Not Even the Homeless Are Safe in Güines
Güines, August 14, 2003 - (www.cubanet.org) - Not even the homeless are safe in Güines, a city located within Havana Province, as it is shown on the assault suffered by two of them during the early morning hours of last August 9.
Guillermo Gil Almeida (aka. Julio Iglesias) 42 years old and his sister Rosa Girasena (called “Taconéala” (“Foot Stamp Her”) 47, were assaulted and robbed of their meager belongings, while sleeping in the main entrance of the “dollarized” store Panorama, a place where the pair customarily sleeps, after their home located in Vega Prieta farm, collapsed on April 28, 2001 due to the poundings of a storm.
Both homeless people survive by selling bric-a-brac throughout the city' s streets, and they enjoy the affection of Güines' residents, so when they found out about the assault, they helped them by delivering some clothes, food and money.
“It is depressing to see how these low income persons are rejected by the President of the Municipal Government, while he resides in a luxurious and comfortable house that everybody living here knows how he obtained it”, denounced Martha Ida Horta, an activist of Pro Freedom and Democracy Center, who lives in Güines.
The assaulted homeless are waiting since last year the finishing of a housing development that the local government is constructing near the municipal tobacco factory to allegedly house them, but the work is stopped due to bureaucratic red tape, characteristic of the socialist system, so it is not known for sure if its construction will end or it will be delayed ten, fifteen or twenty years, as it has happened with other projects.
Return to: Güines Today |
Previously: Miguel Galbán Gutiérrez, Güinero Hero and Patriot |