David Bohler
Kimberly Spencer
JTC328
8 Feb 2026
Argentine Police – Keeping Tourists Safe, Despite a Troubled Past
“They would snatch you off the streets and take you away. Your family, your friends – nobody knew where you were” said Jorge Sanchez, the hotel manager at Vain Boutique Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sanchez, in his early 50s, recalls from an earlier time of his life when police enforced with intimidation and brutality. “It’s getting better now,” he then said.
Tourists should undoubtedly feel safe here with the overwhelming presence of the police force all over the capital city of Buenos Aires, Argentina; in cars, motorcycles, police buildings, small police shacks, and walking down the street. Their emergency vehicle lights are always flashing, making it easy to identify them for requesting help.
I asked Sanchez if likes having a police shack ten feet from the entrance of his hotel with a police officer in it or walking nearby. “Oh yes! It keeps the criminals from doing something bad or robbing you.” I then asked him if he feels that most Argentines trust the police. “Heck no,” he empathically exclaimed.
“If you get a traffic ticket, pull out some money,” Sanchez said as he took the demeanor of someone getting ready to negotiate with a cars salesman. Indeed, bribing police here is the most prevalent form of corruption that exists today according to an independent watchdog organization.
The Latin America Public Opinion Project published that 15 percent of the Argentine population have been asked for a bribe by police officers. 59 percent of Argentines believe bribing the police will keep you out of jail or from paying a fine.
What caused brutal police, conditioned under decades of military authority, to change to a force that is mostly guilty of taking bribes now? Sanchez feels it was the Jewish bombings in the 1990s. “After that, the police had to present a different face to the public. That’s when the police started showing up on every street corner,” Sanchez exclaimed.
He was referring to the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israel Embassy and Jewish headquarters building that killed over 100 people total; police officers were the primary suspects. Argentina’s highest criminal court concluded an Iran-backed extremist group bribed and intimidated police officers to act on their behalf.
I spoke about the bombings with a 31-year-old Argentine actress, Nina Silvetti, whose mother witnessed the Jewish headquarters bombing as she was shopping nearby. Silvetti, lowering her eyes, said, “My mother is still traumatized to this day.” Silvetti then said, “All this time and the people responsible have not been punished.”
I questioned Silvetti, who says she is an activist, about bribing police officers and if she feels that is something she could do if ever needed. “Of course, but who has the money to do that? Only the rich, who are mostly corrupt themselves, can afford this.”
The line for bribes is hopefully drawn now in Argentina, with bribes for non-capital offenses ok, but anything producing carnage not ok. For the average tourist here, that works in your favor if ever involved in a minor offense or altercation, as long as you have some spare money. Because entry-level police here earn only $8,400 dollars annually, the police need bribes just as much as Argentina needs them.
The police presence on the streets is critical for the safety of tourists, locals and shop owners; without it, chaos would quickly erupt. This was evident a little over a decade ago, when in 2013 the Argentine provincial police protested with a national strike. Street gangs immediately came out of the woodworks.
For ten straight days, extensive violence and robberies occurred. Over a thousand stores were robbed, 18 people killed, hundreds were injured and multiple public buildings broken into. 52 police officers were convicted for their role in the lootings. After the strike, salaries to the police almost doubled. Is that enough today, in 2026, with the rising inflation Argentina is experiencing now? Maybe not.
Just under a week ago, on February 4, Buenos Aires police protested across multiple locations around the city. The scene which received national attention was a high-ranking, federal police officer who handcuffed himself to the fence surrounding the Casa Rosada (Pink Palace), a major tourist attraction.
The police were demanding more pay, resolving their social security issues, better equipment and ending corruption. The OURS ABROAD news agency quoted a participating police officer as saying, “We are required to have professionalism and a presence on the street, but many times we work with minimal resources."
I was hoping to get perspective from a police officer about some of this – I don’t know what I was thinking. I tried four times to interview a police officer in Buenos Aires. Of course I was delicate in my approach, as if looking at them wrong would get me locked up. I started with “Hello, do you speak English?”
“No, I do not speak English,” was the response I got twice, spoken in perfect English. One officer just shook her head, indicating “No.” The last officer was the only one concerned if I had a real need by saying, “I speak a little English, how may I help you?” Anything after that resulted in “I don’t understand English.”
I explained to my father, a retired 86-year-old USAF colonel living in the Florida Panhandle, the fruitless situation I had interviewing a police officer. He poignantly said, “You should have offered them some money first.” I think he is right and because of that, as a tourist here, I will always carry around an extra few hundred dollars when visiting Argentina.
With the strong police presence, both on the road and walking the streets, I do feel that tourists are safe in Argentina, especially from bodily harm. The main threat would be your wallet or phone stolen. Watch YouTube videos to help prevent that from happing and always have your phone attached to a lanyard that is connected to your body.