When even the police won't go into the Villas, you can't expect the power companies to go in and try to disconnect people, their workers would get chopped up
Most likely the municipal representative you discussed this case with was being polite. What is certain is that most of Argentina, minus some popular cities and touristic locals, have an oversupply of already divided yet unbuilt "neighborhoods". Look at Zonaprop or Google maps satelite layer to see the scar of the fractioned off lotes on the outskirts of every small town and mid-size city. It is simple case of not enough demand from buyers able to spend U$D7,000-50000+ for lotes, plus also able to build a house. Many of the ones who have bought, are just sitting hoping to resell later, or maybe build in the future. Until they build, they are not required to pay the higher amount of tax that a built-up lot would require. Thus only those few homesteaders (the 10% mentioned) are paying what the municipal needs to support the area.
I can't speak of CABA, but this has not been my experience in Neuquen Capital. Private developers can purchase a large area and pre-sell the subdivided lots "en pozo". This initial injection can fund the services installation. However, when a municipality puts up the public land for individual lots it's simply left as a dirt lot without services. The first homes initially only have electricity connections available. Buyers are left with little choice than to install a septic tank for black water and electric only heating until the municipality sees enough residents to justify new gas and sewage line connections.
Not just villas. The property I recently purchased in Neuquen was previously owned by a judge here. When my electrician came in to change the wiring he found an illegal service connection bypassing the meter. The whole country celebrates this kind of "Viveza Criolla".
