Carolina Machado Abad ("Heidi", "Clarita")
Age 30 (born 30 Aug 1994)5 Jul 2024
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Not reported
Carolina died at a bus stop outside a hospital. She had been unable to find shelter during a cold snap that claimed the lives of several homeless people in Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Monday afternoon, Carolina Machado Abad, a trans woman who had migrated from Ecuador, died homeless during the cold snap in Buenos Aires. She was to have turned 30 on August 30.
“I had a transfer to a shelter in my pocket,” Georgina Orellano, director of Casa Roja and general secretary of Asociación de Mujeres Meretrices de Argentina (AMMAR), told Presentes. Carolina was a sex worker and had gone to Casa Roja, in the Constitución neighborhood, where they helped her start the immigration process. She had obtained temporary residency and was waiting for her national identity document.
Over the past month, Carolina spent several nights at the Uspallata hostel, run by the Buenos Aires City Government. Police found her body in the plaza in front of the Muñiz Hospital, in Parque Patricios. “She was hospitalized for a long time at the Ramos Mejía hospital. When she left, she found herself in absolute precariousness, unable to receive assistance from the State policies, which are very limited. One of the requirements to receive any subsidy is to have regularized immigration status,” Orellano explained.
The last time her companions saw her was on Friday, July 5. She went to Casa Roja asking to be admitted to a home. “We called several centers and they were all full. The social workers at the different centers told us that they had no vacancies. There was no room, there was a waiting list. “They gave her an appointment to appear on July 16, ” said Orellano, who is organizing Carolina's farewell at Casa Roja. They have already contacted her family and hope to repatriate her body.
Carolina's death coincided with statements by the Secretary of Security of Buenos Aires, Diego Kravetz, who said: "If as a neighbor you give a plate of hot soup to a person who lives on the street, you are making them poor."
Kravetz's comments - which appear to be part of an intentional hostility by the authorities in the area towards homeless people - came after at least 7 deaths of homeless people in Buenos Aires in the previous two weeks.
The organizations believe that these deaths are linked to the emptying of housing policies and the hardening of discrimination and violence by the City Government towards people living on the streets. According to figures from April, there are 3,560 homeless people in the capital of the country. This represents an increase of 14% compared to last year. However, civil society organizations report 8,028 homeless people, according to this note from the media Chequeado.
“Jorge Macri said that homeless people are dangerous and that the whole approach had to be changed. They created a mental health protocol that allows people to be taken to psychiatric wards involuntarily. The Borda Hospital has been denouncing this. The government said that they are opening new shelters, but for months every time you call the 108 line there is no vacancy,” Paula Migilone from NTD told Presentes. She added: “They have an under-measure of the number of homeless people. Everything got worse with the elimination of specific public policies for women and dissidents. They are making a policy of displacement, they don’t want them to be seen. And that has short legs, because people are dying and now these policies are reaching the media.”
[Editor's note: several sources also name Carolina as "Heidi" and "Clarita"]
Yesterday Diego Kravetz, Secretary of City Security said that people in street situations do not go to bus stops because they don't want to.
The previous day Heidi went to the same stop on Uspallata Street where she used to spend the night. There was no room. There was no bed. That's the reality. Heidi, as she was called on the street. Clarita, as her family told her, Carolina Machado Abad, as stated in her documents, died abandoned by the State. She was Ecuadorian. She was trans and migrant.
https://elnumeral.com/2024/07/16/murio-una-mujer-trans-migrante-en-situacion-de-calle/
https://elgritodelsur.com.ar/2024/07/quinta-muerte-calle-dos-semanas-trans-migrante.html
https://x.com/GeorOrellano/status/1812941615742242818
