The US government has not given them any support to repatriate them, only travel on expensive private flights.
When Libya Alfaro Sánchez boarded the plane at the Los Angeles airport bound for Peru in early March, she did not imagine that she would be stranded in her home country indefinitely because of the coronavirus epidemic.
"I feel very frustrated. We expected more help from the United States Embassy and our own consulate through humanitarian flights, but we have seen no action. ”.
Many people in California and other North American states – he says – are stranded in Peru, not knowing when they will return.
The despair is so great that a Facebook group called Americans Stuck in Peru was created that already has 5,700 members with people trapped in the Andean country. In this forum, the stranded people vent, ask for advice and support each other.
Flights impossible to pay
The only option that the US embassy in Lima, Peru gave Libya was to take a private flight with other passengers to Miami at a cost of $ 2,400 per person.
"Impossible to pay that money. That is no help, "he says.
Libya has lived in the city of Los Angeles for 25 years. She is a permanent US resident who is dedicated to caring for people in the home.
When he was told that his father was going to have emergency surgery in Peru, he did not think twice and got on a plane on March 3. "My family thought that my dad was not going to survive because he has diabetes and high blood pressure."
At that time, the coronavirus was not a public threat in the United States..
Libya spent the first two weeks of March taking her dad to his medical appointments and helping him with his recovery.
But life changed from one day to the next, when the first case of coronavirus was announced in Peru; and on March 13, President Martín Vizcarra announced that foreigners had two days to leave the country.
"The airport turned into chaos. Borders were closed and all types of air, sea and land transportation were canceled ”Libya says.
A curfew was also established for 15 days.
“I was all scared, more when after the first 15 days of closing, another 15 days came, and then they were extended to 15 more. We have already been in a state of emergency for 55 days. ”
Jobless
Libya had her ticket back to Los Angeles by March 25. But when the trips were canceled, the Copa Airlines company sent him a statement, advising him that he could use his ticket until the end of December of the year 2021.
However, she already wants to return to the United States. “My life is made in Los Angeles. I came here on a budget for a month, and with something extra for an emergency. I have already stretched the league to the smallest. On June 3, I will celebrate three months in Peru. ”
And she is worried about her work. “I have a person who is waiting for me to take care of them in Los Angeles, but I don't know how much longer I will be here. I don't know what's going to happen. "
As a result of having no income, he could no longer pay his April and May rent, nor could he give the June rent for the apartment he rents in Los Angeles. "I have explained to the landlord. Fortunately, he has decided to wait for me with the payments because I have always been punctual, and it's not that I don't want to pay him, ”he says.
In Peru, the coronavirus has hit his family. "My 92-year-old maternal grandfather caught the disease and died on May 5. ”
But her mother, brother, cousin and sister also fell ill from the pandemic. They all live together, and with them the deceased grandfather.
Her father, who operated in March, has not seen him for more than a month. "We only see each other by video call. Before weekly I was going to bring you groceries. When my maternal grandfather sick with coronavirus I could no longer go, so as not to expose him, "he says.
It is sad, he says, I am close to my family; and at the same time far.
There was no one who said that she had brought COVID-19 to her family when traveling from the US to Peru. "They tested me, and I came out negative to the virus"
Do not expose
Because her mother's house is very small and many people live there, she rented an apartment in Lima for the three weeks she was going to spend there.
"You make your plans, but now this experience confirms the phrase, if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."
Libya, who watched closely how the coronavirus killed her grandfather, says that COVID-19 is a very ugly disease. "There is an agitation in your lungs that I have never seen in my years of working with the elderly suffering from chronic pulmonary obstruction."
So ask Angelenos to stay at his house, and if they don't need to leave, don't do it. "Without health you have nothing. I do not wish anyone had the coronavirus. It is indescribable"
Libya asked the American government for help to return to the United States. "We are many stranded citizens and residents in Peru who pay taxes and need help.. Why don't they use military planes to take us back. We are talking about a great power ”.
His only hope for a return is based on the fact that the epidemic has already reached the peak of contagion in Peru, and it has been announced that the emergency closure ends on May 24.
“Here the measures against the coronavirus were stricter than in the United States. Only regular pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and markets were allowed to open. Only on Monday the restaurants began to open, but only to buy takeaway food. ”
But despite the gradual process of reopening, Libya feels very stressed. "We are in limbo. We do not know what will happen and when I can return to Los Angeles"
Ruined plans
José Paredes, a Peruvian based in New Jersey, traveled to Lima, Peru on April 9 to take a month-long vacation and visit his family.
He planned to travel to the city of Trujillo where he was born, to see his grandmother in San Jacinto, but his plans were ruined by the pandemic.
He never thought that he would be trapped in Peru, and worse still that his father would die unexpectedly from coronavirus, without him being able to attend his funerals in the United States..
“My dad was 69 years old. He was a mechanic for industrial cleaning machines. He was healthy and active when he got the virus and we lost it, "he says.
He wanted to return immediately to fire his father, but the high cost of a private flight prevented him.
But not everything was there, his father infected his mother and his only 13-year-old son. Fortunately, they are recovering from the disease.
"My dad's death affected me a lot. I have had my moments of weakness in this confinement, only at a distance"
José, 42, is a veteran of the Iraq War. He was part of the US Marine Corps for ten years.
He traveled to Peru through the United Airlines company. “They have been calling me to change my return date. I originally had it for March 31. They changed it for May 4, and then for July 7. They also told me that they are going to give me a refund. ”
He says that his military experience has helped him endure the quarantine and deal with his anxiety problem and post-war trauma.
"I start listening to music, watching television, I go out on the balcony and together with my cousin, we sing and applaud."
But she says that the lack of her medications is starting to affect her. "I can't be still, I have to be walking."
