Happy ending this time. Maia Yael Beloso, the 7-year-old girl abducted by Carlos Alberto Savanz (39), was finally found and rescued after a desperate search. Actually, I’m misusing the word “rescued”, simply because she should have been rescued a long time ago, before she, her mother and her 5 siblings were forced to be homeless, to live and grow up in the streets. This particular event sheds light on an aspect of our reality we all choose not to see: street children no one takes notice of, no one cares about, no one is responsible for. Our “omnipresent” State is blatantly absent here. Every single day we all see kids begging at the street lights, monitored by an adult lurking nearby. Those children are supposed to be at school, or at home, but they are not. They are forced to “work” as “trapitos”, or they might juggle oranges, to get a couple of coins in return. And this case also proves once again how many criminals are roaming the streets instead of being in jail. Sexual abusers, sexual offenders, rapists, guys who have been reported again and again, and yet they are as free as you or me. If these matters are not dealt with seriously, there will be many more “Maias”, not always with such a “happy” ending.
Irene Bianchi for Buenos Aires Times