Deep inside the dumpsters of Buenos Aires, Elías Fernández, 27, sifts through for a living. A construction worker who lost his job in November and now sleeps with his children on the floor of a friend’s apartment, Fernández – often accompanied by his teenage daughters, Morena and Valentina, and his wide-eyed toddler son Juan — is a full-time scavenger.
The Fernández family is part of a vast underground economy that has swelled as libertarian President Javier Milei plows ahead with Argentina’s most intense austerity scheme in recent history.
