Twenty-three families sleep on the street due to an error in a Buenos Aires government project

A week ago, twenty-three families from the Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood, in the Retiro area, sleep with mattresses in the street, exposed to the rain and “insecurity”while they await answers from the Buenos Aires Government on the situation of their homes that were affected by a demolition within the framework of the Urbanization Plan, which even completely set fire to one of the buildings.

“It is very painful to lose all your things: the memories of your children, what I lived there, the things that I have bought myself with so much sacrifice. And In a government mistake they threw everything away. We are not asking for something that does not belong to us, we are asking for our houses”told Télam María Isabel Báez, a neighbor of the neighborhood whose house suffered a fire.

Surrounded by pieces of bricks, cement, food and mattresses that were donated to them, the 23 families, including pregnant women and children, live and sleep on the street, under the Arturo Illia highway in the Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood.

“We are here, at the bottom of the highway, all together, in the same situation, without an answer. Without security that our houses are okay. They did not give us an answer as to when we could return,” recounted Gladis Zunilda Espinoza Sanabria (33), who lived with her two children, ages 15 and 9, and her mother, 50, in one of the affected homes.

the wrong demolition

Exactly one week ago, around 2:00 p.m., the company Villarex SA, a contractor for the Buenos Aires government for house demolition work, he knocked down a slab as part of the Urbanization Plan but ended up causing the collapse of another adjoining slab, which affected other houses inhabited by almost 30 families.

After the collapse, people were evacuated and three hours later a fire broke out -whose origin is still unknown- on the ground floor of one of the houses that completely damaged the property where María Isabel Báez, her husband and their children lived. children.

“Since this happened, I no longer share with my children. I have them in other people’s houses because I am afraid here: the neighborhood is not safe and I am living on the street”said the woman, who wants to show herself “strong” in front of them, but feels that she can no longer because she is “very sad” and tired as a result of a disability she has.

Meanwhile, the Government of the city of Buenos Aires is providing families with food and hygiene products, according to what they told Télam.

Although at first it had placed a chemical toilet, it was later removed and one was arranged for use in an office of the National Social Security Administration (Anses) where families can also sleep, but the problem is that it has a capacity limited to 10 people.

When the incident occurred, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta’s administration offered families to stay in hotels or Social Integration Centersbut for fear of having their homes robbed and since some of them have pets, most of them decided to live on the street, near their homes.

Four neighbors, accompanied by the neighborhood’s Center for Access to Justice (CAJ), legislators, and other organizations, approached the Criminal, Misdemeanor, and Offenses Prosecutor No. 12 last Friday to file a complaint about what happened.

“Miss Delfina Erecart received us, on behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office No. 12, and told us, without giving us any valid argument, that she was not going to take the complaint from the neighbors and that the Prosecutor’s Office had already acted ex officio,” he told Télam Javier Martínez, coordinator of the CAJ of the Güemes neighborhood, located inside Padre Carlos Mugica (ex Villa 31).

He also commented that “At the insistence of wanting to file the complaint, the response was: that it was a fair date, that they were on duty and that in the next few days, perhaps they would be summoned so that they can testify.”

On Wednesday morning, a boy in his 20s was chopping wood from a vegetable crate to reignite a fire, while a man in his forties was chopping bell peppers, onions, and potatoes and tossing them into a large pot to cook a stew of vegetables and chicken for the neighbors, while next door a group was formed with the affected families, legislators from the Frente de Todos and different organizations.

“We are waiting for what will be the operation that the UPE (Special Projects Unit, in charge of Tomás Galmarini) has today. Until now, he has not appeared with the neighbors or with us,” The Buenos Aires legislator for the Frente de Todos, María Bielli, who was together with the deputies Lucía Cámpora and Javier Andrade in the round, told Télam.

On Tuesday, Nicolás Buitrago, interim defender in charge of the Specialized Unit in Urbanization and Social Integration Processes, filed a precautionary measure with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in which he requested the immediate reconstruction of the affected homes or provide housing alternatives in the short term. , among other claims.

The Buenos Aires Ministry of Human Development and Habitat informed Télam that “once the Relief Guard verifies the state of the structures and provides the necessary authorization for entry into the homes free of any risk, Families will be able to return to their homes immediately.”

They also maintained that when this happens, they will monitor “the income of the families to survey and evaluate both the state of the homes and the belongings of its inhabitants.”

Meanwhile, the residents warn that they live “in fear” and in a situation of “insecurity” and await the meeting they will have in the next few hours with the UPE.

“On Monday they opened up on the other side of the hall and stole a small water motor from our house and a television in another,” said Gladis, while saying that “there were shootings” and that they feel “insecure because we are with the boys.” .

“They come, take our data and leave. We directly want an answer,” the woman concluded.