inseguridad is a word that you hear often in Argentina, whether it is plastered across the front page of your paper, thrown from the politician’s pulpit or grumbled between two grandmothers at a café. You’ve probably heard it even more recently.
Bus driver unions have protested against rising crime by shutting down public transportation, leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters stranded in the city. A so-called “lynch mob” beat an 18-year-old to death after he stole a purse in Rosario, and ever since the story made the national headlines, reports of these “lynching” incidents have been multiplying all over the country. The governor of Buenos Aires, Daniel Scioli, has called a state of emergency to start his own war on crime. All of these instances indicate a public perception of crime that, while it certainly is on the rise, is drifting dangerously far from reality.
The reality is that Argentina has a “Europe-like” murder rate that ranks among the lowest in the continent, according to a report released earlier this month by the United Nations. At 5.5 murders per 100,000 people, Argentina ranks behind only Chile and Cuba for the lowest murder rate in Latin America. The three countries have rates that are “stable and lower, which gives them homicide profiles closer to those of European countries,” according to the report.
Still think Buenos Aires is too dangerous? The city’s murder rate is ranked third lowest among populous cities in North and South America, falling behind only Toronto and Santiago, and just edging out New York City. Yes, you read correctly, more people are murdered per capita in the Big Apple than in Buenos Aires.