BUENOS AIRES BRIEFING April 2005

News this month

Something in the water?

A court-ordered investigation, initiated in 2000, has found widespread radiation contamination in the water just outside the capital. Around 2,500 hectares are tainted, and 36 wells out of 46 tested hold water that is unfit to drink, according to a court-appointed geologist. Some 1m people live around the contaminated area. The main culprit, according to this study, is the National Atomic Energy Commission facility in Ezeiza (where the capital's international airport is located).

This has highlighted the vulnerability of the city's water and sewer systems, especially in the rustbelt around the city. Over half the residents in Greater Buenos Aires do not have proper sewers, using instead cesspools that contaminate the water. This, together with local industry, is responsible for pumping pollution into the soil. The Nuclear Regulatory Authority has criticised the study, denying that there is a problem with the water. But environmental groups and local activists are not convinced, particularly given the unusually large number of cancer cases in the area. Sales of bottled water have reportedly doubled in the area since the report became public.

Signing off

Aníbal Ibarra, leader of the city government, is having trouble with his campaign to stage a referendum on the future of his administration. He is still struggling to regain public support after the December fire at the República Cromañón nightclub, which killed 193 concert-goers. Facing charges of municipal negligence, Mr Ibarra planned to renew his leadership with a citywide vote, which opinion polls indicate he would probably win.

But while the capital's residents may not want to remove their leader, neither are they much interested in putting the matter to a vote. For the plebiscite to go ahead, Mr Ibarra's allies have to raise 520,000 signatures; they have managed less than 200,000 in two months of campaigning, leading Mr Ibarra to publicly lament that the requirement was “almost impossible.” Still, he plans to personally help in the drive for signatures, and he has hopes that Néstor Kirchner, the country's popular president, will throw his weight behind the campaign. But with relatives of the victims pressing for charges against city council officials for the nightclub disaster, Mr Ibarra's political standing will take some repairing.

Stand up and be counted

In April, a local university will take a census in parts of the capital and in the province of Santa Fe to help determine the number of Argentines of African descent. The project, funded by the World Bank, will be the first such exercise since 1887, when around 2% of the Buenos Aires population declared itself black. That figure had been much higher at the beginning of the century, due to the importation of African slaves by the Spanish colonial administration. At that time, almost a third of Buenos Aires's population was described as black.

There are many theories as to why Afro-Argentines have all but disappeared. Some historians reckon that most black men were sent to fight and die in wars against Paraguay and Brazil, and that the remaining black women married white men. Subsequent waves of immigration from Spain and Italy certainly swamped the country with plenty of white men. Others argue that the city's Africans were particularly vulnerable to epidemics, including an outbreak of yellow fever at the end of the 19th century, because of their impoverished living conditions. But some historians believe there are more blacks than have been officially acknowledged, and that their “disappearance” owes much to government attempts between 1880 and 1930 to “whiten” Argentine history. The new census aims to redress this.

Blood on the tracks

A rail accident in the Palermo district of the capital injured over 140 train passengers in March. The crash occurred as one train ploughed into the back of another that had stopped at a signal. Luckily the first train was moving relatively slowly, and neither train was full since the accident took place mid-morning. Fortunately neither train fell from the five-metre embankment where the accident took place. Most passengers suffered only slight injuries.

The accident was the most serious in recent years, but was far from unique. In the last decade there have been nearly 100 train collisions, resulting in 238 injuries. A large number of these have been caused by signal failures, due to a lack of investment in rail infrastructure. The private rail company alleged that the latest incident was caused by a driver ignoring a signal. The man's union refused to confirm this, but emphasised the rail company’s poor management and investment.

Saint Patrick go home

City centre residents have appealed to the city government to close down the annual Saint Patrick's Day celebrations, or at least move them to a more appropriate site. The festivities, which took place in late March, have taken off in recent years, promoted mainly by the brewers of Guinness beer. The downtown area is home to plenty of Irish-theme pubs, and festival organisers have been working to promote Irish culture. But for most revellers, the celebration is simply an excuse to stand on the streets and drink enormous amounts of beer for several days.

With the city's clubs shut for the first two months of the year in the aftermath of the tragic fire in December at the República Cromañón nightclub, the capital's residents were apparently keener than ever for some revelry. The holiday's main day attracted over 50,000 people this year, up from around 30,000 a year ago. But locals complained of festive participants urinating and carousing on their doorsteps, before leaving around six tonnes of bottles and a similar amount of paper and plastic on the streets.

Catch if you can

April 2005

Seventh Buenos Aires International Independent Cinema Festival

April 12th-24th 2005

The capital's annual independent film festival promises to be the most wide-ranging ever this year, with more than 400 films by established and emerging filmmakers from around the world. The official competition features 13 films from 11 countries, judged by an international panel. Andreas Kleinert, a German director and one of the panellists, will also present a retrospective of his work. Monte Hellman and Caroline Leaf, two American directors, also get retrospectives, and there are sections that review the best of German, Canadian, Armenian and Central Asian cinema.

As ever, the festival is a showcase for Argentina's promising crop of young auteurs, who have garnered increasing international attention. The appointment this year of a new festival director, Fernando Martín Peña, who also produces the cinema programme of the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art, MALBA, is evident in a strong selection of documentaries and films dedicated to cinema history. For the indefatigable few, there will be a range of related events, from conferences and book presentations to the city's second festival of video clips.

Various times and venues. For more information, see the festival's website.

More from the Buenos Aires cultural calendar