EVERY Friday evening for the past year, a swelling group of
protesters has marched the five miles from the town of La Banda
to Santiago del Estero, the sleepy capital of one of Argentina's
most backward provinces. Their immediate grievance was the
murder of two women, and the apparent involvement in the
killings—and subsequent cover-up—of politicians, businessmen and
judges. But their crusade is symptomatic of a yearning for
political renewal in parts of Argentina's poorer interior, where
local strongmen have traditionally ruled supreme.  According to
the judge now in charge of the case, Leyla Bshier was killed at
an orgiastic party attended by some of the local elite. Her body
was then cut up, and parts of it fed to animals at a private zoo
belonging to Musa Azar, the province's former (and still much-
feared) security chief. Poor Patricia Villalba heard about the
crime, and was killed to stop her talking.  Inspired by the
protests, the judge summoned up the courage to order the arrest
of Mr Azar, his wife an