A disturbing story from the newspaper

While reading the newspaper a few weeks ago, I came across a very troubling story. If you would like the Spanish version, you can find it here. If your Spanish isn't strong enough, don't worry. I paraphrase it below.

Headline: They took him from downtown to leave him in a landfill

German, a 72-year old homeless man, was living on the streets of downtown Machala. He had been living this way for many years. One day, a few weeks back, a municipal employee put German in a city car and told German "I'm taking you to a better place." He actually just drove him to middle of some banana fields on the outskirts of town and left him in a pile of garbage.

German pleaded with the workers and asked them how he would get back to the city. They just drove away.

Not knowing what to do next, he stayed in that spot for several hours. Eventually a police car stopped. He asked them to take back to the city but they refused. Instead, they just dropped him at the outskirts of another outlying neighborhood.

The municipal worker who initially "relocated" German to the banana fields said he didn't want the homeless person "affecting the decoration or revitalization of the city." The city worker continued "we don't have the intention to do harm to nobody. ... Machala doesn't have indigents that are from Machala. They are always from other places." He said that he planned on dropping the homeless man in El Guabo or Huaquillas or some other town so that he wouldn't hurt the image of Machala.

Once he was discovered on the outskirts of town, German was taken in by social services. He was given a shower and a hot meal at a city councilman's house before heading off to a hospital and then on to a senior citizen's facility.

The city worker who decided to leave the man in the banana fields was suspended for one month without pay, and his actions were condemned by the municipality. I heard one report that said he carried out the act because he had not been paid for several months.