In January 2020, a flood of families occupied a plot of more than 70 hectares in Camino Sanfuentes, next to the Casabó, Cerro Norte and Santa Catalina neighborhoods. 14 of those families were denounced for usurpation and theft of electricity; the majority decided to vacate the settlement in the middle of a judicial and media dispute due to the great repercussion that the case had in the press. But almost three years later still there are three that remain in New Beginning despite being close to facing a trial that will condemn them for usurping those lands, which are owned by a private company.
One of them is Patty, one of the neighborhood grocers. She was a personal assistant to the BPS and cared for a girl with a disability, but was fired when the mother of the minor found out, through the press, that she was being investigated by the courts for occupying the settlement and stealing electricity for her home. With the collection of the liquidation, she told The Observermade an investment in the neighborhood business with which he supports his two children, one 17 years old and the other 11 years old.
José Luis was left without a job during the pandemic, as was his partner. In September 2020 they found out that there was a new settlement near the Hill. At that time they lived in the Maroñas neighborhood. They settled there and he, who was also a BPS personal assistant, was left without a job when the person he was caring for died. When they arrived at Nuevo Comienzo they asked permission to live there. “I decided to stay because I have nowhere to go. It’s not a whim, it’s a necessity,” he said in conversation with this medium.
José Luis got involved with the neighborhood from a popular pot in which he collaborates. He also said that he works with community and family gardens and that in the settlement “there are already four or five” and that thanks to this work some schools in the west of Montevideo have also incorporated gardens.
The third formalized for usurpation and theft of energy is Katty. She and her family were among the first to arrive in the January 2020 flood. She works at a bakery and her husband at a foundation that lays hardwood floors in settlements. A fourth family to be charged has already left the settlement.
In mid-March, the court will accuse them of usurpation and theft of electricity, confirmed the prosecutor in the Diego Pérez case, and with that accusation the trial will come to an end. the penalties for usurpation They can range from three months in prison to three years in penitentiary and that of power theft, provided for in article 343 of the Penal Code, is punishable by three months in prison to six years in prison.
What comes after the accusation?
Patty, José Luis and Katty agreed on something: the three affirmed that if justice does not rule in their favor, they do not have a place to go to live. TO Katty the solution offered was go to a Mides shelter, she and her daughter to one and her husband and her son to another. “I have been with my husband since I was 15 years old and I am 35. In other words, 20 years ago. My children grew up with their father, I cannot separate him,” she said. Patty stated that, like José Luis, they have nowhere to go if they have to leave the settlement.
The Municipality of Montevideo (IM) offered land to rehouse families and the offer is still on, commune sources told The Observer. However, they preferred not to disclose the location of the place. But for that, he Ministry of Housing must intervene with the constructions. From the IM they affirmed that “there are no news” from that portfolio.
The Observer tried to contact the Minister Irene Moreira, Undersecretary Tabaré Hackembruch and the National Director of Urban and Social Integration (Dinisu), Florencia Arbeleche, to find out if the MVOT will propose housing solutions for this settlement in the new land of the IM, but did not receive a response. The neighbors met with Arbeleche for the last time a year ago and, according to her version, the director of the Dinisu would propose a solution for those forced by the courts, but they still had no news about it.
