The Palma encampment on Maricarmen: "She has not died, they have murdered her by expelling her from her home and demonizing her"

PalmaThe death of Maricarmen has struck the housing encampment in Palma, which this Wednesday received the news in the middle of an assembly at the Plaça d'Espanya. In a statement released after learning of her death, the participants expressed their "anger and pain" and directly accused those responsible for the eviction and the administrations of not having prevented the outcome. "Her death would have been easy to prevent, but they did not want to. Because Maricarmen has not died. Maricarmen has been murdered," the encampment asserts in the statement.

The activists hold, first and foremost, the vulture fund Urbagestión responsible, accusing it of having "threatened her for years because they wanted to take her home to make their owners richer." They also point to the judge who signed the eviction order, who they claim did so "without considering her situation and vulnerability." The statement also directs responsibility towards the governments of the Community of Madrid and the State, whom they reproach for having dedicated themselves to "blaming each other without providing solutions to the housing drama." Furthermore, the encampment denounces a demonization campaign in some media outlets against Maricarmen while she was admitted to the hospital.

"A deterioration caused by years of fear and stress"

Activists reject that Maricarmen's physical deterioration can be attributed solely to the two weeks she spent hospitalized after the eviction. "Her physical deterioration is not from the two weeks spent in the hospital since she was evicted by the riot police. It is from the years she has spent living under the fear and stress of being thrown out of her home," they point out.

For the encampment, Maricarmen's situation is a consequence of a structural housing problem and a system that, as they denounce, "puts the profits of a very few above our lives."

In this sense, the movement recalls other cases of people who, as it points out, have ended up dying in contexts related to eviction processes. They refer to Olga, who they claim committed suicide last September after being evicted from her home in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and Javier, a shoemaker who, according to the statement, took his own life before being evicted from his workshop.

"We will continue to camp"

Despite the shock over Maricarmen's death, the encampment asserts that it will not stop the protest for housing that it is maintaining in Plaça d'Espanya. "Maricarmen's struggle has shown us the way," states the communique, which claims that her memory and legacy will serve to continue the mobilization "with more strength and determination."

"We will remain encamped. We will continue fighting for what is ours, as you have told us," the activists point out. The movement also confirms its intention to participate in the general housing strike called for November 11th. The communique ends with a farewell message to Maricarmen: "May the earth rest lightly on you, Maricarmen, and may those who do business with our lives not be able to sleep peacefully for a single day again."

Mural and commemorative act

However, the encampment activists plan to carry out a collective mural starting at 4 PM with images of the people who have died as a result of being evicted, as is the case with Maricarmen, but also others who committed suicide. Starting at 7 PM, the organization has called for an act in tribute to Maricarmen, the woman who died this Wednesday days after being evicted from her home.