CARITAS correspondence with Military Junta over Eradication of the Villas Archivo ESPOVE

15 October 1979

To Brigadier Osvaldo Cacciatore, Intendente Municipal de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires

As part of CARITAS Bs As task in villas, in 1978 it brought up the formation of housing in San
Miguel with a group in Villa 31 from a cooperative whose objective was self-construction of
housing this project close to termination

Archbishop of Buenos Aires insisted that the Churchs concern on the matter is not a
temporal issue but a decisive element of its evangelizing task [] Housing, he said, is one of
the most basic requirements of all social cohabitation

Also emphasized the important role of the priests who work in the villas not only for its
evangelizing content, but also the social promotion that they achieve

As a result, CARITAS began to broaden its work in the villas de emergencia, requesting the
help of the local housing cooperatives, many of them formed with the advice and
encouragement of the Pastoral Team of Priests in the Villas de Emergencia

CARITAS aims to undertake a truly promotion social work but important that no pressure
or intimidation is put on such work

Agreed on 7 August in the presence of the Vicario General of Buenos Aires Archdiocese, that
all actions of pressure or compulsion on the part of the Municipalidad in the
implementation of the eradication plan stop

Despite the commitment made by the Municipalidad, we are aware of repeated and grave
operations on the part of functionaries of the Municipal Commission of Housing not
appropriate to go into detail, but a true climate of tension, insecurity and anguish with
respect to thousands of people whose fate the Municipality had promised to respect