Four people dead after theft of wiring, latest in surge of such crimes

National government says it will rename the Centro Cultural Kirchner as it moves to “depoliticise” iconic building that once housed Argentina’s Post Office.

Four people have been found dead with signs of electrocution inside a van opposite a hospital south of Buenos Aires Province, after taking part in the theft of hightension power lines, police said Tuesday.

The deaths are the latest in a surge of such crimes in Argentina, which are accelerating amid economic hardship.

A fifth person was found alive inside the vehicle and was hospitalised with severe burns at the Municipal Hospital in Bahía Blanca. The individual will be questioned after his recovery.

Inside the van, which the police detected fleeing at midnight at high speed, “four people were riding in the back” in “poor condition,” local police chief Gonzalo Bezos told the press.

He said four were determined to be dead upon discovery, while the other was seriously injured.

The victims, aged between 18 to 32, “had burns and signs of electrocution,” said Bezos.

“It was determined that they had attempted to steal wiring from high-tension power lines” and had been electrocuted, he added.

The driver, who fled and was later arrested, turned out to be the father of one of the deceased.

Although there are no official statistics on such crimes, reports of theft of copper wiring, especially in rural areas, are becoming increasingly frequent.

Argentina is immersed in a deep economic crisis with over half its population of 47 million people in poverty.

Back in March, a raid on a home in Bahía Blanca led to over 3,000 metres of stolen wiring being seized. That same month, the image of a young man hanging from the power lines while trying to cut them with a knife was captured by a motorist. The footage of the incident, which took place in Resistencia, Chaco Province, went viral on social media.

Also in March, a 20-year-old youth was hospitalised with severe burns after getting an electrical discharge while attempting to steal underground cables in Rosario.

In La Plata, local police had to rescue the body of a man last weekend who was hanging from the power lines after trying to cut them.

The going rate for copper is around 7,000 pesos per kilo (some US$7.50 at the official exchange rate) at shops which buy the metal to then melt it down.

Buenos Aires City also sees plenty of theft of copper pipes which supply homes with natural gas, with the ensuing risk of leaks.

President Javier Milei’s government has finally chosen a new name for the Centro Cultural Kirchner (CCK), opting to baptise it anew as the ‘Palacio Libertad.’

Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni confirmed the decision in a brief threeword post on social media, almost two months on from the initial announcement that it would strip the building of its current moniker.

Sources from La Libertad Avanza say the decision to change the building’s name is being pushed through because they consider the surname Kirchner to be associated with “corruption.”

The name change will be implemented via government decree in the coming days. It will modify previous legislation, issued in 2012, which changed the original name of the Centro Cultural del Bicentenario to “President Néstor Carlos Kirchner.”

The government had reportedly considered naming the building after an iconic Argentine leader or cultural figure. Among the names considered were Julio Argentino Roca, Jorge Luis Borges, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Bartolomé Mitre.

The Casa Rosada said the new name does not respond to any “partisan decision” – a claim that holds little weight, given that the name of Milei’s party is La Libertad Avanza.

The CCK, which is overseen by the Culture Secretariat

within the Human Capital Ministry,

“It has finally been decided to change the name of the Centro Cultural Kirchner, so it will cease to be called as such and will effectively give way to a new name,” Adorni said at a press conference on January 26.

Initially opened nearly a century ago, the Retiro building was for decades home to the Buenos Aires Central Post Office.

In 2005, Néstor Kirchner led efforts to turn the then-abandoned building into a massive cultural centre. At great expense, the site was refurbished, reformed and eventually re-opened a decade later in 2015 as the Centro Cultural Kirchner, in honour of the late former president, who had died five years earlier.

Designed in a beaux-arts style, the CCK is home to a stunning concert hall known as “the blue whale,” that seats almost 2,000 people. It also has venues for music, art installations, live theatre performances and regularly hosts exhibitions.

Former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) tried to change the building’s name during his time in office, but didn’t follow through with the plan.

President Milei suggested on the campaign trail last year that he would seek to change the building’s name if he won the presidential election.