14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana 7 February 2024 — “Easterners, gay AIDS patients, the elderly, women with their husbands, children and people who have nowhere to live,” is how Yunier, one of those evicted from Factoría 70 between Corrales and Apodaca in Old Havana, described the situation of the people who were evicted on 31 January because the building was in danger of collapsing. “They dragged us all out of the place like dogs”.
The nearly one hundred people who were illegally occupying some 26 rooms in the building were evicted by the police and several local government officials, Yunier says. They were mistreated and given no assurances, although not all versions of what happened coincide. “They told everyone to find by themselves places to stay. They told them to go back to where they came from. The only thing they set up was a warehouse to store things while we found a place”, says the Havana native.
The evictees’ belongings can only stay there for a month, Yunier explained. The young man remembered how, about three years ago, people began to move into the the building, which had been declared uninhabitable by the authorities. “The people who were moving in began to put up windows and doors, and to organise the rooms a bit. Almost all were from Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, although there were some from Havana”. The former inhabitants of the building, he said, had previously been moved to shelters.
“Orientales, gais pacientes de sida, ancianos, mujeres con sus maridos, niños y gente que no tiene dónde vivir”, así define Yunier, uno de los desalojados de Factoría 70, en La Habana Vieja, expulsados el pasado 31 de enero por el peligro de derrumbe https://t.co/LvB30ulOXP pic.twitter.com/EWtTjyEiPN
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) February 7, 2024
He said that none of the people living in Factoría 70 received any eviction notices. The police arrived on 31 January, asked the residents for their ID cards and took them to Dragones station. “They handed out fines and let us go, and said they were going to come back another day, but they showed up the same day at five in the afternoon,” Yunier r