Eviction in La Ecológica leaves families living on the street

Santo Domingo, DR
With their feet on top of the wooden rubble and under the sun yesterday morning, hundreds of people n the vicinity of Ecological Avenue near Ciudad Juan Bosch were left out in the open after being evicted from their homes.

Martina García and her husband Manuel Antonio Sánchez, gathered their belongings in sheets and tanks after uniformed police arrived in the community at six o’clock in the morning to evict them from their home, according to the couple, without warning.

García recounted how she was forced to flee and take her three children out of the home she had lived in for 14 years.

“It’s fine for them to evict us, but we are not animals, my God, we are humans, they should come and warn us, they should not send criminals to steal the dishes. They left me with nothing, I was sleeping with my three children when suddenly they broke into my little house with machetes,” said Martina García, a woman who was sleeping on the floor as a Christian sacrifice when they left her with nothing.

According to those affected, minutes before the patrols arrived, a group with their faces covered and carrying shovels and machetes.

Francisco Peralta also recounted his bitter experience, saying that after the event, he would have to sleep at would expense of the kindness of others.

“I was going to work when these delinquents came to knock us all down and they hit me in the arm because I tried to protect what was mine. Now I’m calling a friend to see if he will take pity on me for two or three days; this is an abuse, we are people, not cows or donkeys,” said the man.

Almost in front of Francisco’s house were the pieces of painted wood of what was once the home of Carlos Féliz and Malida Esperanza Roa, a young couple who had lived there for ten years with their two children and who, like the other families, were left on the street.

Some locals said they had “no problem” with the eviction but wanted to be treated as dignified people with rights to be respected.

“If they need the land for something from the state, just let us know two or three weeks in advance, because we are not crazy; there is no cow, sheep or donkey here, so they want to take people away; they should comply with the law and exhaust the processes,” said one woman, who added that this intervention was the first to occur in this area, so they did not understand what was happening at the moment they broke into the space.

Mauricio Acosta, another person affected by the eviction, blamed a lawyer.