Letter from Buenos Aires

[MilHojas]

Letter from Buenos Aires

Virginia Tognola begins her series from the Argentinian capital with a reflection on the strange nature of security in the big city.

newint.org

 

[Redpossum]

Letter from Buenos Aires

Virginia Tognola begins her series from the Argentinian capital with a reflection on the strange nature of security in the big city.

newint.org

Oh, I call BS. I think she's at home in Boston and made the whole thing up.
"ranchada" ? I have never heard this one.
"Liberated Zones" I've never heard of anything like that here. In Portland, yes, but not in Argentina.

She says, "I went up to two policemen who were standing there to ask for directions. When I got closer, I saw that they each had in their hands a wad of dollars that they could barely grasp and were counting them, right there, in their service uniforms, in the middle of the sidewalk, in broad daylight."
Really? And where would these poor people get dollars with which to bribe the cops? Do you have any idea how much money "a wad of dollars that they could barely grasp" would be in 100 dollar bills? Not even a cop would be safe in public with that much cash.

No, this woman is full to the eyebrows with that odoriferous substance which falls from under the tail of the bull. She made the whole thing up.

 

[Hippi10]

Letter from Buenos Aires

Virginia Tognola begins her series from the Argentinian capital with a reflection on the strange nature of security in the big city.

newint.org

Did you write this article?

 

[Alfred_Arnold]

Did you write this article?

We don't insult our friendly news aggregator in this manner. Virginia Tognola wrote this article, no relation to Mil-hognola-----i mean -hojas.

 

[Quilombo]

I don't know if I've ever seen an "article" so deserving of the description of fake news such as this one.

So here's some thoughts:

- I've never heard of a "liberated zone", sure, a place without many cops or home to lazy cops in general (we all know how much they love to take/process denuncias)
- She supposedly moved to her popular neighborhood in 2019, but in 2021 she is asking for directions a single block from her apt? Does she not go outside? Does she not have a cell phone?
- Nobody, and I mean nobody, cops, thieves, tourists, regular Argentines, nobody, counts more than a couple hundred pesos out in the open, let alone dollars
- I'm a big guy and I once got all 100s to pay 1st and last month's rent. I was able to hold at most 60K ARS in a single hand. At $1 USD bills that's $600, at $5 that's $3,000. Hell, even if the average man can hold half of what I can in a single hand and say it was all $20s we're talking about $6,000 USD. Do you know anyone who has counted that much money in public? I've counted over 100K but that was balancing a safe at work, I would drop cash off in the pneumatic tube the second I hit 1K USD
- She's afraid of crime, says criminals are taking over neighborhoods, and laments that cops are called rats, but she belongs to is one of those fake "popular" workers movements that Kirchnerists like Juan Juan Grabois leads? They're not really fans of cops or the "out of control crime" narrative so I'm not sure what's going on with her, but I'm incredibly suspicious as to what is trying to be spun here, and I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume it was either taken out of context or poorly translated from Spanish to English by another person

 

[Hippi10]

We don't insult our friendly news aggregator in this manner. Virginia Tognola wrote this article, no relation to Mil-hognola-----i mean -hojas.

Hey! I did not insult anyone. I was about to say I really like the article.

I do have heard the term ¨liberated zone¨ and it exist. This term is mostly used in place where there is no police presence at all such as Villa 31. I can totally understand her angle, but life is still beautiful.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[antipodean]

Hey! I did not insult anyone. I was about to say I really like the article.

I do have heard the term ¨liberated zone¨ and it exist. This term is mostly used in place where there is no police presence at all such as Villa 31. I can totally understand her angle, but life is still beautiful.

Thanks for sharing this.

While not exactly recommended as a free walking tour destination for gringos, Villa 31 has a sizable police presence. As far as villas go, at least in recent years, it is one of the “nicer” and “safer” ones as with most in CABA (only Bajo Flores had Gendameria looking after security due to heavy Narco and arms trafficking activity up until September, when they were unexpectedly recalled by Anibal Fernandez.)

Here in the city the villas at least have a strong police presence and many cameras around the access points, something you rarely see in the Province... There the term “zona liberada” is more commonly used by Argentines to describe the (in)security situation which it is much worse, regardless of whether it’s an area that has actually been deliberately cleared of police to enable narcotrafficing, for “idealogical” reasons to avoid “sigma” or simply due to insufficient and inefficient resources.