Re: Buenos Aires crime rate - 2

[Granadaiscool]

The point was that MURDERS are always reported, so number of murders can be used as a proxy to total violent crime rates.

Just ask the Carrascosa or the Lopez family
I am 100% sure you can kill somebody in Argentina, make the body dissapear and never get caught. Let´s say this will be a lot harder in the US

 

[Granadaiscool]

Most taxi´s wont go to La Boca after sunset neither and I am sure there are more places like that in BA

 

[JG]

Heres a warning for newcomers and your visitors to town. is a letter to the editor in last sat. BA herald. ive deleted the persons name. I hope the president is better protected.
TOURISTS BEWARE
Please warn readers against strolling around the eastern side of the Casa Rosada (the other side to the Plaza de Mayo). On October 6, I was doing just that, with my parents, when under the trees some ¡°bird droppings¡± hit us. Within 20 seconds, a man and a woman had offered to help clean us up, removed a credit card from a pocket, replaced the credit card holder in the pocket (obviously hoping that this would delay our realizing anything had been stolen) and left in a waiting yellow and black taxi.
We told the four policemen in the Plaza de Mayo who kindly stopped smoking long enough to tell us where the police station was. In the Comisar¨ªa 2da. (Per¨”) we met an Italian to whom the exact same thing had happened the weekend before in the same place, by the same man/woman/taxi/bird droppings team.
Since we spent two hours giving the police details (Incorrectly typed as a man/man pickpocket team. I didn¡&hibar;t have the energy to correct this error.), and the Italian spent two hours giving the police the same details the weekend before, I have a suggestion for the Buenos Aires smoking policemen: start conducting patrols around the eastern side of the Government House.
That way they may save over 100 hours of police paperwork a year. Also, please warn readers not to be robbed at weekends ¡ª neither we, nor the Italian the weekend before, could find a ¡°Tourist Policeman¡± in the relevant office at the Comisaria 2da!
City

 

[Granadaiscool]

That´s an old trick, I doubt it would work with people who are here some time.
best advice is probally to leave your CC at home and only bring small cash

 

[Marc]

GranandaThat's the most sensible thing (within reason) that you have posted in a very long time.

 

[tangobob]

This is nothing new. I had a similar trick pulled on me in Madrid. A guy in a polo shirt flicked cigarette ash on me and then brushed it off, while aguy in a suit tried to go through my pockets.
My point? BsAs is not that different, but statistics mean nothing when you are the victim.

 

[raemac]

I have been Buenos Aires on and off for many years. I was here in the bad old days! I currently run a consultancy that deals with thousands of tourists each year. From our website, www.buenosairesstay.com :
Start:

The barrios dealt with on this site are generally safe, I feel safer in Buenos Aires than I do in many American cities or parts of London late at night.

But! People this is a capital city in South America that is home to some of the poorest and richest people in the world and like any city, even in the developed world, if you advertise your wealth or compromise yourself then someone is going to take a lot more interest in you and your property. I am afraid to say that 90% of people, who tell me that they were robbed or conned, on interrogation, turn out to have done something stupid. It is never nice when you suffer crime and I do not mean to be flippant, but please do not be a victim of your own stupidity.

Finnish

I have been reading the various ‘threads,’ is that correct? I am astounded that anecdotes, observations and people’s bad experiences of this wonderful city require such a defence and the general tone of posts sink to the vitriolic. The barrios I write about on my website are the commercial and tourist barrios, they are policed well and if you are a sensible sort, you should not find yourself a victim of violent crime.

However, there is Buenos Aires and there is Buenos Aires. This is a dangerous city. Crime is on the increase. Violent crime and its source, poverty, are widely viewed as the major hurdles to Buenos Aires developing into one of the worlds leading tourist destinations.

There are areas of the city and provincia that most certainly are no-go areas for tourists. Even my personnel and friends who grew up and have homegrown savvy suffer muggings, one at gunpoint for $10 pesos and a mobile phone. These are not isolated incidents.

Expatriates and visitor to Buenos Aires need to hear the truth. They must be warned if they are to stray too far from the familiar tourist tracks. Those that spring to the defence of the city without offering some balance or good advice that reduces opportunity and therefore crime, do this great city disservice.

