A 94-year-old Cuban woman was evicted from the apartment where she had been living for almost four decades in Madrid due to a debt of almost 12,000 euros.
Alba Marina Milagros López, a native of Santa Clara, is a self-taught architect and painter. She arrived in Spain in 1985 and shortly thereafter settled in a 60-square-meter apartment in the Lavapiés neighborhood, where this Wednesday she was taken out on a stretcher. At 55 years old, she was unable to validate her university degree, so she worked in other professions, as well as designing and selling Christmas cards to make a living.
The building belongs to the real estate company GUIGA SL, which took her to court because she had accumulated a debt close to 12,000 euros, after nearly two years without paying the rent. She argues that she only receives a non-contributory pension of 517 euros, and the rent amounts to 650 euros per month.
The elderly woman did not know that she had to leave on this day; her relatives hid it from her to not worsen her health condition, as she suffers from chronic bronchitis that has led her to be admitted twice this year.
The eviction was carried out this morning with a large police deployment, which even prevented her neighbors from entering to help her move out and say goodbye. These are the same ones who on June 7th prevented a previous eviction attempt (the second one) against the woman.
Marina went out into the street tied to a chair being pushed by a worker from the social Samur. The officials placed a safety belt across her chest that immobilized her arms to prevent her from hurting herself in the struggle. Once on the street, two men lifted her onto a stretcher and put her in the ambulance.
According to what his nephew Alejandro López told El País, the only relative who entered the house with the judicial commission, his aunt resisted with all her might.
There were more than six police officers inside the apartment, they got very aggressive with her and she was desperate, she couldn't believe it, she was shouting that they had to kill her in there. They took us out so there would be no witnesses to how they are treating her," she recounted.
The lady was unable to pick up her belongings or even say goodbye to her neighbors. Only two friends were able to enter later and collected her clothes and her paintings. Everything else remained inside the property.
Marina is now at a residential facility. In a message she sent to a friend via phone, she said, "I am very upset, in the end, I had to give in. They were going to remove me by force. The only good thing about the residence so far was the shower. The food is terrible. Looking in the dining room at four elderly ladies sitting, waiting to be served."
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