Colombia: 73 Families Face Eviction in the El Jardín Neighborhood in Medellin
Featured image: Reactionary forces carrying out evictions in the El Jardín neighborhood. Source: El Tiempo
On September 10, riot police entered the neighborhood of El Jardín in La Comuna 3 Manrique – a proletarian commune in the city of Medellin, Colombia – to carry out evictions against 73 families residing in the neighborhood. The eviction order was carried out on the orders of the Mayor’s Office of Medellin, citing “vulnerability to flooding and geological factors.”
The Mayor of Medellin, Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, during a farcical display after the floods in the El Jardín neigborhood in April, demonstrated his understanding of “relief” to the residents of the city by ordering this eviction – throwing families, including elderly, sick and children to the street with a meager 600,000 pesos (~193 USD) to pay for rent for the next six months.
A statement published on the Instagram of Nueva Democracia denounces the actions of Gutiérrez, stating:
“The people will never forget the pain caused by your miserable, petty, and cowardly actions; we continue to organize against your eviction policy, against your desire to beautify the city for foreigners at the expense of the dispossession and misery of the people.
IN THE FACE OF STATE REPRESSION AND NEGLECT: ORGANIZATION AND PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE!
ONLY THE PEOPLE CAN SAVE THE PEOPLE!”
