Peru

Lima, October 8, 2026. The Peruvian press is treating the death of Maricarmen Abascal as an event that goes beyond a mere news item. La República writes that this 87-year-old woman, whose expulsion on September 23 "set all of Spain ablaze", "generated the advancement of elections". She died on Wednesday, October 7, at the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, where she had been hospitalized since her evacuation; the newspaper counts fourteen days, RPP fifteen.

The four media outlets agree on the source of the announcement: the Tenants' Union, whose statement says "We regret to announce that today Maricarmen has passed away" and praises her "example of struggle". According to RPP, the union adds that a "historic agreement" would have allowed her to return home, but that this solution came "too late", after a "torturing process".

La República details the history of the housing. Maricarmen Abascal had arrived in 1956 on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda street, in the Retiro neighborhood. In 2018, the company Urbagestión bought the building, deemed her contract expired and offered either the purchase of the apartment for around 250,000 euros, or a rent of 1,650 euros, compared to a pension of around 1,400 euros. She continued to pay 450 euros. The newspaper specifies that the eviction was legal: a Madrid court had initially rejected the request, before the Audiencia Provincial and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the company. Diario Correo, for its part, notes a rent increase of 275%, to 2,650 euros per month.

RPP emphasizes the scene: a woman in a wheelchair, 30 minutes to gather her belongings, evacuated on a stretcher in front of hundreds of people shouting "¡Maricarmen, no estás sola!" and "¡Asesinos!". El Comercio recalls that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for early elections on Monday for November 29, after the failure of two decrees aimed at mitigating the crisis. RPP specifies that Congress abolished them, which precipitated the election.

The mobilizations occupy the rest of the story: demonstrations in several Spanish cities and, according to El Comercio, hundreds of people camping for ten days on the Puerta del Sol, who observed a minute of silence at the announcement of the death. The newspaper quotes a phrase collected on the spot: "The debate on housing is at the center, but the cost to get here has been too high". The treatment remains factual and compassionate, centered on the trajectory of a person who has become an emblem.