Inside Argentina's Most Dangerous Neighborhood ($40 per month rent)

so we've come to this area where we're

under a huge Highway that goes through

this neighborhood some of the houses are

like built there the highway is inside a

room

there so we're going into some of the

more dangerous areas now apparently it's

best to bike through these areas so you

can get away quickly if anything

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happens what's the tattoo on your head

represent these guys all sitting in the

gutter here at doing something called

Paco drugs make him forget about any

troubl so we've arrived at this local

couple's house we have to go up these

stairs right up to the top and then

we're going to see the the living

conditions

here no they don't pay rain they don't

pay water services or any electricity

services they don't pay

[Applause]

anything he used to Banks Banks today

we're going to be venturing into one of

the most notorious neighborhoods in the

whole of Argentina this neighborhood has

been labeled many times in the past as

the most dangerous place in the whole of

the country so let's go and see what

it's like inside and see how dangerous

it truly

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is done in pris the highest

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inflation we went with machine guns and

they rob the

bank welcome to buunis arz capital city

of Argentina of course massive City Mega

City 15 16 million people absolutely

huge great to be here wanted to come

here for a long time today we're going

to an interesting neighborhood called

Villa 31 supposed to be quite the

notorious neighborhood huge sprawl

Barrios next to the skyline been told

it's quite dangerous one of the more on

edged parts of this massive City going

to be quite careful in here but also

hopefully go quite deep meet some

interesting people let's go have a

[Applause]

look okay so we're here with Lenny a lot

of you guys might remember Lenny from

Venezuela few years ago and so now we're

in buess arz right Lenny yeah finally

you came here man we're going to walk

here today into the B truno okay and

what kind of heard is this is the main

slum here in the in the capital I really

wanted to know how it is inside I want

to know how is a problem really exciting

of going inside there it's a very

crowded place where everything or a lot

of things is happening all the time a

lot of bad situation could happen here

now many local people wouldn't ever go

in here right if you don't have anything

there to see or if you don't know

anybody there you don't have anything to

do there I mean you are not going to

walk there with no intentions and you

need someone there to guide you or yeah

because easily they they recognize that

you are not from the place that's what I

hear okay I never had gone maybe it's

like working another place here in

buenosaires and it would be a surprise

so we've met a man here in Matias so

you're living outside this restaurant

here he has a trouble in childhood hard

childhood so from CH from the children

he has been uh in in this situation

living outside in the street would you

mind telling us what happened in your

childhood it happens everything what

whatever

anything parents leaving here alone abon

he was abandoned okay and do people just

give you food

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here people give him some food uh

restaurant

restaurant uh he's talking about the

police show the police the police

sometimes K him wherever he he's staying

so it's kind of difficult for him to to

be in this situation are there a lot of

people around here using

drugs no look at yeah he use a drug here

called Paco oh he uses it yeah he he um

this is it's very cheap for what I hear

and that's like a cocaine derivative

right waste product of cocaine

production from from does hako make you

feel

like drugs make him forget about any

troubles he has I mean he feels fine and

he can forget by a for a moment about

any bad situation or The Situation he's

living right now how is he treated by

the General

Public

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hisf together girlfriend there are

people who treat him good others

obviously take FR him

B Okay so we've just come to the

entrance of this neighborhood that we're

going into you can definitely feel the

atmosphere starting to change a bit it's

a bit uh sketchy feeling at times we've

met our local guide from the

neighborhood and he doesn't want to be

on camera at all so uh yeah he's going

to be showing us around but he says if I

tell you to stop filming stop filming

anyway let's go

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inside so all these cables are run off

