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http://www.asafeworldforwomen.org/economics-poverty/ec-europe/3292-amaia-egana-update.html

 

Amaya-Egana-and-husband

Amaya Egana and her husband, before her suicide over home eviction.

Spain bank halts evictions after Amaya Egaña suicide

Sources:  EL Pais | The Inquisiter

The suicide of Amaya Egaña just minutes before she was going to be kicked out of her foreclosed home has led to a temporary freeze on all evictions by Kutxabank, a merger of three Basque savings banks. Another regional lender, Caja Laboral Ipar Kutxa, had previously decided to do the same.

Public protests against the banks grew in intensity Friday, after Amaya Egaña’s death was reported by the media. Thousands of people took part in a spontaneous march in Barakaldo, the town where the former Socialist councilor lived, and over the weekend several bank branch offices were spray-painted with the word “Murderers.”

In a two-paragraph press release, Kutxabank chairman Mario Fernández said he had “issued instructions for the [bank] to immediately suspend all eviction procedures” until new information emerges on a mortgage legislation reform being hammered out jointly by the ruling Popular Party and the opposition Socialists.

However, Banco Popular chairman Ángel Ron warned that a legislative change would end up “rewarding” defaulters, harm the majority of mortgagees who pay religiously, and hinder economic recovery. However, he added that his bank only had 17 evictions in the last three years and always reached last-minute deals with defaulters.

There have been more than 350,000 evictions in the last four years in a country with extremely high home ownership levels. With the EU forecasting six million jobless Spaniards by 2013, growing numbers of people will foreseeably be unable to meet their mortgage payments.

Cries of "Guilty, Guilty"

Fifty-three-year-old Amaya Egaña, a former Socialist politician, jumped from her sixth-story balcony while a legal team waited to foreclose on her home. The representatives were from La Caixa Bank in Barakaldo, Spain and were forced to call a locksmith when Egaña didn’t answer the door.

As they entered the home, the agents found the victim standing on a chair right before she jumped from the balcony.

Egaña was found alive, but paramedics were unable to save her. She and her husband had an original mortgage debt of 164,000 euros ($208,476), but that amount quickly rose to 213,000 euros ($270,765) because of interest payments and other charges. Their home had been auctioned for 190,000 euros ($241,528).

Amaia Egana's suicide came 15 days after 53-year-old Jose Luis Domingo hanged himself shortly before bailiffs came to turn him out of his home in the southern city of Granada.

After the latest suicide, hundreds of people demonstrated on Friday in Madrid and in the victim's municipality of Barakaldo.

With cries of "Guilty! Guilty!" and "Shame! Shame!" the Madrid protesters denounced banks like state-rescued lender Bankia for continuing to evict homeowners struck by unemployment and the eurozone crisis.

A banner reading "credit scam" could be seen hanging next to Caja Madrid -- part of the Bankia group -- as the protesters held a minute's silence for the dead woman.

Debt-struck homeowners have been camping outside Caja Madrid with mats and sleeping bags since October 22, demanding they be spared eviction and have their debts renegotiated.

Last month, a group of top magistrates released a report denouncing the trend of forced evictions, which they said have risen by a fifth this year and totalled 350,000 between 2008 and 2011.

They complained of "extremely aggressive judicial procedures against debtors" who "find themselves defenceless in a crisis that they did not cause."

Rajoy said Friday he hoped that the talks with the opposition would include discussion of a "temporary halt to the evictions which are hitting the most vulnerable families."

He is also seeking ways to make the banks better apply their code of conduct, to renegotiate debts and allow people to remain in their homes. "It's a difficult subject and I hope we will soon be able to give good news to all the Spanish people," Rajoy said.

The eurozone's fourth-largest economy, Spain has been mired in recession since last year, building up a record-high unemployment rate of more than 25 percent.

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Subject: Spain - Evictions from Home - Protests - Women's Pain

 

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SPAIN - EVICTIONS FROM HOMES - PROTESTS - WOMEN'S PAIN

 

Oviedo, Spain - Photo - Eloy Alonso/Reuters

 

http://www.euronews.com/2011/07/21/spanish-activists-protest-at-eviction-laws/

 

A wave of protests against the eviction of unemployed people from their homes is sweeping across Spain. The country’s foreclosure process is among the harshest in Europe. When mortgage debtors cannot make their payments, they are not allowed to hand the keys to the bank or declare themselves bankrupt. Instead they are evicted but still liable for the full amount of the loan.......

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