BOGOTA — It's a startling sight in one of Latin America's biggest cities: a rickety wooden cart pulled by a mangy horse through traffic-choked streets. And if Mayor Gustavo Petro has his way, the 2,890 owners of Bogota's horse carts will soon give them up as his government works to modernize this city of 7.5 million.
In one of the more inventive programs to remake a big city, horse-cart owners, who roam Bogota picking up trash that they sell to recycling centers, are being offered an $11,000 subsidy that they can use to buy a small truck, start a small business, or secure affordable housing.
For decades, the horse-cart recyclers, known as zorreros, worked with little interference. But in a city that sees itself as a model of urban mobility, with rapid-transit bus lanes and cycling paths, residents have grown impatient with the zorreros and their carts.
Motorists complain that they slow traffic. Animal rights groups say forcing horses to haul up to 600 pounds of garbage on city streets — sometimes without horseshoes — amounts to abuse.
Petro, a former leftist guerrilla whose city has one of the world's largest gaps between rich and poor, says the plan is a way to give the zorreros and horses a bit of dignity.
''This problem is not just poverty, it's about social inequality, which has been growing for decades,'' he told reporters this year. ''We've been trying to get a solution where everyone wins: the animals, the hard-working poor, our growing city, our society.''
The horse carts are a fixture in Bogota's swankiest neighborhoods, where they vie with Audi sedans and BMWs on narrow streets. The recyclers, who often work with their entire families, stop in front of apartment buildings to pick through garbage and haul away what they can sell. A day's work can mean 1,500 pounds of recyclables, netting — on a good day — perhaps $40.
The transition Petro is pushing has not been easy. The zorreros said no to the city's previous efforts to get them to give up their horses and carts, demanding something in return. About 550 zorreros who initially expressed interest in the program have failed to trade in their horses or hand in documents required by the city.
''There are some people who are going to be holdouts,'' said Andres Ruiz, a recycler who received a new truck. ''Some people just don't like the new program, and some people don't have the time or money to take a safety course or learn to drive. The question is, what is going to happen to those people?''