Amid raging pandemic, Peruvian police evict thousands of working class families
Cesar Uco
6 hours ago
With Peru’s COVID-19 pandemic spiraling out of control and the country’s health care system in a state of collapse, the government has sent in police squads to evict thousands of homeless and unemployed people from land they had occupied in and around the capital of Lima.
Peru has recorded the highest number of COVID deaths per million of any country in Latin America, while simultaneously suffering the continent’s sharpest economic decline as a result of the pandemic. As a result, thousands of working class and poor families, left without jobs or roofs over their heads, have taken over land and erected makeshift homes on the outskirts of Lima and other Peruvian cities.
In March and April of this year, between 4,000 and 10,000 families set up shanty homes on the Lomo de Corvina and El Morro Solar hills, while another 100 families moved onto the small, polluted beach of La Chira, all located south of Lima. They constructed houses using materials such as stones, plastic and sticks, along with blankets, tents and cardboard.
Families moving onto the hills outside Lima (Credit: Oxfam)
Homeless families also set up structures on land in Jicamarca to the east of the capital city. Likewise, 300 people moved into the Hijo de la Caledonia II settlement, where houses have been built with prefabricated materials and corrugated metal roofs. “We have talked with the authorities. We are not invaders, and we have been there for more than two months. The only thing we ask is that the state gives us its support,” a woman commented to the daily La Rep ú blica .
More:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/26/peru-m26.html
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