In line with the reports of the Social Debt Observatory that the UCA periodically disseminates, Unicef published in a report that in Argentina 2 out of 3 are poor by income or are deprived of basic rights to education, social protection, adequate housing or bathroom, water or a safe habitat.
The drama contained in these statistical data suggests that, In our country, 7 out of every 10 children and adolescents are below the poverty line.
Is in sight. It is enough to note that 6,467 popular neighborhoods, towns and settlements throughout the country were built, which in total occupy an area three times larger than the City of Buenos Aires and where 12% of the population lives, about 5 million. of people.
It appears in the latest inventory carried out by the National Registry of Popular Neighborhoods (RENABAP), with the decisive logistical contribution of the NGO Techo Argentina and others from civil society, presented a few days before President Javier Milei took office. Almost a third of these settlements are in the province of Buenos Aires: 2,065.
From the accumulation of data on popular neighborhoods centralized by Renabap since 2017 and initiated by the NGO Techo in 2009, which they call the Survey of Informal Settlements (RAI), social shortcomings emerge that reveal a horrifying inequality.
In large numbers, 66% of residents do not have access to a formal electricity supply, 92% do not have drinking water, 97% are not connected to the sewage network and 99% receive a home gas supply. so you must buy expensive jugs or use dangerous braziers.
Besides, 87% of the women who live in these neighborhoods are responsible for the home, and only 31%, which includes transvestites, have a job with income.
origins
“More than 70% of the formation of the popular neighborhoods of Argentina occurred in a way that is known as ‘ant-type occupation’“A family or a group of families settle in a place that was abandoned, where no one is using the land, and then they call on others,” reflects Juan Maquieyra, director of the social organization. Argentine roof.
And he adds: “We only talk about popular neighborhoods when cases occur that are unusual for everyday life.”
It refers to the demonizing currents that are created in public opinion, at odds with murders, crime, drug trafficking or directly or as when they are accused of trying to live off the favors of others, pluralizing for a few who make themselves noticed.
The Catholic NGO Caritas reminds in this regard that 519 of the more than 6,000 neighborhoods are named after saints and, of them, 100 were baptized San Cayetano, the patron saint of work. At the same time, they highlight that they repeat the words hope and union a lot.
The prejudice against the villeros, on the other hand, was discredited and turned around in a report by the Observatory of Argentines for Education and the Secretariat of Socio-Urban Integration of the former Ministry of Development of the Nation, which is based on a national survey. to an exploratory sample of 540 families from popular neighborhoods with sons and daughters in primary and secondary school.
This compel, together with an ethnographic study that sought to identify the demands and expectations of these families regarding the education of their children, generated disturbing conclusions, such as that “the lack of educational, work and social opportunities for young people in vulnerable spaces contributes to their recruitment in drug consumption and trade, added to other illegal activities.”
It warns that residents in spaces where drug sales are present are more exposed to situations of violence and intimidation, in a context of confrontation between groups, families or gangs that dispute territories.
Social actors, families, and young people from popular neighborhoods who do not participate in these illegal activities suffer fear, defenselessness, and harassment from illegal gangs or groups.
The drug trade in popular neighborhoods is favored by the absence of the State and/or the coexistence of security forces with illicit activities, the document details.
“The life of popular neighborhoods is that of people who work, who celebrate birthdays, who cry and are happy for the same things as the residents of other neighborhoods, but they only make the news when something exceptional happens,” advocates Maquieyra.
Drugs
According to the survey, in one in four households (26.5%) is identified with the sale and/or trafficking of drugs in their block, block or neighborhood.
It occurs in 12.1% in the City of Buenos Aires, but in 31.1% in the Buenos Aires suburbs (and 32.8% in Greater Rosario), above what characterizes other large and medium-sized cities of the country (26.7% and 25.7%, respectively).
The increase in the risk of drug sales or trafficking in the neighborhoods is attributed to the absence of police presence or surveillance, by 36.3%. However, if it existed it would only reduce the risk to 22%.
The perception of drug sales in slums or settlements rises to 49.2%, as well as 41.2% in popular lower-class neighborhoods.
Comparatively, in middle-class neighborhoods, this risk falls to 20.3% and in upper-middle class neighborhoods to 3.9%. It is not that the problem does not exist, but its prevalence is lower, as is its visibility.
