In the Argentine Republic of these last years the indexes of offences and the crime rate have grown in an alarming way; besides robberies, attacks and murders, new ways of delinquency have joined in: the express kidnapping, that consists in keeping an individual held while a ransom for him is requested; during that time the hostage is used to obtain as much cash as possible through the use of the credit and banking cards that he carries with him. This operation takes two or three hours, until they agree with the family upon the amount to be paid and the place where the ransom is to be collected.

The proliferation of homeless illegal settlements surrounding high purchasing power neighbourhoods and urban centres with great economic activity make the police task even more difficult because these type of kidnappings turn out to be highly efficient as these places have turned into effective hide-outs for the criminals, allowing them to quickly disappear from the places where the crimes have been committed and being excellent spots to hide the victim.

Those neighbourhoods are true “caves” where, at times, the police itself do not dare to go in for fear of the aggressiveness of its inhabitants. Rescuing a kidnapped person from the “slums” means, literally, risking your life. These slums are small cities inhabited by countless armed criminals, there the police force is outnumbered. The journalists have stopped covering these proceedings because the attacks and thefts of their television gear or cameras, as well as their personal belongings and even their clothes, had become something habitual.

Coincidentally, rapes have risen not only in places far away from the suburban areas of Buenos Aires but in urban railway terminals and in broad daylight. Recently, The Security Minister for the Buenos Aires Province conveyed the order to destroy the criminals’ photograph files kept by the police, a measure that will hinder from now on the identification of the criminals.

Kirchner administration’s penal project, contrary to what it might be thought, legalizes the criminal actions of minors and increases the imputable age of some offences, when there is evidence of a growing tendency of youngsters aged 12 to 16, taking part in violent street incidents. Among many other modifications it eliminates the punishment of serious offences such as corruption of minors, the production and possession of drugs for personal consumption, softens the penalties of rapists and excludes the idea of “recidivism”, recognized by the universal legislation.

According to Juan Carlos Blumberg, an engineer father of a young man of 24, murdered after an express kidnapping, “the present authorities are abolitionists of the law. I believe this project was conceived in the prisons by the prisoners themselves”. Since then, Blumberg has devoted his life to fighting for the improvement of public security through a foundation that helps the victims of crimes, does research work on the subject and has brought to Argentina international experts from Europe and United States, who have contributed to this cause with reports on the techniques used worldwide in the struggle against crime.

Nevertheless, the government seems to have a tendency in favour of the original legal conception of the judge of the Supreme Court of Justice, Eugenio Zaffaroni, appointed by this administration, whose doctrine maintains that taking somebody else’s car that is parked on the street is not a theft, as it can be considered as an “abandoned” good on a public road.

The polls show that security is the population’s highest concern, even before unemployment, but the authorities still refuse to go after delinquents and harden the penalties.

* María Zaldívar is a TV journalist from Argentina and Bachelor of Political Science (UCA, Catholic University of Argentina)

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