Is Argentina a safe country for tourists?

[cruizes]

Buenos Aires is much safer than ANY city or town in northern Mexico, at the U.S. border. I think.

Not true! Tijuana has had their fair share of bad publicity but it is a very nice city. A lot of the crime is that South Americans, Central Americans and Mexicans use the border to try to cross to US.

 

[Nelieta]

I travelled solo in Argentina without any problems. Yes there are unsafe areas in Bs As capital and other big cities but that is normal. Petty crimes are common especially close to big bus and train terminals. It will be sad if it is becoming unsafe because so many tourists come here every year.

 

[chris]

Then there's lots of places in the US you haven't been obviously.

Even with my few trips to the US (admittedly one of those 3 months travelling across the US) I found myself stopping at more than a few "sketchy" areas, usually for gas or similar, where the service stations served you behind bullet proof glass and/or metal cages with no option to "ring a bell" and be admitted to the store. And I knew that being a white boy in the area was not a good idea. I have yet to feel that in BA, though I haven't yet been to the most "sketchy" areas admittedly.

You didn't read what I said. I was not talking about inner city poverty areas. I was referring to Recoleta and upscale parts of BA compared to Manhattan. Please tell me where in Manhattan shop doors are locked during business hours. I know the city very well and I have never seen this. It just doesn't exist and I haven't seen it in the downtown shopping areas of other American cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco etc. A gas station in a blighted area is a different matter entirely. Why, oh why, do some expats compare apples and oranges? Can't we just take an objective look at the situation? There is good and bad everywhere.

 

[deeve007]

You didn't read what I said. I was not talking about inner city poverty areas. I was referring to Recoleta and upscale parts of BA compared to Manhattan. Please tell me where in Manhattan shop doors are locked during business hours....

Why, oh why, do some expats compare apples and oranges? Can't we just take an objective look at the situation? There is good and bad everywhere.

I wish you'd do likewise then, seems your "objective" is quite subjective.

Tell me, the stores in Recoleta that you find "locked", what sort of prices do they have relevant to the average salary in Argentina?

Then if you did compare like-for-like, are you certain you're still going to say that no Manhattan stores have their doors locked and you have to be buzzed in?

I can't speak for Manhattan, but I know for a fact that in one of the more upmarket areas of Sydney, and indeed within a huge upmarket shopping mall (so not even on the street) there are at least a couple of stores that have a security guard that needs to let you into the locked store. I would be surprised if a similar situation did not exist in Manhattan, London, Paris.

 

[texxaslonghorn]

Iv'e never seen businesses locked during store hours in Houston, Austin, Dallas, L.A., Denver, Boston, or any other large city in the US in which I've spent a significant amount of time (but, yes, some gas station attendants will have to buzz you in at night, or the place might be completely locked with business being done through a slit in the wall).

 

[steveinbsas]

Tell me, the stores in Recoleta that you find "locked", what sort of prices do they have relevant to the average salary in Argentina?

It isn't just Recoleta. Many small shops(and other businesses) off Av Santa Fe in Recoleta and Palermo have their doors locked all day...even the store selling fire extinguishers! I remember going shopping for decorative candles (priced with local salaries in mind) for my apartment in Palermo shortly after my arrival in 2006. The first store I found (on Salguero close to Charcas) was locked and I had to wait to be admitted. I also remember that several years later four stores in the same block were robbed during the day in less than a week.

I can't speak for Manhattan, but I know for a fact that in one of the more upmarket areas of Sydney, and indeed within a huge upmarket shopping mall (so not even on the street) there are at least a couple of stores that have a security guard that needs to let you into the locked store. I would be surprised if a similar situation did not exist in Manhattan, London, Paris.

A couple of upscale stores hardly compares to almost all small retail shops having their doors locked during business hours. I can't speak for Manhattan, either, but I have spent months in San Franciso, CA and Paris in the past few years. As a retail customer I never had to wait for a single shop door to be unlocked, including many upscale art galleries in both cities.

 

[deeve007]

Another factor that's also very different here with stores: The income level isn't sufficient to be able to afford various security systems that are present in even the smallest US/Australian/similar stores.

Also: "In 2001, it was claimed that shoplifting cost US retailers $25 million a day."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoplifting#Economic_impact_and_response_from_shops

With lack of security systems/cameras, plus general hopelessness of police force, maybe it's a surprise that more stores in BA don't have their door locked. Could stores in BA afford to lose anything approaching that amount each day??

So basically, the apples-to-apples thing is a bit of a mute point if you don't factor in many other things apart from just "crime is worse" in BA than any US city. Perhaps it's that catching the perpetrators that's the issue here, not a higher crime issue.

I guess in other words, stop looking at it as such a black and white issue when it's probably far from one.

 

[Amargo]

Going back to the topic of this thread, I think it is fair to say that such a crime is VERY rare. Even more considering it was so far away from Buenos Aires. I am very sorry about that and hope the murders are caught.

Some years ago I felt the same as one young Argentine girl was killed in the USA (the murder was not really Latin, as some posting here would like to believe).

The two French girls just bumped into some idiot, as did the Argentine girl of that article.

 

[steveinbsas]

With lack of security systems/cameras, plus general hopelessness of police force, maybe it's a surprise that more stores in BA don't have their door locked.

Perhaps it's that catching the perpetrators that's the issue here, not a higher crime issue.

You've hit upon two very important points. A locked door is a low cost alternative to a security system and police in the USA, Europe, and Australia have greater resources as well as the desire to catch the perpetrators.

Higher rates of crime surely occur when perpetrators don't think they have as much a chance of being caught.

And that makes Argentina (especially BA) a more dangerous place for everybody, including foreign tourists.

 

[va2ba]

The only time I think taking the subway or the bus presents a problem is when it is late at night. One night my wife and were riding the 15 at like 2 am and the bus had 6 or 7 people so it wasn't empty. We over heard the guy next to us on the phone saying that he had two tourists on the bus next to him and that he would tell them when we got off so they could find us. We hurried and got off the bus at the next stop.

You just have to keep your guard up.