BUENOS AIRES BRIEFING
December 2004

News this month

Looking for suspects

Buenos Aires was briefly the centre of international attention in November after a series of bomb blasts at three banks, including two branches of Citibank. The attacks killed a security guard, injured a police officer (during the controlled detonation of a bomb), and caused minor structural damage to the banks. The bombs were unsophisticated, rigged with gunpowder of the sort that is available in fireworks. They were similar to one used in an attack on demonstrators last December, and one left in a bank in the Belgrano district in August. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Closed-circuit television cameras captured the offenders on tape, but poor image quality and covered faces make identification unlikely. The government has suggested that the attacks may be the vengeful work of those who have been purged from the police or armed forces, in order to provoke a sense of insecurity.

Sex appeal

In December the city legislature will debate a controversial bill to make sex education compulsory in city schools. The bill, proposed by deputies from the left and right, puts the city in charge of the curriculum, although it lays out certain compulsory subjects. In response to intense pressure from Catholic groups, masturbation is no longer included, but “eroticism” is, to the clear annoyance of Aníbal Ibarra, the city's mayor. The curriculum would affect students who are at least 11 years old.

The bill's advocates have met with religious authorities to try to reach a compromise. But it seems little will change the mind of the city's cardinal, Jorge Bergoglio, who has described the bill as “more fascist than could have been achieved by Goebbels”. Church authorities argue that parents should have the final say. But the bill's authors point out that many parents are unable to educate their children adequately on the subject. They were backed by the national health minister, Ginés González García, who said that more education was necessary to reduce the number of illegal abortions in the country, which he estimated at around half a million a year.

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Damned either way

An October fire killed three teenagers held in a police station in the suburb of Quilmes. Responding to the tragedy, the courts have ruled that juvenile offenders can no longer be held in police stations; the province's governor promised to comply. But the conditions in the juvenile-detention centres are scarcely better, as they are crowded well beyond capacity. In the last 12 years, the number of children arrested in the province has tripled, to over 15,000. And for every child arrested, another eight are put into children's homes because of they are suffering from poverty or abuse.

One provincial judge declared that children face a worse fate when they are not incarcerated, arguing that they then run the risk of being shot by the police. This case gained credibility in November, when a judge found two members of the provincial police force, La Bonaerense, guilty of executing a teenager. The judge then ordered an inquiry into the possible existence of police death squads in the suburbs around the capital.

A brutal problem worsens

Violence against women is on the rise in Buenos Aires, according to the general prosecutor's office. In the first half of the year there were 513 sexually motivated attacks, compared with 872 in all of 2003 and 793 the previous year. Women's groups have denounced the trend.

But disturbing figures are only part of the problem. The capital's Women's Office, for instance, received almost 11,000 calls from women who were victims of violence in the first nine months of 2004. According to some estimates, only one in ten women inform the police of sexual attacks and only a tenth of such reports result in conviction. The Women's Office has speculated that as many as 60% of women suffer from domestic violence. In response, the city council has announced that it will provide free legal assistance to women who are attacked, and launch a publicity campaign urging them to report any incident.

Hiding in plain sight

A recent visit from Prince Harry, a member of the British royal family, lured some of the more feverish members of the British press. Ironically, the prince reportedly came to lay low after a series of bust-ups with the press over lurid stories about his drunken behaviour, which culminated in a fight with a photographer. During his fortnight in late November on an English-owned ranch in Buenos Aires province, there were plenty of articles about the prince's debauched escapes to a nearby town. Local authorities fretted over his safety after other reports claimed that local criminals were plotting to kidnap him. The prince's security was duly bumped up.

Catch if you can
December 2004

León Ferrari

Until February 27th 2005

This exhibition comprises 400 works—sculptures, drawings, collages and video installations—from one of Argentina's most talented multimedia artists. The show testifies not just to the breadth but also to the complexity of Mr Ferrari's work. With sensuality, humour and violence, he often examines the nature of power and challenges mainstream cultural values.

A retrospective of Mr Ferrari's groundbreaking works from the 1960s is scheduled to run until December 15th. Local Catholic fundamentalists are trying to cancel it as it contains a series of controversial works dealing with church discrimination. From December 16th, the show will be replaced with a less contentious display of some later works.

Centro Cultural Recoleta, Junín 1930, Recoleta. Tel: +54 11-4803-1040. Open: Tues-Fri, 2pm-9pm; Sat, Sun and holidays, 10am-9pm. For more information, visit the museum's website.