Confinement in Colombia hits hard working areas of Bogota

A red cloth is hung on the window of a house as a sign of hunger, April 21, 2020 in Bogota. REUTERS / Luisa Gonzalez

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Normally, the vast majority of the population of the Colombian capital's poor neighborhoods work in the informal economy and live from day to day. But today, street vendors, artisans, service workers and all those who have lost their jobs since the start of the coronavirus epidemic depend on social assistance for food.

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With our correspondent in Bogota, Marie-Eve Detœuf

The red rags have become the symbol of hunger. To say that they need help, the inhabitants of the poorest districts of Bogota hang on their window or the door of their hovel scraps of fabric or old t-shirts. These red spots appear and disappear with the distribution of food.

#Colombia In Bogota, in my neighborhood, we are also starting to see red fabrics on the windows, which mean: "We are hungry in this house." Photo: 24.04.2020. #TraposRojos pic.twitter.com/Ghwynb8rBj

  Chloé Lauvergnier (@clauvergnier) April 26, 2020

An emergency aid plan

Bogota City Hall has put in place an unprecedented aid plan as a matter of urgency. Small pensions, from 15 to 40 euros, are distributed by mobile phones to those who are registered in the municipal registers or who have schoolchildren. Still need to have a cell phone. The rest have to wait for the food trucks crisscrossing the city.

The needs are enormous, the food still insufficient and the distribution is sometimes made out of order. The worst off are Venezuelan migrants . Dozens of them are now on the street. Here and there, residents of poor neighborhoods have blocked avenues to demand more help from the government. This means that the situation is tense. But the social explosion did not take place.

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  • Colombia
  • Coronavirus
  • Confinement
  • Poverty

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