An interesting local occurrence this week that's worth telling.
Just beyond the city limits, to the Westerly direction there is a poorer suburb where the interstate commercial train lines pass through between the port of BA & the country towns, usually carrying produce for export (e.g. beef).
It's developed as a light-industrial area but there is a shanty-town that has sprung up nearby there recently. The shanty towns are mainly populated by non-Argentinians, people from other poorer South American countries that come down to BA in search of work. Being largely illiterate, their work prospects are limited, consequently many of these young males collect into loosely formed gangs, roaming around in search of prospects=trouble. The common thought is that their main source of income comes from busking as jugglers at stop-lights, petty theft & pick-pocketing the hapless tourists. As lousy an existence as it seems to us, this is still better than the impoverished alternative they left behind!
This week, there was an armed holdup of a train heading out from the port. A shootout with the local cops left 1 young man dead & several wounded.
This is the 2nd holdup on this trainline in 3 weeks.
The 1st time, the 'banditos' got away with a large amount of flour. Public opinion was that it was a crime of hunger & therefore apprehensively viewed with some compassion, stirring up public debate. (There's a federal election here in October so all politicians are jockying for position.)
This time, it was auto parts. Hhmmm?? Auto parts. A whole trainload of them! Now the assessment has changed. Given that the banditos were well armed & that this particular load was targeted, being (serial-coded) items that cannot be passed as quickly or seamlessly into the community as food, the criminal cops now figure there's more to this than just an opportunistic hit by the shanty boys. Duh!
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