The night-walkers of Uganda

Fearful rich keep poor at bay in Buenos Aires
Level 1
Elementary
Key words
1
Find the information
2
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1. How many new estates have been built around Buenos Aires?
2. What percentage of the people of Argentina are still poor?
3. When did the economic crisis in Argentina begin?
4. When did the economy begin to recover?
5. How many square metres could £40,000 buy in the centre of Buenos Aires? 
6. How many square metres could £40,000 buy in the suburbs?
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Fearful rich keep poor at bay
Uneven economic recovery is polarizing society, 
and Buenos Aires’ well-off are seeking peace 
outside the city. 
Rory Carroll in Buenos Aires 
April 25, 2007
 
In the suburbs around the Argentine capital 
Buenos Aires you find estates full of expensive 
houses with gardens and swimming pools. When 
you look at these rich estates, it is difficult to 
imagine that just five years ago Argentina was 
in the middle of an economic crisis. Millions of 
people lost their jobs and their savings. There 
was a dramatic increase in violent crime. But 
today if you visit the suburbs of Buenos Aires you 
find new cars parked outside expensive houses. 
To the surprise of many people, the economy of 
Argentina is growing stronger again. 
But there is a problem in these rich estates. 
They are closed communities protected by high 
walls and uniformed guards with guns and two-
way radios. Argentina has recovered but it is 
different. More than 400 new estates have been 
built around Buenos Aires. 300,000 people live 
in these estates and if you don’t live there you 
have to show ID to a security guard if you want 
to enter. 
“There are no poor people here. That’s one 
reason why people like it,” says Ramiro Figueroa, 
30, an estate agent who lives in Tortugas about 
an hour by car from the centre of Buenos Aires. 
“I love it here. Everything is secure. I leave my 
windows open at night.” You can also find closed 
estates like these in the new South Africa, as 
the middle classes try to escape from crime in 
the city centres. People are now worried that 
Argentina might become a polarized society like 
South Africa or Brazil.
The economy is stronger now but 40% of the 
people of Argentina are still poor. You can see 
this in the shanty towns around Buenos Aires. In 
the tourist areas you can see beggars sleeping in 
shop doorways and children beg for money from 
cars stopping at traffic lights. Many of the people 
living in the closed estates do not see these 
things, says Celina Murga, 34, a film director. 
“The children who live in these places are very 
different from others; they don’t know what the 
real world is like.” She is making a film about 
children in the closed estates. “I want to show 
that this is a social crisis,” says Ms Murga. 
Argentina’s economic crisis began in December 
2001. At first both the middle class and the 
poor were angry with the government and the 
financial institutions. The middle class lost 
their businesses and the poor lost any savings 
they had. Everything changed when gangs of 
criminals started attacking people in rich districts 
of Buenos Aires. People thought that crime was 
out of control. Hundreds of thousands of people 
protested after the kidnap and murder of a young 
man, Axel Blumberg. When the economy began 
to recover in 2003, more and more people moved 
to closed estates. You can see the high walls of 
these estates when you drive along the 10-lane 
motorways out of Buenos Aires. 
Foreigners are now buying apartments in central 
Buenos Aires. They believe that it is a good 
investment and a good place to live. Europeans 
and North Americans own about 30% of the 
properties in the city centre. The economic 
recovery is a dramatic change from the dark days 
of 2002. Now the government is more popular 
and many people feel more confident. But banks, 
supermarkets and restaurants are still leaving the 
city centre and moving to the suburbs. 
People living in the closed estates say that they 
are happier there than in the city centre. Connie 
Burgwardt, a 40-year-old lawyer, moved two 
years ago to Santa Barbara, an estate 16 miles 
north of the city. She says he has a wonderful 
social life there. Her parents and her friends live 
nearby, and every weekend there’s a barbecue or