Videos: Marcelo Tinelli, Mirtha Legrand Call on Government to Stop Violent Crime
Though Argentine businessmen maintain an almost dead silence about all things political, two of the country’s most influential entertainers recently spoke out about violent crime in the country.
Mirtha Legrand, host of an exceptionally successful and long-running daytime lunch show, called on Argentina’s president to give a nationalized televised speech to the country about crime. You can see her comments here in the following YouTube video.
Mirtha’s comments followed related comments by Marcelo Tinelli, host of the wildly popular ShowMatch program on Canal 13. Without naming names, Tinelli made a desperate appeal for government officials to do more to stop what seems to be a new crime wave.
Tinelli says his comments weren’t aimed “against anyone,” but he implicitly criticized President Cristina Fernández for her constant talk about “human rights,” implying that while she spends her time talking about human rights, Argentines are getting slaughtered in the streets by violent criminals who kill with almost complete impunity.
The comments made by both of these celebrities seem to reflect pervasive sentiment in the broader society, a society that – justified or not – has become outraged about what it feels to be complete and total government inaction on life and death issues like deadly crime.
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What a towering figure on the landscape of Argentine Television is Mirtha Legrand. Her considered opinion is such a precious commodity in these dark times in our country – lead us to security and tranquilidad Mirtha!
Here’s a little blast from the past to show just how long Mirtha has been sacrificing herself for the good of Argentina:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPVtAMxSdMU&feature=player_embedded#
Wonderful stuff, lets nor forget her immortal words ‘Todo lo que soy se lo debo al público de mi país pero también es cierto que yo les di mi vida’
Rates of homicide (2007):
Miami 19/100 000
Provincia de Buenos Aires 5.93/100 000
Capital Federal 3.92/100 000
she must have been relieved getting back to BA from the party in Miami.
… oh wait she said:
He vuelto transformada. Allá uno puede caminar sin miedo de que le arrebaten la cartera. Aquí en Argentina se vive siempre mirando hacia atrás
&:
nos están matando a todos
&:
No se puede vivir así
I dont recall such impassioned pleas in the 90s when the homicide rate of the nation reached new heights hovering between 7.22 and 9.02 per 100 000, perhaps she was too busy shopping in Miami.
Hey Hector,
Many thanks for these stats. It’s very useful to compare Argentina’s crime data (and particularly that in and around Buenos Aires) to cities and countries elsewhere. If you could add the links to the original sources for these stats, it would be grand, so that readers can go to the source and compare the figures. I may do a full post on this, if I can get enough comparable data from comparable time periods, etc.
My perception from living here is that what bothers Argentines as much as the crime itself, is the sense of impunity that seems to reign. That is, people kill or commit crimes and get away with it. The justice system doesn’t seem to work. Meanwhile, crime experts generally consider that, overall, in Latin America only around 10% of crime is formally reported to the police precisely because of the pervasive belief – justified or not – that reporting the crime will make no difference. The former (the crime itself) adds to the latter (the impunity and inefficacy of the criminal justice system) to create a terrible sense of impotence. (Of course, it’s much harder not to report murder, so I’m not sure how distrust in the justice system would affect this particular statistics, if at all.)
Thanks again for looking this stuff up. It adds very helpful context.
Saludos,
Taos
These are the sources for the figures, I cant get anything more recent for Miami than 2007:
http://www2.jus.gov.ar/politicacriminal/inicio.asp
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_06.html#m
I dont have the link but there are several articles about the unprecedented crime levels through the 90s here with figures, this passed as far as I know completely without comment from the media at the time. I agree impunity is the main problem, the levels of crime I think are fairly low for a city so large with huge wealth disparities. But the media is playing on emotion as emotion rates and the people are not looking for solutions but screaming for vengeance. Interviewing people live after they have just had a family member killed is grossly irresponsible, of course they are going to be screaming for revenge and wanting people executed in that moment of extreme pain, some of the things being said beggar belief – this country is already Colombia? The clogged judicial system and prisons, the increasing flow and use of paco and the woeful police of Buenos Aires Province with all their corruption, fiefdoms and mafias – these are the things that need attention and rational debate not screaming mindlessly for revenge. I dont want this city to be like Rio or Sao Paulo, I dont want to walk the streets in fear and I dont at the moment but without some cool heads to look at the issues clearly this could very well happen over the next decade.