Cesar Dossi
08/01/2021 8:00
Clarín.com
Letters to the country
Updated 08/01/2021 8:00 AM
We come to ask for help and greater visibility of society as a whole.
We are a group of people, more than 160 Argentine citizens and residents who are occasionally in Brazil, and who can
not return to our homes due to the restrictions imposed by the Government of Argentina.
Many of us, and for months, have entered Brazil for work reasons, to attend to business ties, resolve serious family matters, study, etc., and not for tourism.
I left Argentina at the end of 2019 with my husband who is Argentine, I am Brazilian, but years ago I chose Argentina as my home.
We traveled because
my mom was sick
and I also needed to visit my grandmother and brother.
At that time there was no kind of affidavit to sign.
Until the pandemic arrived and because of a fear of infection, we stayed in Brazil.
But our house and our belongings were still there.
Among waves that come and go, insecurity continued.
Together.
Brenda and Nicolás, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when Covid-19 did not yet exist, in 2019.
In 2021 we decided to return to our home, with the pandemic in a more controlled state, my husband had to work and also see his relatives, luckily he managed to return on an Aerolineas Argentinas flight,
while I had to stay
. In Brazil,
our flights have been canceled over and over again for months,
some of us do not have any kind of support or financial help to sustain ourselves other than the charity of a supportive compatriot, others having the resources and even the tickets purchased, they
are private irrationally
to return to their families, their homes, their land.
We could list hundreds of situations and cases (with expenses for mobility, telephone, medical studies, plane tickets, Covid-19 test, etc.), but the
Argentine Foreign Ministry and the Argentine Consulate in Brazil deny
us and tell us to look for a private flight that it comes out thousands of dollars.
There is no way to get an interview, an orientation or minimal help to alleviate the situation.
It makes us invisible!
Response from the Argentine Consulate in Brazil.
Brenda Nicolás did not sign the affidavit because Covid-19 did not yet exist in 2019.
It is vital to point out that we are foreign and Argentine residents with flights canceled since last April and May, with a forecast to fly for September or November! We repeatedly schedule ourselves to travel and days (in the best of cases) or hours before,
we are informed of new postponements
. Therefore, efforts, time, money and mental health that are lost and that no one is going to reimburse or repair us.
But perhaps the worst is the outrageous mistreatment / mistreatment of the Argentine authorities, and of course the
contradictions that are continually imposed with sanitary restrictions.
Because at the same time that they restrict our freedom and individual rights by not letting us return, we are witnessing football matches with the participation of fellow citizens who travel without restriction and without complying with minimum sanitary protocols.
Foreign Ministry's response to the claims of Brenda and Nicolás to be able to return to Argentina.
What they are doing to us is shameful, it is unfair and it is very cruel.
There are
people sleeping on the street
because they have no place to stay, there are families who have disabled children who need care and their parents here who had to travel for work reasons.
People with serious psychological problems, stress, there is a lot of despair.
We do not want privileges, we demand freedom that we will exercise without affecting the rights and well-being of third parties, we want to return in compliance with the protocols. "
.
Situations that lead some to try to cross border crossings illegally to avoid losing their jobs, family or health.
They are lives that are being put at risk.
We all understand the seriousness of the pandemic, but it is true that
we
also
have rights and we do not ask more that they allow us to exercise them.
We do not want privileges, we demand freedom that we will exercise without affecting the rights and well-being of third parties, we want to return, complying with all the necessary requirements as we have intended so far, with full commitment to health protocols.
This letter is a request for help made by residents and Argentines who are in dire straits.
That the citizens know and
become aware of our situation and that they can help us.
We have many testimonies, photos, stories from Argentines that prove the veracity of what is narrated in this message.
We deeply hope that you can help us with its dissemination.
We want to return!
We have the right to return!
Let us return!
Brenda Salles
AND MORE THAN 160 MORE VARADOS IN BRAZIL / sallesbrenda@gmail.com
THE EDITOR'S COMMENT
By César Dossi
The suspicious silence of the Government
Last Sunday, the story
“Stranded, the word that cannot be pronounced in the Foreign Ministry”, by the reader Carolina Gutiérrez, crossed borders.
The news this week is that the last DNU establishes that from July 24,
7,000 people
can enter the country through Ezeiza
per week.
Aerolineas Argentinas published routes: 85, 49 are canceled and rescheduled 9. The flights from and to Brazil
were canceled
(Clarin, Tuesday 27), and more than 160 people still there, some since 2020 and others for the
last six months .
The story of Brenda, today's reader, is not very different from the others.
She went to the neighboring country with her husband at the end of 2019 because her mother was very ill,
and she was unable to weigh anchor
.
From Brazil, and having no official answers, some 82 people from the group of 160 stranded presented a collective habeas corpus before the national court in Criminal and Correctional No. 57,
for not being able to use their rights.
Parallel to this story is that of Los Pumas. They achieved the first and so far only medal for Argentina at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and we applaud them standing. But they were also stranded.
"Being told that
you can't go home is very strong,
"
said coach Santiago Gómez Cora. The grief was short-lived. They achieved an exception and they are supposed to arrive today next to the football team, after only 19 days in the eastern country.
Something looks cloudy!
Especially when there are people stuck in other countries, on the streets, without work and without seeing their relatives for months.
The one that was stranded, too, is Sputnik V, it has been without approval in Europe for five months, and WHO does not authorize it.
In other words, lacking in papers, they
bought doses that were not authorized.
The pot is uncovered and, again, the aroma smells like a story.
With the banner
of discrimination and second-class citizens
, and without blushing, the Government ignores those stranded abroad.
Perhaps Felipe Solá, from the Foreign Ministry, can pick up the phone that, until now, has remained suspiciously silent.