Bad Riachuelo, bad!

The Riachuelo is a small river that passes by the northern limit of Buenos Aires City, and the Argentine icon of pollution and disdain for ecology (just as Diego Maradona is the icon of football and disdain for health -- or self-control). 3 million people wake up every day in its basin. It's so polluted that you could dump the Exxon Valdez in it without making it worse. In fact, maybe it's in there already; who would notice?



The Supreme Court summoned 44 industrial companies to explain what they were doing to (into) the Riachuelo. Only 6 actually sent representatives (you could choose to go in writing only). They all said that they were clean, super-clean, squeaky clean with sparkles and all. The Court now has to decide what to do with those testimonies and the studies that show the sorrow state of the river.

The companies were so obviously lying that Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti jokingly remarked, right after Petrobras and before Shell, that "it seems that the Riachuelo polluted itself".