the mainline and they just hijack the

power so nobody pays for electricity

here so we've come to this area where

we're under a huge kind of Highway that

goes through this neighborhood the the

government I think has been working on

trying to develop it to make it a bit

more safe because some of the uh

building practices here aren't the best

you can see on the other side of this

fence can't get really any closer but

you can see the huge cages on these

buildings here I've been told not to go

up in there and film cuz I asked if I

could go and get some closer shots but

they said there's some guys there that

don't want to be on camera I've never

seen cages like that in all the places

I've been in the world all kinds of

different neighborhoods and I've never

seen quite such high security so this

used to be houses and the government

came and tried to make it a bit more

like functional there's a football pitch

and they move some houses but you can

still see like some of the houses are

like built there maybe this the highway

is inside a room there uh someone who

lives there I don't know but you can see

how the high the houses are cut there I

mean they remove the some some walls and

some spaces to create all this space

they just did this because they want to

remove the people who live behind below

the highway must be very loud in like a

room like I can imagine how could be

living there and have all the cars

passing all the time I hope they don't

have a a crash near there or some car

transpassing the fence to the inside the

house

yeah right so now we're going for a bit

of a motorbike ride through the

neighborhood

go all right so we're going into some of

the more kind of dangerous areas now but

uh it's best not to uh walk through

there apparently it's best to bike

through these areas so you can get away

quickly if anything happens these guys

all sitting in the gutter here are doing

something called Paco which is like a

cocaine derivative like a cheap cocaine

but it's super sketchy they're making

pipes out of old scraps of metal smoking

off cans it's quite blatant I have to

try and be discreet with this camera but

you can

see

we just met one of our gu's friends and

uh he's jumped on a motorbike and he's

going to do some wheelies for

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us put

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hey

Madness so you can see here some of the

newer style houses the government have

helped build basically just corrugated

iron with concrete

block so we've arrived at this local

couple's house we have to go up these

stairs right up to the top and then

we're going to see the the living

conditions

here

Nick Nick the dog are

inside nice place it's two

bedrooms

oh she has three

roomes no they don't pay they don't pay

water services or any electricity

services they don't pay anything did she

build the house herself she bought it oh

she bought the house she bought the

house used to pay rent and now she used

to pay rent but now the she is the owner

of the place can I ask the

price $50,000 $50,000 wow must have

taken a long time to save

up for saving all thiseven years she was

earning like $1,000 at at that time so

yeah $1,000 it was a lot of money yeah

that's so much money a

lot I

guess okay Lenny we' come to a local

house here and we've met a lovely lady

Maria how is life living

here is from Bolivia she has been living

here from 20 years ago life here at the

beginning was kind of hard but has been

transforming into sun better so was it

quite dangerous here a few years

ago it was dangerous but with the years

the safety sensation has grown so she

Felts that he can live here without

feeling insecure can you tell us more

the specifics of what the danger was

this kind of trouble in between

criminals Sometimes some other people

came here to look for some guys

specifical guy and say of course there

are this kind of confrontation with guns

kind of dangerous sometimes but just

like any any any other place in in

Argentina that still happens yeah

especially when criminals are drunk

using drugs or alcohol problems why did

you leave

Bolivia another opportunity for her

situations there were bad she is a

mother of two she left her partner

because violence situations with with

him her partner was violent towards her

yeah she told me that she study food

technology in the university in Bolivia

but she couldn't finish the university

right now she's trying to get into work

as a bartender but she needs food

manipulation Workshop is a requirement

that the company is asking her to to do

these papers for for working with this

gracias

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this is a traditional Argentina barbecue

assado they they used to do this every

Friday Saturday and Sunday they gather

and they share all this beautiful Meats

the the Argentina meat is so good I

really really love it look at

this

isas never miss never

misser I like it I like it very nice how

is life

here

they play football together and they

gather for for this meeting because of

football football unites a lot of people

here and well they say that they likes

to live here and they are happy living

here

so so a lot of the people who were

living underneath that bridge were given

an opportunity by the government to move

into some of these houses they had to

pay for it a little bit but the

government subsidized so you can see

these cage buildings here a big upgrade

from those brick buildings right

underneath the highway honestly speaking

in Brazil Venezuela Haiti I've never

seen such harsh security in a slum or a

baros sort a flla Okay so we've met a

local man Alejandro who owns a business

here right yeah aleandra Liv before

below the highway and he was relocated

here to this buildings he owns this

place did the government helped pay for

the move from underneath the

bridge he got some help from the

government when they had to move I ask

him about how he feels living here in

this new park more clients there over

there the shop is moving is working but

not like he was before when he was

inside why did the government knock down

those

buildings the government says it was a

risk to live below the building below

below the the bridge but there are still

people living there he says that never

happens to anyone there while they were

living below the r the bridge for him it

wasn't a risk and are you happy with the

current state of

Argentina current situation here with

the economic problems what can we do

have to leave with this government

ruling but at the end they just have to

work work work and more work there's

nothing else that they can do he has his

family so he has to to work like just

like anybody else here living you have

to do whatever you have to do to to to

put your family and be and be happy with

your family this neighborhood I've heard

from argentinians it's known to be a bit

dangerous would you say that's true or

how do you

feel yes you have to be aware like any

other places you visit I mean you have

to be careful with your stuff your phone

don't don't walk with your phone or your

camera just like we are doing right

now

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ale so Lenny how does the rent or the

ownership of these houses work well for

what I hear H if you want to rent it's

complicated because they just want to

rent the owners just want to rent here

to Long people I mean if you have some

children they don't they won't rent you

because they don't it's a problem to

take you out after you

rent family rent and they're protected

by the government yeah so if you have

children it's complicated to rent here

the rent is about

30,000 pesos I guess it's something I

heard is pretty cheap if you want to buy

a house here well you buy but you don't

have any paper cuz a lot of these houses

are illegally built right yeah I mean

the these people has no owner paper yeah

so you can buy it but you don't you

don't have anything that says that it's

your only that if you live there that's

your place

[Music]

