ANDALUCIA’s left is calling for urgent action after two homeless men, one of them elderly, died this week while sleeping rough amid a brutal cold snap.
Manuel Lopez Garcia, known locally as “el Worry,” was found dead on Tuesday morning in the basement of a residential building in Cadiz.
The body of another man, aged 78 and identified only by his initials M.D.S., was recovered by police on Thursday from a street corner near Cadiz harbour.
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The deaths have stoked outrage among the city’s left?wing opposition, with Adelante Izquierda Gaditana demanding immediate measures — including a 24?hour hotline, a new low?barrier shelter, and a night?time SOS service — to protect people forced to sleep on the streets.
A spokesperson for Andalucia’s Association for Human Rights (APDH?A) said: “The street kills, we know it, and it is such a social emergency that the authorities should provide all the necessary resources to eradicate it once and for all, as it can and should be done.”
Mayor Bruno Garcia has publicly pledged to increase the number of beds available in Cádiz shelters to around 80, a figure campaigners say still falls short of the roughly 100 people estimated to be living on the streets.
The deaths come amid one of Spain’s most intense cold spells in years.
A powerful Arctic front pushed temperatures sharply down across Andalucia in the first week of January, with daytime highs in Cadiz falling to around 9-12C on January 6-8 and widespread freezes inland.
The cold front has triggered weather alerts across much of the peninsula, record?breaking electricity demand in Malaga as residents struggled to heat homes, and even snow and ice warnings in more northerly regions – conditions that have alarmed both public services and humanitarian groups.
Humanitarian organisations have responded by ramping up support for vulnerable groups.
The Red Cross in nearby Cordoba has mobilised assistance for around 2,500 at-risk people, offering everything from warm clothing to support with energy costs as part of its cold?weather outreach.
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