“[I]n a context of few job opportunities and skyrocketing prices, the poor

believed that dwindling state support indicated that the government had ceased
to protect them.”

Unprotected: Why Argentina’s

Poor Turn to Peronism

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Javier Auyero

A
rgentines living below the official poverty Cristina had succeeded her husband Nestor as
line have once again supported a Peronist president upon his death in 2007. He had success-
candidate for the country’s highest office— fully steered the country out of its 2001 economic
and, some would say, propelled him to victory. meltdown, after Argentina defaulted on its mas-
What happened during the four years of Mauricio sive foreign debt, the peso collapsed, and the pov-
Macri’s presidency that caused many of the urban erty rate reached a record high of 54 percent of
poor who once hesitantly supported the center- the population. By all accounts, Nestor Kirchner’s
right incumbent to return to Peronism and vote welfare policies (from cash transfers to subsidized
for his challenger, Alberto Fernández, in the Octo- services) worked well to improve the daily lives of
ber 2019 election? the urban poor during his tenure.
No single factor can explain the voting decisions When Macri took office in December 2015, he
of such a large swath of Argentine society. Poor promised zero inflation and zero poverty. He failed
people’s lives, just like everyone else’s, are complex on both counts. During his presidency, the pov-
and diverse. And so is their electoral behavior. At- erty rate rose from 29 percent to 34 percent, and
tempting to reduce the heterogeneity and intricacy inflation doubled to an annual rate of 54 percent.
of poor people’s political action to one single ele- Foreign debt also more than doubled. In Septem-
ment (be it deprivation, violence, protest, or cli- ber 2018, Macri negotiated a $57 billion rescue
entelism—to name just a few of the tropes that are package from the International Monetary Fund,
regularly used by the Argentine mainstream press) which made the loans conditional on reductions
is bound to produce misrepresentations. in the fiscal deficit. This resulted in the implemen-
Macri, a prominent former businessman and tation of austerity policies—mainly cutting subsi-
mayor of Buenos Aires, won the presidency in dies to public services. Combined with recession
2015, beating Daniel Scioli, who was then the Per- and inflation, this proved disastrous for low- and
onist governor of the province of Buenos Aires and middle-income groups. Overall, far from shrink-
was backed, if lukewarmly, by the outgoing presi- ing Argentina’s disparities between the poor and
dent, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. A majority the rich—gaps that have been widening over the
of voters saw Kirchner’s Peronist government as last four decades—Macri’s policies enlarged them
responsible for the deterioration of living stan- even further.
dards. Although her administration was notorious For more than two decades, first on my own
for not making official figures available, poverty and more recently in collaboration with residents
rates and inflation were clearly on the upswing by of the impoverished neighborhoods I study, I have
2013. Voters also took note of the various corrup- been scrutinizing poor people’s lives and politics.
tion scandals that plagued her term in office. During the past nine months, together with anthro-
pology student Sofía Servián, I have held dozens of
informal conversations and formal interviews with
Javier Auyero is a professor of sociology at the University residents of La Matera, a squatter settlement in the
of Texas, Austin. His latest book, coauthored with Katherine
Sobering, is The Ambivalent State: Police-Criminal Collu- southeast of the conurbano bonaerense—the metro-
sion at the Urban Margins (Oxford University Press, 2019). politan area that borders the capital city of Buenos

49
50  •  CURRENT HISTORY • February 2020

Aires and is home to some 16 million people, in- medicine—through patronage networks that rely
cluding 37 percent of the country’s voters. on brokers locally known as punteros. They also
Since the return of democracy to Argentina in participate in grassroots organizations of unem-
1983, after seven years of dictatorship, every polit- ployed workers, who are called pique­teros (road-
ical contest in the conurbano has been regarded as blockers) in reference to the barricades they fre-
the “mother of all electoral battles.” What our in- quently set up on important avenues and highways
terlocutors told us provides a few clues about the in order to make their collective claims heard. Of-
recent election results, the Macri debacle, and the ten, poor residents turn to both types of problem-
enduring appeal of Peronism. Since its origins in solving network to help them make ends meet.
the populist leadership of President Juan Peron in Patronage and collective action networks—pun-
the mid-twentieth century, Peronism has been at teros and piqueteros—not only provide access to
the center of Argentina’s political life, sometimes food on an individual basis or in communal soup

