On 6/17 the COE (Emergency Operations Center) operating in this town informed the entire population of this city that cases of contagion with coronavirus had been detected. Immediately, measures to transform the town of Mosconi into a "ghetto" were enacted, in which under the tight control of the police and the gendarmerie they have locked up the workers and their families, condemning them to be victims of the coronavirus contagion, without work, without food, without basic drinking water services, without any means to care for their health.
Interview with Luchi, fighter of the piquetero movement and leader of the uprisings of unemployed workers in the North of Salta in 2000.
“We always ask for work, we want decent work! We have to unite, so that we would be much stronger”
DO-What is the situation after the spread of coronavirus in the locality?
LU- A few days ago it was known that there was a contagion, since 5/14 and the authorities had done nothing. Today they take this measure and they have closed everything, we cannot travel anywhere, only the security forces and nurses can. From 6 pm we have to be locked in our homes. The gendarmerie is in charge of controlling movements in the streets, and they stop anyone who does not have permission, they are no longer allowing street vendors to work, which is the only way out that many of us the unemployed have to get something to live on, and without a permission to circulate you can't do temporary jobs either.
DO-Has the government taken any measures to address the problem of the spread of infections?
LU- The mayor in his statements has said that it is our fault that the contagion spreads, that we are the ones who do not take care of ourselves, that we are uneducated ... He is absolutely shameless! In the hospital here they have nothing, to take care of any sick person. At the Hospital in Tartagal they no longer receive us. The province's Secretary of Health was there, making announcements, recommending measures to take care of us, but he did nothing concrete. There were only 28 swab tests, they were finished and they didn't send more. They don't care about anything, if we get sick, if we die… they don't care! Both water and power are still cut, they don't want to invest a peso! The problem of malnourished children and the elderly sick is very serious if they are infected, the only care we can take is to lock ourselves at home!
DO-How is the situation of the workers?
LU- Unemployment is getting worse, but the oil companies keep getting the oil away and they take everything!
The leaders and the government are comfortable! Here we are alone, abandoned. We can no longer get together, more than 10 people can not get together, the gendarmerie lifts you up and takes you! We can only communicate by phone! This is how we do it, we take care of ourselves, we help each other and our friends, it's only us that are interested in our health and that of our families!
I ask myself: Where are the bureaucratic piquetero leaders who took us out to the streets for social plans, while we spent days, nights, waiting for a social plan so that they could get rich, and now what? Because they do not go out for a just reason, to fight for supplies for our hospital, it is something that we all need, even them. But what is the problem? Fighting for that will not give them monetary return, which is really the only thing that matters to them.
We have to organize, to march and claim. The unemployed know how to do it! We don't want them to keep our mouth shut with $ 10,000, they want us to produce for $ 10,000, they want to keep us enslaved and meanwhile, they get rich! We always ask for work, we want decent work! We have to unite, so we will be much stronger. Unity of the employed and the unemployed workers is the only way to fight. We have to prepare, as it was in 2001.
DO-Thank you very much, comrade!
Correspondent
