A group of six mothers and 12 children have received an ultimatum from eviction by the municipal housing authorities of Old Havana to abandon a premises they occupied eight months ago.
“A Housing official came with a letter saying that we had to return to our places of residence, that they were very sorry for our situation but that 60 percent of Havana had housing problems, and that there were cases equal to or worse than this one,” he said in statements to Cubanet one of the occupants, who is pregnant.
The women were warned that if they left of their own free will, their cases would be taken into account by the Municipal Housing Directorate.
Mothers threatened with eviction are very worried about being thrown onto the street in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, just when the government insists that people should stay at home.
“We are exposed to infection when we go out with children and pregnant women. I don't understand how it is possible that now in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic they are doing this to us. They are asking us to vacate the area,” complained one of those affected.
One of the interviewees considers as a last option to stay in the vicinity of the Plaza de la Revolución, since they do not consider returning to places where their lives and those of their children are in danger due to the terrible housing conditions.
“We are mothers with children asking for help,” concluded one of the women.
The premises that the six women occupy today in Old Havana was an old gym that was disused.
In recent years, more and more Cubans are resorting to the illegal occupation of state premises that have been abandoned by the State and remain closed.
Without taking into account the risks involved in throwing people onto the streets in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the authorities attempted to evict a group of people residing in an illegal settlement built in the Havana municipality of Cotorro at the end of April.
In October 2019, the police forcibly evicted a group of families who They had occupied several empty apartments in a building in Central Havana.
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