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in a neoliberal variant (notably during the presi- kitchens, but also organize state-funded coopera-
dency of Carlos Menem from 1989 to 1999), and tives that engage the needy in “productive proj-
at other times associated with strong state inter- ects”: building schools, constructing sidewalks,
vention. Its standard-bearer, the Justicialist Party, setting up community gardens and bakeries, and
is now the largest political party in the country. so forth. Both punteros and piqueteros depend
Two tightly linked elements appear to take cen- on the (not always legal or overt) support of lo-
ter stage in poor people’s evaluations of what has cal, provincial, and national administrations. Al-
happened in the four years since Macri became though they demand different things from their
president, and in their judgments about what participants, both kinds of networks function as
needs to happen next. With respect to Macri’s ten- webs that distribute resources and provide protec-
ure, although many of our interviewees acknowl- tion against the risks of everyday life.
edge that some improvements were made to in- Although political brokers tend to be linked to
frastructure (a paved street here, a bridge there), Peronism, there are also some who work for Mac-
most stress that their basic needs remained unmet. ri’s party, Cambiemos (Let’s Change). In fact, many
They still lack enough food and money to pay for of these highly strategic actors work for one party
transportation and utilities. They complain of gov- at the local or municipal level, and for the other at
ernment inaction in the face of threats to their ma- the state or federal level.
terial survival. During electoral campaigns, punteros canvass
What do they hope will happen now? Most of door to door, paint candidates’ names on walls,
our interviewees perceive Alberto Fernández, the put up posters, and mobilize supporters to attend
new Peronist president, as the man who will turn rallies. On election day, they “buy” turnout by dis-
back the clock and return daily life to a time when tributing goods and services to individual voters.
although economic hardship was present, basic But working for campaigns and handing out re-
needs were generally met—a time when they felt sources to obtain votes or other forms of political
that they were, more or less, protected by the state. support are not the only actions in which punteros
Poor people do not vote with their bellies. Their (and their patrons) engage.
understandings of what constitutes an accept- Brokers provide access to welfare programs,
able level of deprivation, and what governments medicine, clothes, food, bricks for building or re-
should or should not do in the face of generalized pairing homes, zinc sheets for roofing, and some-
suffering, must be considered in any analysis of times cash. Some, especially when the time comes
their political behavior. These understandings do to mobilize their younger followers, distribute
not emerge out of thin air, but are embedded in a alcohol, marijuana, and other illegal drugs. They
complex web of relationships that has constituted do all this year-round, not exclusively during the
poor people’s politics in Argentina, as well as else- weeks or months before an election.
where in Latin America, for some time. Both punteros and piquetero organizations pro-
vide public goods and services—street light-
Punteros and piqueteros ing, garbage collection trucks, bus shelters, and
In working-class neighborhoods, shantytowns, more—for their neighborhoods. They run com-
and squatter settlements, many of Argentina’s poor munity soup kitchens, health care clinics, and
and unemployed address the pressing problems of sports centers. They coordinate the delivery of
everyday life—access to welfare benefits, food, and state welfare benefits. The dealings of punteros
 Unprotected: Why Argentina’s Poor Turn to Peronism  • 51

and piqueteros with political parties are variable twentieth century in Argentina) have pretty much
and negotiated affairs—never set in stone, always vanished. “I might end up seeing the suffering of
contested—making poor people’s political lives a my grandchildren,” one of them told us, encapsu-
vibrant patchwork of oftentimes competing actors lating this widespread pessimism.
and networks. Although they say they are “used to” poverty,
these same people express anger over the break-
Enduring immiseration down of what was once a widely held assumption
A persistent economic recession, chronic un- that they could rely on state welfare provision: the
employment, widespread trends toward more in- government, they now believe, has stopped caring
formal and precarious work, low wages, and in- for them. The government (by which they meant
creasing inflation were the driving forces behind Macri’s presidency) was allowing or “not doing
the increase of poverty under Macri. How is this anything about” price hikes for basic foodstuffs.

