[Music playing: "Casas Viejas" by Francisco Canaro and Ada Falcón]
My name is Rolando Arenos.
I have lived in this neighborhood for roughly 46 years.
We came here from the countryside, from the mountains.
There was no water. There was no sewage system.
We would have committee meetings on weekends.
Taking out dirt, making piles.
And that's how we started to build our neighborhood, bit by bit.
We used to beg the mayor to install a sanitation system.
Not to give it to us for free. To charge us.
He kept refusing to install any public utilities.
So when we realized he was not going to install any utilities
we took the electricity from over there,
we drank the water from Santa Margarita.
We went back to to the mayor, and he said, "You all don't know when to stop."
"If you come back and break the water pipes, I'm going to throw you in jail."
So we decided on collective action.
We made a proposal, and the mayor said,
"You have left me with no choice. We will install the utilities."
We were born here. We're staying here. No evictions.
This is the Cascada neighborhood.
Out of 185 homes, 75 have received eviction notices due to the occupants' risk of death,
due to the crumbling structures,
caused by unstable incomes and other events in the neighborhood's history.
The problem in associated with this neighborhood because
it's on a piece of land that provides structural support to a highway
and it's bound by
the Cascada ravine, the Chaguala ravine, and Ocean Highway.
When they built the highway...
Interviewer: The highway wasn't there before?
No. There was a road, but it was very small.
Then they made it wider.
And when they made it wider, they damaged the houses.
It looked like a handmade dirt temple.
Then afterwards, they put up a wall.
And even with that wall, they continued to damage the neighborhood.
This community has had a problem for nine or ten years.
They had to fix the highway,
which is directly above the neighborhood,
because it became unstable and part of the mountain collapsed
and blocked that part of the roadway, and there was a landslide.
My name is Maria Isabel Muñoz, and I live in the Cascada neighborhood.
The situation has gotten worse since 1999,
with the widening of the highway that goes towards the ocean.
Because of the construction of a wall, carried out by the state,
which was not built according to code,
and did not take into account the runoff
from the mountain where they built housing for displaced families.
They damaged the water from the aqueduct.
Because over there, on the side, there's a big tube
And on this side, there was another one.
And they damaged both.
So the excuses started, more, and more, and more of them
and we would tell them, "The water is coming right through here."
Engineers came, but they said,
"The issue is, we can't start any trouble with the government." Understand?
And they'd say to us,
"Why don't you leave the neighborhood? Why are you still here?"
Why should we leave?
I'd argue with them,
I'd say, "Since you live somewhere else, someplace nice."
"You couldn't care less. We do care because we live here."
We live here, so we do care.
It's been 14 years.
Imagine that.
14, 15 years practically. And we've been fighting the government....
Let's see what happens now.
I've put a lot of money into my house.
I haven't been able able to fix it perfectly because I don't have the means.
But the house won't fall. The way I have it -- it won't fall.
I have a lot of these columns.
I have about 11 of them .
You know area behind this neighborhood?
They're building a 33-story building. Imagine that.
Interviewer: "That one won't fall."
Those buildings don't fall.
A friend of mine lives over there.
He has a small farm.
I talked to him recently, and he told me, "Hey man, I'm fed up."
They keep asking him if he'll sell his land. And he refuses.
It hurts me. A lot of people aren't in any condition to move.
They're kicking us out as if we were animals,
into these 32 square meter boxes when we're used to living with normal comforts.
There are nice houses here.
My house is not big, but I was fine there.
Now they're telling me, 'Go live over there!'
They gave me an apartment but I haven't taken it.
I told them, "I'm not taking it because I'm not displaced"
I'm not going anywhere. You damaged my house, now you have to fix it.
Once it's fixed, then I'll decide what to do.
I receive financial assistance to help pay my rent every first of the month.
They tell me they're going to take it away because I haven't demolished my house.
because I haven't followed the demolition order.
I told them I'm not going to demolish it until you fix my housing situation.
I don't want an apartment. I didn't ask for that.
I want an old house or a new house. Or money so that I can choose whatever I want.
