As if it were herding animals, at six in the morning this Friday a group of hooded men, members of the National Police, and a lawyer left some 100 families out in the open for eviction, according to their testimonies. Stepping on the rubble of wood and zinc sheets that used to make up their houses, the residents of Avenida Ecológica, near the Ciudad Juan Bosch, in Santo Domingo Este, explained how their houses were destroyed at the point of shovels and machetes, without being notified. “It is okay to evict us, but we are not animals, my God, we are human, they can come and warn us, they don’t need to send criminals to steal our belongings. They left me with nothing, I was sleeping with my three children when suddenly they hacked up my house with machetes,” said Martina García, a woman who was sleeping on the floor.
Likewise, the bitter experience of Francisco Peralta, who recounted that today he will sleep at the expense of the kindness of others. “I was going to work when those criminals came to lay us all down and they hit me in the arm because I tried to protect what was mine. Now I am calling a friend to see if she will take pity on me for two or three days, this is abuse, we are people, not cows or donkeys, ”said the man. A lawyer, who did not want to give his name, shouted that the eviction was carried out with notice in hand. However, when a journalist asked about the document, the lawyer was left escorted by two policemen.
The citizens residing in that area explained that they have been residing in that place for between 10 and 15 years, without having witnessed an experience equal to the one they lived this Friday morning. In the midst of the confessions of those affected, reporters were able to witness the moment in which two of the hooded men who demolished the houses clashed with some citizens who reside in the evicted area, and with the aim of calming the situation the Police fired tear gas in the middle of the avenue.