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general immiseration experienced at the bottom of Government inaction or incompetence, they be-
the social structure? To find out, for the past nine lieve, is behind the devaluation (due to soaring in-
months Sofía and I have been listening to poor flation) of the welfare subsidies that had been help-
people’s descriptions of their daily predicaments. ing them make ends meet for the past two decades
Many of them are involved in one or more of or so. The government, they insist, is responsible
the problem-solving networks described above. for the disappearance of work and the general de-
They detail drastic changes they have been forced cline in their already poor quality of life.
to make to their diets because of skyrocketing
prices for basic food items. “You can’t afford meat Living with violence
any more . . . forget about it,” said one person with But the people we have talked with are not only
whom we spoke, echoing simi- preoccupied by threats to their
lar laments from many others. material well-being. They also
Our interlocutors also note They complain of government talk about worries for their
the decreasing amounts (and physical safety. They feel endan-
worsening quality) of food on
inaction in the face of threats gered by the presence of young
offer in the communal soup to their material survival. and often violent drug dealers in
kitchens where they eat dur- their neighborhoods.
ing the week, the rising utility “You cannot go to work with-
prices that make it impossible for them to pay their out thinking you are going to get mugged,” says
bills, and the increased cost of transportation to go a woman about her commute to work from Inge-
to work and to take their children to after-school niero Budge, a poor neighborhood in the southern
activities. The welfare benefits they receive “each conurbano, where murder rates have quadrupled
day cover less and less” of their basic needs. The since 2007 (an increase, it is worth mentioning,
problem-solving networks are strained, with fewer that is even more noticeable in a context of rather
resources but more needs to cover. Over and over stable homicide rates in the country as a whole
again, the poor describe urgent threats to their basic and relatively low levels of violence compared
material subsistence. with most Latin American countries). “There are
The people we have been talking to grew up in kids who steal so that they can get money to buy
neighborhoods with few paved streets, low-quality drugs. I’m always watching my back. You cannot
services, and high levels of violence. Most have walk on the streets. Anywhere you go, you have to
always worked in the informal sector of the econ- take a car service. We can’t live like that.”
omy—as day laborers in construction, waiters, or Besides these menacing street youths, residents
domestic workers. If and when they had access to are also worried about gun violence, which often
formal jobs, they never made enough income to erupts in street disputes between rival drug deal-
move above the official poverty line. ers. The following is an excerpt from the field di-
In the many conversations we have had, they ary of one research assistant with whom I worked
express a somewhat resigned tolerance, a sort of back in 2016:
acceptance, of the material deprivation that has Daira (10) lives with her mom and three sisters.
characterized their lives and those of their parents. Her father has been in prison for homicide since
Hopes of upward social mobility (hopes that were 2010. Daira, her mother, and two of her siblings
indeed common among the poor for most of the were shopping on one of the neighborhood’s bus-
52  •  CURRENT HISTORY • February 2020

iest streets at noon when they heard gunshots. hydrochloride for domestic and European markets
“I grabbed the kids,” Daira’s mom told me, “and arrives from neighboring Bolivia and Peru, and
tried to hide somewhere. I then saw that Daira marijuana is increasingly imported from Paraguay
was touching her head, and there was blood on in response to local demand. A recent government
it. . . . I was desperate . . . we ran to the local report on drug consumption in Argentina found
hospital with the help of a neighbor.” Fortu-
both more users (a 130 percent increase in use of
nately, the bullet only grazed Daira’s head. At the
illicit drugs between 2010 and 2017) and a rising
school, we organized a fundraiser to pay for her
antibiotics and creams. Her classmates now tease perception that drugs are becoming more widely
Daira, calling her “leaky head.” available and cheaper.
Drug-dealing organizations in Argentina are rela-
Alejandra, a 35-year-old woman, was not as tively small groups, in many cases composed of ex-
lucky as Daira. On January 8, 2017, in the adja- tended families based in extremely poor and mar-