Better: Where to go; where not to go; how to avoid the con; how to avoid being a victim of crime.

We can use our long experiences in our own cities where similar social ills create crime to inform our hosts. If our hosts are too arrogant to listen to our views - that is fine. However, I think it time well spent telling people travelling to Buenos Aires and using this forum how to ‘keep it safe.’

 

[ReemsterCARP]

I've been living here for six months now, and if I take into account my own experience, what I've read, heard and seen in the local/national media and conversations with my fellow porteños, I think I can safely state the following:
If you take certain precautions the chances of you getting into 'trouble' aren't that big.
If you're foreign-looking you're most likely to get pickpocketed. It happened to quite some fellow students in random places: Microcentro, Palermo, the River Plate Stadium, the Subte etcetera. One of them was held at gunpoint during night time near the autopista seperating La boca and San Telmo.
But it seems that violent crime is generally reserved for the locals. Just watch Crónica TV for five minutes every day and you'll realize that the majority of crimes actually happen in villas misérias and/or the province of Buenos Aires. I'm not saying that nothing happens in the more affluent neighbourhoods, but when things happen there they're generally 'planned crimes', such as the robbery of a high-end store. Now I come to think of it, I can't recall any violent crime of the past few months that involved tourists and/or western foreigners (minus the robbery at gunpoint that I've already mentioned).
If I was to write a Buenos Aires crime survival guide for foreigners, this is what I'd advise visitors (most of this stuff is simple common sense, but people tend to forget that once they're abroad). Some stuff might already be in some tourist guides, but I've read too many of them to acknowledge them specifically.

• Try to avoid speaking in English (or any other foreign language) with a loud voice. Your clothes and body language already do the talking for you.
• Don't flash expensive items when not necessary. Trying to impress Porteños by showing off your wealth is like bringing coal to Newcastle.
• Ask for a ticket when buying stuff or using services and don't be afraid to do so! The only situations in which you're not likely to get one are of course when buying things on the streets or buying things on the black market.
• When paying with 10, 20,50 or 100 peso notes, make sure you get the correct amount of change, but do not worry when being short-changed 5 centavos - and politely accept the 'caramelo' (sweet) that they offer you in stead).
• More importantly, CHECK FOR COUNTERFEIT NOTES when you receive your change. Make no exception. It doesn't matter if you're buying a nice suit in Patio Bullrich or buying a football ticket on the black market, people might (un)intentionally give you false notes.
• Demonstrations can be fun to watch, but some of them tend to end in violence, stay away from them!

 

[jedard]

Sorry folks to bring this up agan here. But I think it should.
ATM Issue:
I contacted Visa International today and asked why Banco Nacion is telling us that they are responsible for these Restrictions. After talking to the monkey for 10 minutes or so I asked to speak to the organ grinder. I told this Manager, Masami what was happening and why this must be addressed by her company. She took my name and telephone number and assured me this would be looked into. I gave her the telephone number of the head office of Banco Nacion here in BA.
First and foremost is the crime rate in B.A. Can you imagine having to make 3 separate withdrawals at an ATM in front of those who want to rob, beat or murder you for your total maxiumu w/d. It can happen and will happen to some tourist or even an EXPAT.
She was very concerned then! These restrictions must be dealt with and soon. But instead we go on talking about issues none of you can change. Together we could change this, and it is a dangereous precedent someone has set for all Tourists who come here and of course, ourselves.
We should call a meeting to discuss some strategy to resolve this. By the way how many of you have called Visa International?
But in the meantime keep talking about issues you can't even ever change.

 

[Ariel]

I agree with the comments about safety. Most murders and other violent crime occurs in very poor areas well outside the expat protection zone. At the same time I have to say that there IS violent crime in the good areas - especially when the victim resists. I particularly agree with the comment about how foreigners are more vulnerable when they look foreign. Some tourists here might as well hang a big sign around their necks asking to be robbed. I can understand that a lot of inexperienced tourists might dress in shorts and baseball caps, however long term expats should try a bit harder to dress more like the locals.