Argentina: Children’s drawing shows the dangerous life in Rosario

Argentina

«When I saw my grandson’s drawing, I had a knot in my throat»

The drawing of a schoolchild from Rosario in Argentina went viral: the seven-year-old wanted to depict his neighborhood – what he drew is a scene of violence.

publishedMar 15, 2023 at 3:09 p.m

The drawing by Thiago (7) shocked: the boy was supposed to represent life in his neighborhood. He drew a man at gunpoint.

Screenshot TN

• Thiago is seven years old and lives in Rosario, Argentina.

• Fighting between drug gangs makes Rosario the most dangerous city in the country.

• This is reflected in a drawing of little Thiago.

“When I saw my grandson’s homework, I had a knot in my throat,” says Argentinian Juan Manuel. In a drawing, made by seven-year-old Thiago, shows a man in a black cap pointing a gun at a person with his arms raised. The teacher asked the children to describe their everyday life in their neighborhood.

Thiago and his family live in Capitán Bermúdez, on the outskirts of Rosario, a city located 300 kilometers northwest of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. They have ruled there for a long time drug gangs. But now an increasing crime wave is rolling over the hometown of soccer superstar Lionel Messi.

The boy’s grandfather tells the broadcaster TN that Thiago doesn’t live in the most dangerous area and has never been the victim of an attack, “but he knows what’s happening nearby”. The daily violence that the residents experience is a topic of conversation everywhere, says Juan Manuel. He worries that many children may grow up with trauma.

11-year-old boy killed in shooting

A week ago on Sunday, 11-year-old Máximo Gerez was killed in the poor neighborhood of Los Pumitas while buying a drink at a kiosk with other children. The attackers arrived in a black car with tinted windows and opened fire on him and his friends. Máximo was hit by several shots, he died instantly, three other children were seriously injured.

Máximo’s father says he knows who is responsible. Shortly after the crime, the family went into the drug dealers’ homes to tear them down with hammers and steel bars and set them on fire. “Here they sell drugs and poison our children,” said Julio Gerez on television. He believes that the Los Salteños drug gang was behind his son’s murder. “We have never been threatened and have not messed with anyone,” Máximo’s aunt Antonia told the newspaper “La Nación”. “We are poor people, but what really destroys us is the pain.”

Even Messi’s family is threatened

The fights between the gangs for the lucrative cocaine market make Rosario the most dangerous city in Argentina. So far this year, 64 people have been killed there. Again and again members of the drug gangs attack public buildings, prisons and police stations.

Recently, even the family of Antonela Roccuzzo, Lionel Messi’s wife, has been the target of an attack. Unknown persons fired 14 shots at Roccuzzo’s father’s supermarket in Rosario. There they left a note that read: “Messi, we are waiting for you.”

are you or is someone you know affected by sexualised, domestic, psychological or other violence?

You can find help here:

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Online Opferberatung

counseling centers Victim Support Switzerland

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Lilli.chonline counseling for young people

women’s shelters in Switzerland and Liechtenstein

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LGBT+ HelplineTel. [phone]

age without violenceTel. [phone]

Offered HandWorry Hotline, Tel. 143

For Youthadvice for children and young people, Tel. 147

counseling centers for violent people

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