Strike!

Buenos Aires is in a bit of a chaos right now, due to strikes and protests that are going on all over the city. Most public schools didn't have class today as a result of all this. My volunteer work in Barrio Mitre was canceled (although, as often happens, it wasn't canceled until I arrived, so I had to travel there and back anyways).

Why all the fuss, you may ask? Because yesterday there was a protest of railroad workers, and a peaceful one at that, according to what I've heard on TV and been told. During this protest, the police opened fire and wounded a few people. One person, a young man, was killed. For obvious reasons, the Porteños are outraged.

Because Argentines are supposed to have the freedom to assemble and protest peacefully, and because of the violent nature of the police's response, there are marches and strikes all over the city today.

When I went to get on the bus, headed to Barrio Mitre, there was a crowd of people marching down my street with banners and drums, blocking traffic in protest. At one of the main intersections in the downtown sector of Buenos Aires, at Callao and Corrientes, there were big manifestations today. Flacso informed us about these manifestations and told us to avoid that part of town today, because of the possibility that the assemblies could result in violence.

When I was talking to Paola, the teacher at the community center where I do my volunteer work, she told me that a similar incident happened two years ago and there was also a huge response to that tragedy.

When things like this happen, it makes me so thankful that where I live is safe and police brutality of this magnitude is unheard of. It makes me so glad that my area doesn't see this kind of tragedy often and that nobody in my family has been affected by an incident like this.