Anxious Argentines send money home

Miami's Argentines are anxious for relatives at home

By Fergal Parkinson BBC Miami correspondent

It is another busy day at the Buenos Aires bakery in north Miami Beach, Florida.

Sitting outside, Jose Luis Pando shares a coffee with others in the growing community of Argentines in south Florida.

Many are resorting to the black market, to get money home

Shaking his head, Mr Pando worries for his family back home in Argentina.

"My family is in great hardship, it is terrible, there is no money anywhere."

The economy in Argentina has suffered a long and difficult week and the community here is desperate to help.

Money transfers

But next door to the cafe here in Miami the money transfer company is closed.

"Wiring services to Argentina has been indefinitely suspended" is the official line.

Most Argentines came here to find work and new opportunities. But relinquishing on their promises to send money home is causing increasing anxiety.

Despite the risks, this community is now uniting in an attempt to get cash home.

A middle-aged woman, Virginia Dameno, sitting with her husband in the cafe, explains how she fills her suitcase with cash and regularly travels between Miami and Argentina.

There is no option but to send the money with a courier, with the money in their own pockets, accepting all the risks that could incur

Fernando Pettineroli

"This is the only way because if you send it through the banks, they cannot get the money. I took, one month ago, for friends of ours $1,500."

On the top floor of a high-rise office block in downtown Miami, Dr Fernando Pettineroli, president of an Argentine support group, worries about the dangerous measures people are resorting to.

"There is no option but to send the money with a courier, with the money in their own pockets, accepting all the risks that could incur."

Black market

It is not only individuals who are providing this service.

On the other side of town, Daniella Culotta runs an Argentine travel agency that has a second office in Buenos Aires.

She arranges a different kind of money transfer as a favour to her customers.

"If someone pays for a flight in Buenos Aires, they pay for a ticket to our office there.

"Then if someone comes into the shop in Miami asking for help, we can take money off them, say $500, and we'll tell their family in Argentina an address to go to in Buenos Aires where they can go and collect the equivalent amount of cash."

It is a black market, but a thriving one. For Jose Luis Pando, he knows that only by help of friends will he be able to get money to cash-strapped relatives at home.