yeah so here is the bomberos we're here

with Javier who's a local fireman here

and here's the local fire station and

it's actually just two shipping

containers stacked on top of each other

are there a lot of fires in this

neighborhood they some fires in the

village sometimes but what they really

had more is people who Falls from who

Fells from the from the houses there are

a lot of people every time they had to

go as an emergency bring people that

Fells from the floors and how often do

people

fall two or three sometimes a day a day

oh wow and what do you do with people

like when you pick them

up people the first AIDS if they don't

need to take it to the hospital they

bring it here they have this health uh

Center there they need to be transport

to the hospital they call services

ambulance services there's lots of

cables which look not the best job in

terms of the electricity does that

sometimes cause

fires especially in Winter and in summer

in summer because a lot of air

conditioner are turned on so it hits um

the the the connection the cable

connection you see that this a a spider

net there of electricity cable and they

heat and of course they explode is there

a lot of crime in this neighborhood from

your

perspective this is like any other

places in in Argentina we had walked

here and we felt comfortable he feels

the same the first time he arrived here

he feels afraid of what to expect here

but at the end now he feels safe here he

come from a place that is 40 minutes

away so he doesn't live here so he has

to come here and work and he feels that

people is very good with them so why

does this neighborhood have such a bad

reputation does he

think the perspective outside comes from

the first years of the of the village of

the barri of the neighborhood because it

used to be dangerous before but now they

feel like it changed I mean they try to

urbanize people are trying to live in

more dignity I guess right so it has

strong for the the neighborhood from

what it was

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before okay so we're here with duing

who's been hanging out with us all day

we met him at the start of the day and

he kind of came along and hung out

you're a homeless man is that

correct

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he has been living since 4 years ago on

the streets he has some difference with

with his family so well he has to move

and and start living on the streets

and it's hard leeping in the streets

because it's cold sometimes especially

in Winter what's the tattoo on your head

represent

he was the woman who fell in love since

he was a child his mother he has a

special relation with with her and he

decided to tattoo her name do you still

talk with your mother she passed away

how long ago 4 years ago there's another

tattoo on the

[Applause]

cheek this tattoo means he was a de when

another div saw see this he recognized

him yeah you still a safe or that's in

the

past he read about religion and God so

he tries to do something good helping

another people every time he does

something good for others something good

returns to him and and when he says

Thief what does he mean exactly by

that yeah he he used

to Banks Banks but the transportation

money Transportation yeah the

security truck transport can he

elaborate yeah he he went with machine

guns and and they R the the machine the

the bank

transfer quto anel like how many years

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ago9 he went

[Applause]

for

he got into a situation into a gun fire

and there was a

guy no

no the police guy was

Ked and they they they C him and he

spent how many

years 20 years he went spent there and

20 years in prison oh my

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God

wow man were they done in prison

yeah all were

made my God

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man ah the police kill his partner

now he's telling me that his mother was

a

[Music]

criminal so what's quite interesting we

come out of that uh slum area over there

and just behind that building there and

you cross and then you here you have the

Main Financial District of buar is one

of the richest neighborhoods in the city

is just there as well right slam bang

next to it that neighborhood there that

we were just in we were being told that

it's safe and things and it's like got a

bad reputation but just honestly

speaking there was a lot of guys doing

Paco didn't feel 100% safe and also our

local guide said there was like specific

streets that we should be careful of

although it might might be safer than it

used to be I wouldn't necessarily call

it 100% safe really kind friendly warm

welcoming local people obviously bunas

arez is like a huge destination for

tourists from all over the world it's

not like this entire city is like

dangerous or anything there's no way

that that's what I'm trying to say there

are some parts like any huge mega City

that aren't the safest but I mean a lot

of it is completely fine and then you

know I'm not breaking news by saying

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that been one

mon

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look at

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this as you can see the reputation of

that neighborhood doesn't exactly

reflect the reality on the ground sure

it's dangerous in places and at one

point we did come across a dangerous guy

cuz our guide knew who he was so we just

went down a different street it is

somewhat dangerous but I think that the

reputation of that neighborhood is far

more drastic than the reality on the

ground but who knows I'm just some guy

that showed up and had a look around

unfortunately this is going to be the

only video I have of Argentina because

after filming this video I got extremely

ill and spent almost a week in my hotel

room just extremely sick I'm not sure

what it was maybe flu and food poisoning

or something but it wasn't good so

exploring ing more of this incredible

country we'll have to wait till next

time there's so much more to this

country obviously full of Vibrance

culture the people are incredible it is

facing an economic crisis at the moment

however the second worst inflation in

the world believe it's around 120%

inflation so the money is just losing so

much value so quickly people are really

suffering in this country so I wish

everybody in Argentina the best and hope

that your country can climb back to some

more stability a huge thank you to Lenny

for showing me around if you want to

check out Lenny's Instagram I highly

recommend it he's a very talented Street

photographer here are some of his photos

so check him out on Instagram here I

also had some leftover clips from this

video a couple of interviews I'll be

putting them up for my patreons a link

down below for that huge thanks to all

my patreons for the constant support and

thank you all for watching I'll see you

soon for another trip and in case I

don't see you good afternoon good

evening and good

night