) fought for autonomy, but did not gain any representation.
The new movement believes that, despite growing interest, there has been no further moves towards promoting independence, but now believe the time is right to “avoid the mistakes of the past and create a partnership to move forward, and that is why we have launched the campaign now,” he said.
For the moment, the group is promoting the idea to local people through meetings, insisting that their political objectives are not ideological, and they accept that they would probably lose badly if they went into an election immediately, but insist that the meetings are open to all residents, so local people can at least learn what a Local Autonomous Entity would mean to them, and encourage them all to participate.
To Juan Carlos, Jorge and Marcos, the current reality in La Herradura is that “the people have not lost an ounce of their sense of unity, and this partnership is a social base to achieve a political end,” they insist. “Right now, in the municipality of Almuñécar, there is no voice to properly defend the interests of Herradureños. These are the grounds for the revival of the segregationist movement”.
It looks like it is to be the young who are going to fight for better services for La Herradura!