During the early hours of 8th February 2007, a fire ravaged Villa Cartón, a shantytown built under a motorway flyover in the neighbourhood of Villa Soldati, in the south of Buenos Aires. Nearly 400 families’ homes were destroyed, and 170 people were treated for asphyxia, minor cuts and light burns.

A year on, despite government pledges, little has been done to improve the living situation of the country’s most poor and vulnerable, and the housing deficit is bigger than ever.

On the corner of Plaza and Olzabal in Buenos Aires there is a park hedged on two sides by the exposed brickwork of the adjoining buildings. It’s midday, overcast, and a light breeze is shaking the park’s only tree. Otherwise nothing, no one. Except for a diminutive little man standing on a crate, running a pole up and down a wall.

Meet Blu, one of the most innovative artists working on the streets today.

During October and November 1947, 1,500 indigenous people from the Pilagá tribe were killed in a campaign that started near the town of Las Lomitas and spread throughout the province of Formosa.

Despite the discovery of mass graves more than two years ago, the Argentine government is still refusing to recognize the genocide, and ‘official’ history taught in schools makes no mention of the fact that half of the aboriginal race was wiped out in under a month.

When the economy minister Martin Lousteau announced a new regime of export taxes for agricultural products, he should have anticipated some grumblings in the countryside.

What he probably didn’t envisage was Argentina’s longest ever farming strike, the severing of the country’s main transport arteries, and the noisy return of cacerolas (saucepans) to protests on the streets of Buenos Aires for the first time since economic collapse in 2001-2.

Boca Juniors football club from Buenos Aires are renowned for having some of the most passionate supporters in the world. Every other Sunday during the season, the concrete stands of Boca’s La Bombanera stadium reverberate in a riot of noise and colour. Now the passion of their fans has transcended the stadium, and some are taking their affection to the grave in one final act of support.

The streets of Argentina’s capital are filled with the barks, whines, yelps and smells of dogs. With a healthy proportion of the city’s residents occupying apartment buildings, the logistics of keeping large breeds content and healthy are sometimes problematic. It is for this reason that the sight of professional dog-walkers (paseaperros) is common on the roads and avenues of the metropolis.

In the Winter of 1972, the dictatorship of Lanusse was slowly losing its grip on power, and protests by left-wing organizations, trade unionists and students were becoming more and more frequent. The calls for elections and a return to democracy were getting louder. Under this backdrop a daring prison escape by political prisoners took place, after which the country would never be the same.

Nothing whets an architect’s whistle quite like a new style to practice. Over the last few years winery design has boomed, capturing the imagination of A-list architects around the world.

In the sprawling Parque 3 Febrero, by day, you will find families walking, laughing, feeding the ducks, splashing around on boat rides and strolling through the rose gardens. By night the park hosts a far more shady enterprise: transgender prostitution.

By Tom Croasdell
On the night of Monday 6th August 2007, Gonzalo Acro, accompanied by a friend, were approached by three men on a street in Villa Urquiza, Buenos Aires, whilst walking home from the gym. The trio opened fire, and left the pair for dead on the pavement.
Three days later, a spokesman at the Pirovano [...]