Barbara Villar
02/25/2021 2:54 PM
Clarín.com
Zonal
Updated 02/25/2021 3:50 PM
An old conflict, which due to the pandemic had been on standby, again generated moments of tension this morning in Puente Saavedra, the border between the
Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
and
Vicente López's party
.
A joint police operation from both jurisdictions
evicted more than 50 people (many of the cartoneros)
who lived below General Paz Avenue.
For months, neighbors on both sides of the highway have been complaining about the situation since "waste of all kinds was accumulating."
They also pointed out that large families with many children lived in a
"very precarious and risky" situation
.
They asked that they be contained and transferred to day centers.
The eviction operation began this Wednesday, February 24, when the City authorities tried to remove the families, but were unsuccessful.
"Many of those who live there are from
homes for street people from Pilar, Escobar and Benavídez
. There are also from various parts of the City," they said.
In the area they claimed that garbage was accumulating.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll.
This morning, at 9 o'clock,
they
tried
again
to carry out the eviction with a greater number of City Police officers, supported by Vicente López's citizen protection officers.
They first cut off an access to the General Paz highway and then waited to determine the degree of resistance from the families occupying that public space.
Around noon, and after
several hours of tension
due to the refusal of the people to leave the place, they achieved unemployment.
There were no confrontations or violence
.
Neither detained.
"We only remain the cartoneros who always work here, because the Police wanted to take out the merchandise that we separated to recycle," one of them told
Clarín Zonal.
This is how the low bridge of General Paz remained after the operation.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll.
Family groups fled.
However, many of them are still in the Maipú avenue area - a few meters from the conflict area - walking and asking for alms on the sidewalk.
Under the highway where they were settled, the city police ordered an
officer who watches throughout the day
and controls that they do not settle on public roads again.
This Thursday, there was still a group of cartoneros that remained in the place.
Among them is a young representative of a
private
social cooperative
who offered to help them relocate and with whom they wait for a truck to arrive to collect all the merchandise they will use for recycling: their livelihood.
"We have been working here for about
a month.
We are laborers, all men over 40 years of age who are making an effort to bring a plate of food to our homes. But
the focus of the problems is actually the families
living with minors. old under the bridge, "added Pablo, another of the cartoneros from Escobar.
The same man added: "The City Government gave them a subsidy to leave, but they come back to collect it again. They settle in, do nothing and throw garbage. We, the cartoneros, have to clean the streets because it is a disaster. And this is another reason why people denounce and then they come to throw us all out. It is a garbage dump. "
In the access to the highway the smell is nauseating: on the sides, there are remains of garbage and diapers.
This added to damp mattresses, bottles with urine and non-recyclable waste that litter the street.
"We know that the neighbors report insecurity and lack of hygiene. We understand them, but we are not the ones who caused it. On the contrary, we talk with them and even clean up their waste so as not to have problems. We hope one day to be able to work in peace," they conclude from the group of cartoneros.
MR
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