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The plagues spread in the "slums" of Buenos Aires
In the most humble neighborhoods, dengue is more deadly than the coronavirus, with 15 deaths per day.
The largest poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires, a "big family" in the face of adversity
A man with a mask walks on Wednesday May 6 at Villa 21-24, in Buenos Aires / Photo: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EFE
Angel Tailor | Buenos Aires
Last update: 13-07-2020 | 10:49 H /
Created: 12-07-2020
This story begins at the creek, the stinking river that waters the poorest area of Buenos Aires, La Matanza. Septic waters where the factories dump their discharges. We give Charon a coin, we started the journey to another world so close, but also far from the capital. A gourd-colored wooden barge wobbles battered, meandering slowly through thick mud, debris, and trash.
On the banks dogs that pale with scabies bark at our path. We went down, we entered a maze of bare bricks, with the sound of cumbia and the smell of fried sausage on the grills. The pandemic has come in the form of dengue and coronavirus. To this he adds poverty and violence, a plague, "another perfect plague."
Petrona, of advanced age, moves delicate between the streets. We follow her. Blue mask, black eyes and gray hair, in front of the fence of his house the face changes. "What do you want?" He asks. her five children and grandchildren have dengue. "I vomited blood, my gums also bled, and when I defecated ... I thought I was going to die," he says, furious, before moving on to his humble home. It was his worst nightmare.
Inside Petrona is holding a little trembling stamp of Pope Francis. As she strokes the plastic rosary, the balls clink and red lights flash in the room. Milagros, seven years old and also infected, plays in a bed with her three brothers. Color, fill the wings with ink, butterflies, ladybugs without moles. "Are you afraid of mosquitoes?" We asked. "Yes, a little," he says, smiling.
With 15 deaths a day, the Government fights the disease on the streets. Dengue surpasses the coronavirus, more than 500,000 cases, more than a thousand deaths and the number, unstoppable.
We continue. We perspire; The humidity is noticeable even in autumn. Outside, astronauts in bleach-wasted white suits and galactic face masks make their way with the sprinklers. Silver pistols connected to drums that carry poison-spilling pesticides on their backs. Eyes burn. Tons of toxic liquid to contain the bug.
"In these neighborhoods the majority are immigrants, Paraguayans, Peruvians or Bolivians. People are afraid to declare their case, they think it is a coronavirus, they will be pointed out. Marked. Therefore, they prefer to take care of themselves with homemade medicines, that's why there is so much death. Some succeed, ”says Darta Isabeleta, health coordinator in the area. They save themselves. "Others, no," he adds.
They are not an isolated case. According to a CEPAL report, 2020 will end with 45 million new poor people in Latin America.
In Argentina, which was already dragging 40% of poverty, pests bait with the most vulnerable, which have the least resources. The dengue mosquito nests in stagnant water, between scrap metal and drums, while the coronavirus spreads in areas with more overcrowding, less control and means of prevention.
1-11-14
In Villa 1-11-14 things are even worse. To the problems contracted by the pandemic adds violence, it is without sweat the most dangerous settlement where years ago, the former guerrillas of the Shining Path - a Peruvian terrorist group - settled and controlled the neighborhood. It is the law of the jungle. Crossroads of alleys. Boys with brown hoodie and low look. In the other hidden hand they keep a margolin - pistol -, dull bronze.
Firefighters fight fiercely to deliver boxes of food to affected families. It is the first battlefront, says Javier, the head of the unit that works next to the gendarmerie station - the army division that enters the heaviest areas, dependent on the Police as well. Here access is impossible, ambulances do not want to enter. The lights get off.
Javier is a kind of volunteer Rambo who rolls up his blue shirt while listening to “quartet”, whose ripped shield resists, worn out as he distributes food entering infinite infinite tunnels in which there are more than 70 infected by coronavirus. Drop the food boxes but the encounter is stealthy. "I know that this is like 'triggering' yourself, 'a Russian roulette', at some point I'm going to get infected," he says. He is who he does dirty work, without glory.
While life continues in the villa. Almost everything is still open on 1-11-14. You have to go out to work. There is no other. They wear colored masks, but the plague as they say, is floating in the air. "The bestiary" is infinite. We accompany the group of gatherers, that's what they are called. Through pointers, -respected people locate the affected houses-. It is all a process that does not always come to fruition.
They ring the bell and he manages to convince them after a friendly conversation to find out the symptoms. Finally, almost all the interviewees are accompanied on a “pilgrimage” to the brand new San Lorenzo soccer stadium, where they are tested and taken to a hospital.
Night falls, we return home, the other Buenos Aires where electricity and water are not lacking. The coin we gave to Charon is beginning to wear out, and the boatman is becoming increasingly blind, with less force to row.