The frequency increases in the towns and settlements of the City of Buenos Aires and non-metropolitan areas, but it spreads much more in the popular neighborhoods of the Buenos Aires suburbs and other metropolitan cities.
In Greater Rosario, the presence of drug sales reaches the highest comparative values, both at the level of towns and settlements and at the general level (76.3% and 32.8%, respectively), even when there is police presence in the neighborhood. (38.6%).
As the number of deficiencies in terms of rights for social inclusion increases, the risk of the presence of drug sales and trafficking also increases: 45.2% of households with three or more deficiencies vs. to 10.5% of households without deficiencies.
Addictions
The illicit drug trade and addictions to psychoactive substances constitute linked phenomena that crucially affect human development capacities at a personal, family and collective level, as well as autonomy, security and social coexistence.
The illegal sale of drugs is a national problem whose severity and extent has been growing over the last two decades at a general level.but especially in the poorest neighborhoods, creating a socioeconomic framework that weakens social integration and the possibilities of community empowerment.
It affects the entire society, although the main victims are young people from different social classes and regions of the country, especially those socially excluded who lack social, family and/or community structures of support and containment.
Although the sale and consumption of illicit substances crosses the entire social structure, it is in the most vulnerable urban spaces where it acquires greater penetration, visibility and more serious consequences, forming a structural part of the economic and social life of vulnerable neighborhoods.
Drug dealing in popular neighborhoods is an economic activity that is supported by a rudimentary organizational network but with a lot of local power due to its widespread penetration among young people, the participation of family structures, the absence of the State and/or its coexistence with the security forces.
Given its high levels of profitability, it covers a wide set of activities and actors that operate outside the formal economy, and its agents compete with each other through violence and the recruitment of vulnerable young people, in a market without rules or regulations.
Renabap
Since it was converted into State policy 9 years ago, to promote the social and urban inclusion of those who live in towns and settlements in the country, Renabap formally depended on the Secretariat of Social and Urban Integration, although always with Techo as the executing unit.
It was established by law 27,453 of 2018 (voted by a large majority of political sectors), better known as the Popular Neighborhoods law,
Being part of Renabap not only gave the neighborhoods an umbrella of legitimacy, but it was also the first step for the State to integrate them into the urban fabric through infrastructure works.
But, in addition, its inhabitants can access a Family Housing Certificate, which, in addition to providing protection against a possible eviction attempt, allows them to have a formal address, a fundamental step to access different rights, from processing basic services, to generate the CUIT or CUIL and, with that, receive health, education and pension benefits.
Since 2021, 9% of the Country Tax has been allocated to finance this fund, which was reinforced with 15% of what was collected by the Solidarity and Extraordinary Contribution to large fortunes,” the statement recalled.
According to official data and external evaluations (CIPPEC, 2023; ODSA-UCA, 2022; SISU, 2023), the works executed through this program cover more than 1,200 projects in more than 300 municipalities.
As of June 2023, almost 20,000 new lots with services and around 250,000 housing improvements were under construction for women through the “Mi Pieza” program.
With different scale and depth, these interventions have facilitated access to public service infrastructure and housing improvement in popular neighborhoods.
Escrow
In February, the Milei government eliminated the Socio-Urban Integration Trust (FISU), intended for infrastructure works and to advance the creation of lots with services.
He based it on alleged irregularities in his administration and personalized the accusation to the social leader Juan Grabois.
For its compliance, inhabited lands that do not belong to the national State, are declared of public utility and, consequently, expropriated, would be affected.
The rule stopped evictions from the neighborhoods included in the registry until 2022 and, two years ago, through a decree, that period was extended for 10 more years, that is, until 2032.
The NGOs ACIJ, Techo and Hábitat para la Humanidad Argentina, in a joint statement, demanded the continuity of the socio-urban integration policies of popular neighborhoods and stated that “it is essential to sustain and even expand” the financing of these programs because, “often Otherwise, the situation of a large sector of the population that lives in conditions of high vulnerability will only worsen.
The action they combine is not enough. Project 7, which is an organization made up of and for homeless people, entered into agreements with the government of the City of Buenos Aires and private entities, plus the help of individuals, to make “four meals for around 400 people.” per day”, which however, for Horacio Ávila, your owner, “everything is always insufficient”.
It is based on the fact that “in the City of Buenos Aires alone, there are more than 12,000 homeless people.”
“It is a truly exorbitant number and, unfortunately, we have to say that it is increasing and there is no response from the State,” he stated.