Whatever the government can give me. And if not, I won't leave.
The government tells me, "Well, ma'am, you have an order to receive temporary housing.
That's it. It's final. You have to go."
I said, "If you take away my subsidy and don't fix anything, I'm going back home.
I'll fix it and stay there."
Why don't they invest more in our neighborhood instead of kicking us out?
There's people that gave and fought a lot to build a home for themselves.
Some people didn't care.
They took the apartment and they left. And they're fine over there.
Everyone has their own opinion.
I was going to move into the apartment.
But it was so small that I said, "I won't take it."
I asked the lawyer, "If I don't take the apartment what happens?"
He said, "Ma'am, you're not required to take it if you don't want it."
So I told him, "If I didn't have anywhere to go, I'd take it.
But I have a house and I worked hard for it."
The failure to prevent future risks for these communities
has led to larger and more complicated risks on the ground.
This could have been prevented,
had the original construction had been done properly.
About 14-15 years ago, residents began to file complaints
because their houses were falling apart.
The residents blame this, in part, on the work that began about 10, 11 years ago
on the construction of a westward highway towards the New West suburb.
Now there are about 15 thousand residences in that area.
That's what they did up there.
There were lots of explosions over there.
Oh man, when they were building there, everyday it was like,
BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM.
And that's what lived through right here.
We've had this problem in our area for 14 years.
Houses deteriorate because of runoff and underground water flow
caused by excessive construction in the New West suburb.
It has been disturbing us but we haven't
gotten the attention we deserve from the state.
We demand that the state,
and we demand that the City of Medellin,
gotten the attention we deserve from the state.
seeing as the was damage caused
by excessive construction in the New West suburb,
where the city has put it's population growth.
We ask for help in the recovery of our neighborhood
being that we've been here for 50 years and that we want to stay here.
There is a social fabric here, there are roots here,
and the City of Medellin isn't taking this into account.
They say, "Leave the neighborhood."
But we say that we're going to stay here.
Or build good apartments here, big ones, where we can fit our lives.
But these little apartments, they only have 2 bedrooms, you understand?
We have the right to a dignified life and they should respect our wishes.
We want to regain our rights, since we've lost them.
We demand our neighborhood's recovery. We breathe peace and tranquility here.
No more evictions. We were born here, and we will stay here.
We don't want discrimination in our neighborhood.
Don't violate our rights.
We demand the right to a dignified home.
We don't want more evictions in the La Cascada neighborhood.
We want to continue being the same unified neighborhood that we've always been.
We want to stay in our neighborhoods, in our homes.
They need to respect that right.
We want to stay in our neighborhood, where we were born and raised.
The problem they caused needs a just solution. And no more evictions.
We are not displaced, and we do not want to become displaced.
We have the right to put the pieces of the puzzle back together.
It got messed up by large corporations that came and, from one day to the next,
managed to destroy our community,
When the eyes of the world are upon us, the government listens to us.
When these eyes are no longer on us, the government goes blind.
"I've never seen you. I don't remember you.
We've never discussed this. Leave a message with my assistant.
Etc., etc., etc."
If you come here late at night, you'll see there is no thievery going on.
There are no break ins. You can leave for a month, and no one will touch your house.
You come back and everything is like you left it.
In other parts of town, you go there at night and you'll get robbed.
This is a really good neighborhood to live in. It's great for raising a family.
That's why we're fighting. So that they don't kick us out.
We don't know if this area could be declared a priority interest
so the state could immediately make the necessary investments,
But we also have to think about how we could guarantee that it get done
with the lowest possible impact on the residents.
We should uproot as few families as possible, even temporarily.
How is this accomplished?
ThIs is a situation that needs to be resolved by the government,
by local social organizations, and by human rights groups
in order to undertake an analysis and come to an agreement
with this community to decide what is best to guarantee their rights to a home,
their rights to human development, their rights to social development,
and the right to the roots they have in this area.
We are few, but we are united.
And united we are strong.
And with that strength, we will fight for our neighborhood.
Yes we can! Yes we can!
We are the future of our neighborhood!