On wet rains. Pandemic and violence in vulnerable populations in the Reconquista Area (Province of Buenos Aires)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced enormous transformations throughout the world; these are still difficult to describe and understand. In Argentina, the impact of the economic, social and health crisis exacerbated inequalities and modified the map of violence. In this research we set out to study whether, beyond the worsening of inequalities caused by the pandemic, the violence’s maps had been modified. To do this, we work on the criteria of legitimacy of certain types of violences and the intensities during the pandemic. In this paper we will analyze the different forms of violence that occur in a vulnerable geographical area in the district of General San Martín (Buenos Aires, Argentina), specifically the Reconquista Area. We are interested, then, in both reporting and problematizing the geography of violence in its relationship with vulnerability and especially the actions of the security forces in these social dynamics. The qualitative and quantitative data used in this article are the product of an investigation carried out between February and August 2021 that sought to reflect on mutations and continuities of violent manifestations in these spaces as a result of the health emergency produced by COVID-19. Among other research tasks, sixty in-depth interviews were conducted with neighbors, security forces and officials in the Reconquista Area of the General San Martín district (Province of Buenos Aires).