Here's a little information about villas:
I employ someone who was born and grew up in San Isidro's infamous Villa La Caba, one of the worst in BA. She was able to move away, but her mother and sister still live there. Luckily, near the outer edge and not in the center, where the criminals are. They never venture more than fifty meters away from the street, as the passages become more and more dangerous as they go deeper into the villa.
The police won't enter the villa unless in pursuit of a specific criminal sought after for some high profile crime, such as a policeman's murder, a street shootout, or a kidnapping.
In short, they go in only when forced by public outrage. Otherwise, they wisely stay outside. They are not paid enough to risk their lives pursuing petty thieves. A rookie policeman makes as much as an apprentice bricklayer, and out of his miserable salary must pay for his uniform, is gun, and his cell-phone.
Villas don't pay for electricity. The power companies say meters placed inside villas were regularly stolen or vandalized, and refuse to put them back in. Instead, they put a meter at the entrance, and neighbors run their own connections from there. The cost of the power bill is split among regular consumers, and the charge in their bills is disguised as something akin to "Decreto No. 122/427-C", and listed among a whole slew of assorted fees and taxes like IVA, etc. This "Decreto" is about 20% of my power bill total. I discovered this only because I got curious about all those additional charges, phoned the power company bill in hand, and got an explanation of each individual item.
I believe about 70% of villeros are honest, hard working people who have nowhere else to live, and are the first victims of the criminals who constitute the remaining 30%. My cousin is a social worker and regularly goes into the villas to organize after-school activities for children and assorted courses for their mothers. She's escorted from the bus stop to the schoolrom by a group of mothers, and then escorted out again. These mothers know exactly which alleys to avoid to get her safely in and out of the villa.
Villeros pay no taxes, and have no running water or sewage lines. A few months ago another cousin, an architect who works for the BA government, disguised himself as a gas inspector to survey Villa 31 building by building. Halfway through the survey the villeros discovered who he was, but instead of kicking him out they helped him do the survey. There are five story buildings in that villa, built against code and highly dangerous, and the city is trying to do something to improve safety.
There was an interesting a piece in La Nacion about this survey - I'll try to find the link.
I employ someone who was born and grew up in San Isidro's infamous Villa La Caba, one of the worst in BA. She was able to move away, but her mother and sister still live there. Luckily, near the outer edge and not in the center, where the criminals are. They never venture more than fifty meters away from the street, as the passages become more and more dangerous as they go deeper into the villa.
The police won't enter the villa unless in pursuit of a specific criminal sought after for some high profile crime, such as a policeman's murder, a street shootout, or a kidnapping.
In short, they go in only when forced by public outrage. Otherwise, they wisely stay outside. They are not paid enough to risk their lives pursuing petty thieves. A rookie policeman makes as much as an apprentice bricklayer, and out of his miserable salary must pay for his uniform, is gun, and his cell-phone.
Villas don't pay for electricity. The power companies say meters placed inside villas were regularly stolen or vandalized, and refuse to put them back in. Instead, they put a meter at the entrance, and neighbors run their own connections from there. The cost of the power bill is split among regular consumers, and the charge in their bills is disguised as something akin to "Decreto No. 122/427-C", and listed among a whole slew of assorted fees and taxes like IVA, etc. This "Decreto" is about 20% of my power bill total. I discovered this only because I got curious about all those additional charges, phoned the power company bill in hand, and got an explanation of each individual item.
I believe about 70% of villeros are honest, hard working people who have nowhere else to live, and are the first victims of the criminals who constitute the remaining 30%. My cousin is a social worker and regularly goes into the villas to organize after-school activities for children and assorted courses for their mothers. She's escorted from the bus stop to the schoolrom by a group of mothers, and then escorted out again. These mothers know exactly which alleys to avoid to get her safely in and out of the villa.
Villeros pay no taxes, and have no running water or sewage lines. A few months ago another cousin, an architect who works for the BA government, disguised himself as a gas inspector to survey Villa 31 building by building. Halfway through the survey the villeros discovered who he was, but instead of kicking him out they helped him do the survey. There are five story buildings in that villa, built against code and highly dangerous, and the city is trying to do something to improve safety.
There was an interesting a piece in La Nacion about this survey - I'll try to find the link.
). But some type of social welfare network and services to assist people in getting on their feet.