The Unlimited DiaryIn improvised houses, with cardboard roofs, floors on the ground, precarious materials, without basic services, hundreds of families live on the banks of the railroad tracks in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico.It is not in all cases, but in most cases it is.In the La Esperanza neighborhood, around 250 families settled on the banks of the train tracks, which also pass, next to the sewage canal of the La Compañía River, between the limits of Nezahualcóyotl, on the border with Chimalhuacán.They are families that approximately 20 years ago were expelled from the ridge of Bordo de Xochiaca, where they had settled near the open-air garbage dump, to survive from the scavenging.However, with the sale of the land to Grupo Carso, for the construction of a shopping plaza, the dump became what is now Ciudad Jardín Bicentenario: established businesses and the sports city of Nezahualcóyotl, and they had to migrate two decades, to the federal zone of the train, at the end of the Esperanza neighborhood, where there are bullfights twice a day.The local government allowed them to build their shacks so that they would not be left without a roof.They were in charge of dividing the strip into plots of no more than 60 square meters each.Thus, in each of the lots, entire families live crowded into rooms of no more than two square meters.Doña Reyna Martínez, a resident of La Esperanza and who -like her entire family- is dedicated to garbage collection, remembers that the first year of the pandemic (2020) it was more difficult to get money to survive.“As we go to the houses to collect, people did not go out and there were no tips (…) sometimes we did not even have to eat;We survive with the supplies or support that some people who came here gave us,” says Reyna, who arrived on the side of the tracks 15 years ago.The local deputy of Morena, Max Correa, said that with the privatization of Ferronales, a process of disincorporation of many irregular settlements located on the banks of the train was opened and the possibility of deregulating the land.This is the case of the Benito Juárez Xalostoc neighborhood, in Ecatepec, where even the houses have been built with tile foundations and roofs, and where the train derailed a few days ago.The also president of the Metropolitan Affairs Commission of the Mexican Congress refers that in the cases of the roads that are in disuse, the liquidator of Ferronales proceeded to disincorporate in favor of those who had possession of these places, such as the Cecilia Mora neighborhood, in Tlalnepantla.But human settlements are a constant on the banks of the railroad tracks from the industrial zone from Ecatepec to Tlalnepantla.Until now, the legislator acknowledges, neither the state nor municipal governments have made a serious diagnosis of how many families and houses are settled on the sides of the roads.The Atlas of Risks should have this information, but it is not there, said Max Correa, who added that the vans are a latent risk because “we also have Pemex pipelines and the wagons transport dangerous substances such as alcohol, gas, gasoline, ammonia, among others. .The phenomenon of corruption allowed these settlements on the roads, as well as in the ecological zones and parks of common use in municipalities such as Coacalco, Tultitlán, Cuautitlán, Tlalnepantla and Ecatepec, among others.Max Correa recently presented a law initiative for risk management and civil protection with the new paradigm in the matter, for the prevention and reduction of disaster risks."We gave new powers to the Civil Protection authorities and others with this prevention approach," said the Morenista deputy, who took the opportunity to call on the municipal governments and the State of Mexico, to prevent and thus reduce the risks in the area. federal railroad.Norma Rojas Zavala arrived in La Esperanza when she was ten years old at the irregular settlement, with her parents, her brothers, also her minors.She is now 27 years old.Here she got together with Juan and now she has three small children.They survive on the salary of a machetero driver that her husband has.She knows in advance that it is an irregular zone and that they will never access social programs like Youth Building the Future."I only ask the government to help us with drinking water, to send us free pipes, because the ones that arrive they sell to us at a very high price," she says.Norma remembers that every time there are elections the candidates come to offer them help so that they vote for her party, and then they forget about them.Doña Dolores arrived with her husband and her small children at the train tracks.Now, when they are grown up, together with her grandchildren, they all dedicate themselves to the picketing or to the sale of junk in the nearby tianguis.She relates that life gets more and more difficult there.Without access to any social program or stable job, her only job option is garbage collection and its separation to sell recyclable materials."Here I lost my eye, suddenly a piece of trash entered me, it became infected and over time I could no longer see my right eye," says Dolores, whose thick Jose Manuel is disabled, "because a car threw it and now He's in a wheelchair."QUOTE “The metropolitan area of ​​the Valley of Mexico grew disorderly, without coordination and clear rules between government agencies and without coordination between the State of Mexico and Mexico City” Max Correa Mexiquense deputy for Morena(With the pandemic) sometimes we didn't even have enough to eat;we survive with the pantries or support that some people who came here gave us” Reyna Martínez Inhabitant of the tracks for 15 years.• PUEBLA • QUINTANA ROO