Residents in the province of Buenos Aires have had their fears assuaged as the construction of a two metre high wall was called to a halt yesterday. The wall has been constructed between neighbourhoods in the San Fernando and San Isidro barrios against what is seen as the rising problem of insecurity in the area.

Gustavo Posse, mayor of San Isidro, ordered the wall to be built to ‘protect’ the residents of the exclusive La Horqueta community from their neighbours in the working class area of Villa Jardín. The 240 metre long wall divides the neighbourhoods with the equivalent of 16 city blocks of concrete and metal.

President Kirchner has called the development of the structure “a regression”. Residents of Villa Jardín have described the construction as a discriminatory gesture.

Following widespread criticism this week the mayor of San Fernando, Osvaldo Amieiro called for an end to the building of the wall. Judge Fernando Ribeiro Cardadeiro upheld that request yesterday. Since then Posse has confirmed that all construction has been suspended. “Provisionally the works are in waiting as requested on the part of the officials responsible for security”, he commented.

The problem of insecurity has been felt in both barrios with problems culminating on Calle Uruguay, a street between the two neighbourhoods. With both sides affected by the problems of delinquent behaviour, residents are calling for a united community effort to approach the problem.

Security walls like this already exist in numerous barrios in the Buenos Aires province. Some regard the division of communities as a temporary answer to the problem of insecurity; containing the problem rather than addressing it’s roots. The minister of Security of Buenos Aires, Carlos Stornelli, commented that the wall “is not the solution” to insecurity, but “enlarges the violence and the exclusion”.