Mazatlan senior citizens denounce discrimination

Mazatlán, Sinaloa (May 2, 2020).- Elderly people suffer the most during the quarantine due to the Covid-19 coronavirus, not only because they are the population most vulnerable to this disease, but also because sanitary measures marginalize them, and their situation of abandonment places them on the ‘tightrope’, and most of them doubt getting through the contingency without suffering irreversible damage to their health.

Besides the fear of catching the coronavirus, many of them have to face hunger and discrimination, and the worst thing is that the vast majority of them suffer from chronic degenerative diseases.

Ramiro Rodríguez Castañeda, 72 years old, lost his job as a parcel carrier with the contingency plan more than 40 days ago, at first they were given weekly support of 500 and 600 pesos, but as the quarantine has progressed, it decreased to 400 pesos and currently he receives 200 pesos every Monday, an amount that is not enough for him and his wife Leonor Hernández, 67.

Juan Antonio Sánchez Sarabia, 74 years old, goes out every day to the street to collect pet plastic, aluminum, scrap metal, and other recyclable materials to get at least 40 or 50 pesos to buy tortillas and beans, he walks on foot with 2 big plastic bags on his shoulders, across 3 or 4 neighborhoods until reaching the collection center, where they pay 2.50 pesos per kilo of plastic, 14 pesos per kilo of aluminum and 1.50 per kilogram of scrap metal.

Another case is Ramón González Pulido, 81 years old, who lives alone in the Jaripillo neighborhood, he has a Social Security pension of 3,200 pesos a month, but he complains about the discrimination suffered by senior citizens in Mazatlan since they are not allowed to enter either commercial stores, government administrative offices, not even banks, which further marginalizes them and complicates their survival in these times of crisis.

Source: OEM

The Mazatlan Post