Vigilante Justice

A few days ago, Sara and I were riding along with some people from a group called Fundación Tierra while they went about their daily work with people out in the Altiplano outside of La Paz. Some folks in El Alto, a sprawling city/suburb/slum outside of La Paz had blocked all the roads to protest a reduction in financial resources from government from natural gas. Gas costs less now than it did a year ago, but this point was lost on people who thought, “less money=no driving for you”. It took us two hours to find a way out of the city. El Alto has the reputation of a rough neighborhood and many refer to it as the “poorest slum in the poorest country in Latin America”.

This picture was shot from the moving truck, so not my best photography. but thought it was one of those “you don’t see this everyday” moments. This is a scarecrow hanging on a light pole. It is intended to be a warning to thieves. You may also notice, grafitti-ed on the wall is the sentence, “Ladrón pillado, será quemado”. Translation: “Thief caught, will be burned”. They’re serious too. A guy was killed and burned outside of a friend’s house (who lives in a much rougher part of town than my cushy, semi-SoHo neighborhood, Sopocachi) about a month ago. Oddly enough, made me feel safe although I am not sure the same applies to cameras stolen from foreigners. As a rebuttal, another nearby wall was tagged, “Snitches will be killed”, probably written by the thief who didn’t want to be burned.