The former train garage in Patricios, Argentina. Home to 5,000 people a few generations back, it’s now a so-called pueblo fantasma, or ghost town.
Photographer: Sarah Pabst/BloombergArgentina’s Ruined Railways Will Force Milei to Confront Poverty
Those living off state subsidies in ghost towns abandoned by the once-robust train service fear the pain of the new president’s spending cuts will be acute
Patricios, Argentina, looks like a railroad version of the Titanic. Rotting rail ties and shattered glass litter the gutted train warehouse. The town’s economic engine is long abandoned except for the manager’s former office, now a makeshift home for a family of 11. The community doesn’t have a single employer and there’s no sewer, natural gas or paved roads.
Deep in Buenos Aires province, the forgotten town off a muddy road lays bare the root problem facing Javier Milei as he begins his presidency in Argentina vowing to end decades of overspending.