Down, and almost out, in Buenos Aires

摘要

At dusk in a gritty backstreet of Matade-ros, a Buenos Aires suburb that was once a centre of the international meat trade, a ragged line of several hundred people spills out from the Caras Sucias ("Dirty Faces") charity soup kitchen into the square outside. They are queuing for an evening meal, a thin stew of rice with small lumps of sausage and carrot, and, on this occasion, a rare handout of flour, pasta and a few oranges. Many say they have had no jobs for years. In what was long the richest city in Latin America, "each year, there's more and more hunger and less and less hope", says Monica Carranza, who runs the soup kitchen.