Exodus from Buenos Aires to the Atlantic begins

Translated by Brian Schwarz

Originally published Thursday December 31, 2009 in "Pagina/12" of Buenos Aires, Argentina (pagina12.com.ar) under the heading Comenzó el éxodo a la costa atlántica

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - By 8:00 a.m. today some 70 cars per minute were passing by the vehicular control post at kilometer 32 of the Gutiérrez spur of the Buenos Aires-La Plata expressway heading to state highway 2 and onward to the Atlantic coast.

“Fortunately, for the moment there haven’t been any accidents", said chief officer José Ruiz of the Buenos Aires highway patrol.

"Overall, traffic is flowing, and the only congestion is at the 20 kilometer marker of the Buenos Aires-La Plata expressway, in Quilmes”, he added.

Ruiz recalled that “during the whole day yesterday there was a great movement of vehicles heading toward the coast that only tapered off around midnight, but [this morning] between 4:30 and 5:00 it started to increase again”.

Busmen once again cut access to Escobar following the brutal attack of a driver

Translated by Brian Schwarz

Originally published Thursday, December 10, 2009 in "La Nacion" (lanacion.com) under the heading Colectiveros vuelven a cortar accesos a Escobar tras el brutal asalto a un chofer

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - Busmen of Line 60 [in Buenos Aires Province] have decided to initiate a strike, cutting off service to certain bus routes in protest of a brutal attack on one of their coworkers whose finger was cut off during an early morning robbery attempt.

The driver’s coworkers this morning blocked transit on the northbound Pan-American Highway. The mobilization started at the Line 60 Terminal in the town of Ingeniero Maschwitz and headed toward Escobar [some 60 miles north of the capital]. Later, protesters blocked the entrance to Escobar’s town hall, causing some disorder, where they delivered a petition demanding heightened security.

Around noontime today, while attempting to call a meeting which they hoped city officials would attend, the drivers commenced another blockade. This time, the interruptions affected access to the Buenos Aires area: that of Garín (route 26) and the heart of the city (route 25). Access to the Inmigrantes bridge remained open.

The attack

Following the attack, the driver was helped by a family from the area, and then he was taken to the hospital in Escobar, where he received first aid. Later he was taken to a private clinic in the provincial division of Vincente Lopez, where he remains under observation.

The act occurred just after 4 a.m., when the driver, just a few meters before arriving at the terminal in the provincial division of Escobar, noticed two men on the bus who were apparently asleep.

After calling them several time from his seat and getting no response, the victim went to wake them up and one of the assailants took out a weapon concealed in his clothes and demanded that the driver return to the wheel and turn off the lights.

After beating him and demanding that he give them anything of value and the key to the bus’s ticket box, one of the criminals cut off the driver's finger, according to police sources.