Security & Strategic Review - April 2004

The late-March kidnapping and murder of young Axel Blumberg, 23, in an affluent suburb of Buenos Aires, touched a raw nerve among the public. Led by the victim's father, Juan Carlos Blumberg, 130,000 people took to the streets of Argentina's capital on 1 April to demand immediate action against a crime rate that has become intolerable - starting with legislation to introduce much harsher prison terms. Only the scale of the protest distinguished it from several others over the past two years. The response from officialdom was swift, but also replicated recent recipes, which have not proven particularly efficacious.