Splinter
Well travelled
- Location
- Buenos Aires
Having your bike stolen at gunpoint is nothing new in Argentina, but recently it has sunk to new depths.
Last Saturday Andres Blaquier, one of the wealthiest businessmen in the country was shot while trying to escape an armed teenager on a busy motorway (Panamericana, Pilar) who had caught up with him pointing a revolver.
Mr Blaquier, accompanied by his wife no less, accelerated away on his BMW 1200, but was shot and killed in the act. The murderer who was riding two up with a teenage girl, then took the BMW bike, rode off and then eventually lost control of the huge bike.
After an extensive manhunt, both were captured by the police but will not be treated as juveniles, because all juveniles are set free. He has previous convictions as long as your arm.
This is not an isolated incident; it's now all too frequent and riding alone has taken on a whole new meaning, prompting us to ask ourselves if we will make it back. It's very worrying indeed.
Tomorrow, thanks to the power of social media, thousands of us will be converging at the University of Buenos Aires (law dept) to demand that something is done, since the judges seems to have more pity for the criminal than the victims who walk out of courts as if it's a revolving door.
Last Saturday Andres Blaquier, one of the wealthiest businessmen in the country was shot while trying to escape an armed teenager on a busy motorway (Panamericana, Pilar) who had caught up with him pointing a revolver.
Mr Blaquier, accompanied by his wife no less, accelerated away on his BMW 1200, but was shot and killed in the act. The murderer who was riding two up with a teenage girl, then took the BMW bike, rode off and then eventually lost control of the huge bike.
After an extensive manhunt, both were captured by the police but will not be treated as juveniles, because all juveniles are set free. He has previous convictions as long as your arm.
This is not an isolated incident; it's now all too frequent and riding alone has taken on a whole new meaning, prompting us to ask ourselves if we will make it back. It's very worrying indeed.
Tomorrow, thanks to the power of social media, thousands of us will be converging at the University of Buenos Aires (law dept) to demand that something is done, since the judges seems to have more pity for the criminal than the victims who walk out of courts as if it's a revolving door.
