“This line is mine”, that’s what a street vendor told a young man who was trying to earn a few pesos by selling Billiken candy on the Buenos Aires subway. The confrontation was captured on video and published by the outlet El Impacto, and within a few hours it set social media ablaze.
What looks like a fight between two people in a train car is, in reality, the visible face of something much more structured. In the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, there are organizations that have been operating for years in public transportation and decide who can work, on which line, and under what conditions. If someone tries to make a living without going through that filter, threats and physical assaults are the response. There is no union or contract, but there is territory.
The episode reignited a debate that the economic crisis is making urgent again. While thousands of people are looking for any way to generate income, some mafias block even that way out. How long will the authorities keep looking the other way?