The plagues spread in the "slums" of Buenos Aires
In the most humble neighborhoods, dengue is more deadly than the coronavirus, with 15 deaths per day.
The largest poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires, a "big family" in the face of adversity
A man with a mask walks on Wednesday May 6 at Villa 21-24, in Buenos Aires / Photo: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EFE
Angel Tailor | Buenos Aires
Last update: 13-07-2020 | 10:49 H /
Created: 12-07-2020
This story begins at the creek, the stinking river that waters the poorest area of Buenos Aires, La Matanza. Septic waters where the factories dump their discharges. We give Charon a coin, we started the journey to another world so close, but also far from the capital. A gourd-colored wooden barge wobbles battered, meandering slowly through thick mud, debris, and trash.
On the banks dogs that pale with scabies bark at our path. We went down, we entered a maze of bare bricks, with the sound of cumbia and the smell of fried sausage on the grills. The pandemic has come in the form of dengue and coronavirus. To this he adds poverty and violence, a plague, "another perfect plague."
Petrona, of advanced age, moves delicate between the streets. We follow her. Blue mask, black eyes and gray hair, in front of the fence of his house the face changes. "What do you want?" He asks. her five children and grandchildren have dengue. "I vomited blood, my gums also bled, and when I defecated ... I thought I was going to die," he says, furious, before moving on to his humble home. It was his worst nightmare.
Inside Petrona is holding a little trembling stamp of Pope Francis. As she strokes the plastic rosary, the balls clink and red lights flash in the room. Milagros, seven years old and also infected, plays in a bed with her three brothers. Color, fill the wings with ink, butterflies, ladybugs without moles. "Are you afraid of mosquitoes?" We asked. "Yes, a little," he says, smiling.
With 15 deaths a day, the Government fights the disease on the streets. Dengue surpasses the coronavirus, more than 500,000 cases, more than a thousand deaths and the number, unstoppable.
We continue. We perspire; The humidity is noticeable even in autumn. Outside, astronauts in bleach-wasted white suits and galactic face masks make their way with the sprinklers. Silver pistols connected to drums that carry poison-spilling pesticides on their backs. Eyes burn. Tons of toxic liquid to contain the bug.
"In these neighborhoods the majority are immigrants, Paraguayans, Peruvians or Bolivians. People are afraid to declare their case, they think it is a coronavirus, they will be pointed out. Marked. Therefore, they prefer to take care of themselves with homemade medicines, that's why there is so much death. Some succeed, ”says Darta Isabeleta, health coordinator in the area. They save themselves. "Others, no," he adds.
They are not an isolated case. According to a CEPAL report, 2020 will end with 45 million new poor people in Latin America.
In Argentina, which was already dragging 40% of poverty, pests bait with the most vulnerable, which have the least resources. The dengue mosquito nests in stagnant water, between scrap metal and drums, while the coronavirus spreads in areas with more overcrowding, less control and means of prevention.
1-11-14
In Villa 1-11-14 things are even worse. To the problems contracted by the pandemic adds violence, it is without sweat the most dangerous settlement where years ago, the former guerrillas of the Shining Path - a Peruvian terrorist group - settled and controlled the neighborhood. It is the law of the jungle. Crossroads of alleys. Boys with brown hoodie and low look. In the other hidden hand they keep a margolin - pistol -, dull bronze.
Firefighters fight fiercely to deliver boxes of food to affected families. It is the first battlefront, says Javier, the head of the unit that works next to the gendarmerie station - the army division that enters the heaviest areas, dependent on the Police as well. Here access is impossible, ambulances do not want to enter. The lights get off.
Javier is a kind of volunteer Rambo who rolls up his blue shirt while listening to “quartet”, whose ripped shield resists, worn out as he distributes food entering infinite infinite tunnels in which there are more than 70 infected by coronavirus. Drop the food boxes but the encounter is stealthy. "I know that this is like 'triggering' yourself, 'a Russian roulette', at some point I'm going to get infected," he says. He is who he does dirty work, without glory.
While life continues in the villa. Almost everything is still open on 1-11-14. You have to go out to work. There is no other. They wear colored masks, but the plague as they say, is floating in the air. "The bestiary" is infinite. We accompany the group of gatherers, that's what they are called. Through pointers, -respected people locate the affected houses-. It is all a process that does not always come to fruition.
They ring the bell and he manages to convince them after a friendly conversation to find out the symptoms. Finally, almost all the interviewees are accompanied on a “pilgrimage” to the brand new San Lorenzo soccer stadium, where they are tested and taken to a hospital.
Night falls, we return home, the other Buenos Aires where electricity and water are not lacking. The coin we gave to Charon is beginning to wear out, and the boatman is becoming increasingly blind, with less force to row.