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cent Barrio Obrero (a few blocks beyond the lim- ginalized neighborhoods in metropolitan areas, like
its of Ingeniero Budge), she was killed when a Ingeniero Budge or La Matera. They often count on
stray bullet hit her in the head as she was walking police protection. The involvement of members of
down the street with her four-year-old son. Ac- Argentine state security forces in the drug business
cording to preliminary police investigations, she is well documented. Major daily newspapers regu-
was caught in the middle of a dispute involving larly report on the arrest and indictment of federal
two drug-trafficking gangs. and state police agents for participation in illicit
Far from feeling protected by law enforcement, drug distribution. For the past two decades, wide-
residents of poor barrios believe that the police spread police corruption in Argentina has persisted
are, in fact, responsible for the increasing levels of despite recurrent and mostly ineffective attempts at
violence. As we heard repeat- police reform.
edly from different neighbors,
“The cops don’t do anything.
Poor people’s political lives Hoping for relief
The cops are all dealers [La When residents of poor
policía es toda transa]. They are a vibrant patchwork of neighborhoods speak about
catch a dealer on this street competing actors and networks. feeling unprotected, as they
and they let him out on the often do, they are usually re-
next corner.” ferring to both material depri-
No longer in the business, 47-year-old Mario vation and a lack of physical safety. Their poverty
recalled his days as a street dealer in Ingeniero is an insecure condition. They perceive those in
Budge and provided a straightforward account of charge of protecting them as either incompetent
police–trafficker collusion: (elected state officials) or complicit with criminals
When we first started drug dealing, we had an (the police).
arrangement with the police. Every weekend In the many conversations we had before the
they would come to “pick up the envelope” [col- last election, we tried to leave the issue of politics,
lect their bribe]. The cops knew we were selling and more specifically, our interlocutors’ voting in-
drugs, but they didn’t bother us. They would turn tentions, to the very end. We did not always suc-
the area over to us. Now, if you don’t pay them ceed—this was an election year, after all. Poor resi-
every weekend, you are in trouble. You’ll end up dents had very strong opinions about the Macri
in jail. Then we moved to another neighborhood. presidency, and they grabbed the opportunity of-
We were selling cocaine there, lots of it. But there, fered by the interviews to voice their opinions and
the National Guard protected us. The cops worked vent their frustrations.
with a dealer from a different neighborhood. We When it comes to politics, residents of poor
were with the National Guard. See . . . it’s all about neighborhoods change their tune from the gener-
[different] territories, some for the cops, others for alized hopelessness described above to a cautious
the National Guard.
anticipation. There is a sense of urgency in their
Over the past three decades, the illegal drug voices. They do not believe that a new Peronist
trade has expanded substantially in Argentina. government will bring radical changes in their ma-
In addition to its growing domestic market, the terial conditions, much less in their physical safe-
country has become an important point of depar- ty. (They know full well that drug-related violence
ture for shipments of cocaine to Europe. Cocaine and police–trafficker collusion existed long before
 Unprotected: Why Argentina’s Poor Turn to Peronism  • 53

Macri’s presidency.) But they believe, or they want The generalized feeling among the poor people
to believe, that a new administration will put a we talked to was that since Macri took office, their
stop to their downward slide. daily lives—the money they bring home, the food
They hope—they want to have hope (quiero they eat—had gotten worse. And in a context of
tener esperanza is a phrase we repeatedly heard)— few job opportunities and skyrocketing prices, the
that they will be able to make ends meet, to “eat poor believed that dwindling state support indi-
meat more often,” to go to the supermarket and cated that the government had ceased to protect
fill their carts; that maybe they will be able to eat them. They were ready to make these feelings
at home again rather than relying on the commu- heard at the ballot box.
nal soup kitchens. They told us that they would If we take poor people’s shared understandings
vote to put an end to their current predicament of their living conditions seriously, we should not
because, as one of them put it, “I don’t know how be surprised by the overwhelming support for the

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long we can keep going like this.” Peronist candidate among the most dispossessed.
Noticeably, the issues of drug violence and po- On December 20, 2019, Argentina’s House of Rep-
lice collusion with drug dealers take a back seat resentatives approved President Fernández’s emer-
in their electoral judgments. They do not believe gency economic bill of tax hikes to fund increased
that much would change with a new administra- social spending. This will likely bring some much-
tion. Faced with narcopolicías (as cops who col- needed short-term relief to poor people’s lives. But
laborate with drug dealers are known), they think given that it inherited a highly indebted state and
that there is not much either they or the politi- a contracting economy, what difference the new
cians can do—and they suspect (rightly, I believe) Peronist administration will make in their daily
that elected officials are also entangled in the mar- predicament beyond such immediate alleviation is
ket for illicit drugs. anybody’s guess. ■