Gangsters in BA?

[Lucas]

Yeah, there's tons of organized crime in Buenos Aires. Watch out for the group known as the Polis. They go by Poli-cia and Poli-ticos. You can't always spot them by the color of clothes they wear, but I've heard they're prone to wearing mustaches - the bigger the better, and in the case of one notorious member, expensive Louis Vuitton bags and enormous amounts of makeup.

I'm more worried by the opposites "gang" than the actual in power, these really are the "Gangs of BsAs", maybe now that Francis Ford Coppola is living here he can make a film of similar vein and homage as Martin Scorsese did to the city of New York.

Yeah, there's tons of organized crime in Buenos Aires.....but I've heard they're prone to wearing mustaches

Maybe that's is why one of them shave it off to desguise himself from gang association.

I just watched a documentary on the bloods and crips. It made me wonder if there were gangs here or if that's just us. Anybody know?

You would think with all the Italian immigrants there would at least be a mafia here (just kidding, anyone of italian decent, please don't get mad, my grandparent's are saltinos so i think that gives me some kind of right to pick on them a bit )

There are not 'mafia' gangs in Argentina as they're or were in USA...why? Who knows...of course there's organized crime here like they exist in any society but because the meaning of the word organization as such is practically unknown by the gangs and the people of this country that they never got well enough organized to make up to the 'mafia' status...

Now seriously, Gangs are formed were there is ignorant, bigoted cultural prejudiced racism and exclusion from the society as a whole to others ethnicity and culture, people behaving this way is because they feel fear, intimidation and exclusion from the rest, there's a sentiment of not belonging therefore the necessity to form part of something and by that closing ranks between themselves become the only logic way to be recognized and respected by their peers (humans), by agglutinating their ethnicity they keep the identity, forming unintentionally at first a gang or a sect or congregation or a ghetto to belong to, balancing with this the rejection from the rest of society for some of them this is the only way to go, some parts of these groups will melt and disappear between the next generational changes painfully fitting with the rest of society and some will go the other way to form a separate and close identity of their own.

Migrant people on this country never did have those problems, 'so far', because assimilation in this society was very smooth, fast and painless there were no differences between different cultures and what is more important, no rejection and hassling to any new culture or ethnicity, almost all of them merge together without any racial tensions in between the first generation therefore there was no necessity to form gangs to preserve identity and sense of belonging to the society.

 

[fedecc]

There is a lot of organized crime in Argentina, but no gangs like in the US.

I guess the closest thing would be the football "barras". The are organized criminal groups, the fight among each other, the have all this symbols and "codes", etc.

 

[Lucas]

I guess the closest thing would be the football "barras". The are organized criminal groups, the fight among each other, the have all this symbols and "codes", etc.

Those more than organized gangs are hooligans under individual soccer club protecting wings to balance the others club's hooligans, hardly a organized criminal group to treat the society as a whole, more a nuisance than an organized crime.

 

[dirtyauzzie]

Just to bring up the Chinese supermakets again, the new supermarket that opened a couple of weeks ago on Defensa (near Av Independencia) suffered a chinese mafia attack last week. They drove up, shot the owner (I believe he survived) and drove off. There is now always a policeman stood outside, this is just half a block away from me.

 

[AkBill]

wow I had no idea about all this stuff with the chinese mafia, and before I used to wonder why all the people in the supermarkets seem so stressed out and unfriendly.

 

[AkBill]

http://onesorryblog.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/this-just-in-all-white-people-look-the-same-too/

A story about a bunch of supermarket owners attacking some mafia guys in the airport, don't know if it's for real or not ???

 

[dennisr]

Think organized crime is equated to Politicians. Tell me something I do not know: worldwide: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/TerrOrgCrime_TBA.pdf
Argentina
As the economic and political crisis in Argentina continued in 2002, a criminal group known as "Local Connection," made up of corrupt politicians and former members of the military regime, was reportedly prospering. As a result of its unique organizational relationship between common criminals and public figures, the Local Connection, unlike other Argentine gangs, has enjoyed impunity. It reportedly controls much of what are now major industries in Argentina, including arms and drug trafficking, kidnappings, and Argentina’s flourishing industry of dismantling stolen cars for spare parts. The Local Connection is organized like the Italian Mafia in small units, or families, linked to a boss, generally a corrupt police official or someone who served in the military regime.

 

[fedecc]

Those more than organized gangs are hooligans under individual soccer club protecting wings to balance the others club's hooligans, hardly a organized criminal group to treat the society as a whole, more a nuisance than an organized crime.

Well lets see, the barras...

-They fight for club handouts.
-They often control the drug dealing business and the ticket scalping.
-They have leaders and hierarchies.
-They have "rites of passage" to recruit new members.
-They provide an "identity" to the members.
-They have inner rules and codes.
etc..

All of these clearly makes them organized gang-like groups. And as far as they being "just a nuisance", well...their track record of hundreds of murders and wounded says otherwise.

 

[gouchobob]

Don't forget the labor unions and the government. In the U.S. you had Jimmy Hoffa running the teamsters union under the auspices of the mafia. He was eventually investigated tried and convicted and sent to prison. Here you have the labor unions basically as part of the government. Many of these people are thugs and criminals. In Argentina you could argue that the government and mafia have merged to better exploit the public.

 

[JoeBlow]

because assimilation in this society was very smooth, fast and painless there were no differences between different cultures and what is more important, no rejection and hassling to any new culture or ethnicity, almost all of them merge together without any racial tensions in between the first generation therefore there was no necessity to form gangs to preserve identity and sense of belonging to the society.

Where is this?