¡Hola, mis estudiantes intermedios! Today we’ll explore a key topic: urban insecurity — a challenge affecting cities worldwide.
You’ll hear an excerpt from a video on the RPP Noticias YouTube channel (uploaded March 2, 2025), a Peruvian source known for insightful social analysis:
In this discussion, Fabiola Arce, a Peruvian political scientist and security consultant, talks with two journalists about crime, transportation, and urban infrastructure issues.
Though it focuses on Peru, the goal is to inspire a conversation about challenges modern cities face everywhere. Be ready to share how insecurity impacts your city or country.
I’ve shared the same audio, although in a longer version, for advanced learners here: https://learnspanishpronto.com/2025/03/13/la-inseguridad-urbana/
This post is designed for intermediate learners and includes extra support: a transcription and translation to help you follow, a glossary of 30 challenging words (some may be familiar), links to learn or refresh your grammar and vocabulary and interactive activities to practice these words before our next meeting.
Note: The audio and transcription reflect a casual style — like a chat in a bar or café. Don’t worry if you miss some words or ideas!
IMPORTANTE: Este sitio web es exclusivamente para fines educativos y está dirigido sólo a mis estudiantes. Aunque mi sitio web está disponible en internet, el contenido es de uso privado para mis alumnos. No tengo la intención de infringir ningún derecho de autor y siempre proporciono enlaces a las publicaciones originales. Siempre adapto estas obras con un enfoque educativo, sin fines comerciales.
Insecurity involves not only that related to crime, but also that related to other problems we face living in overcrowded, saturated cities, which have to do with transportation, lighting, and traffic accidents.
And for this we are going to talk with Fabiola Arce, who is a political scientist and consultant at the consulting firm “Ruta Colectiva.”
Fabiola, can you explain how these two major phenomena and problems—the insecurity caused by advancing and threatening crime, which the “Lima Cómo Vamos” survey, with which you are very familiar, shows as having a perception of insecurity above eighty or ninety percent—and how about fifty percent, roughly half of those surveyed, say they have been victims of some crime in the last three months?
And how this also relates to the insecurity of being run over, of not being able to reach our destination, and how transportation is a disaster.
Indeed. Fernando, Carlos, it’s a pleasure to be with you. What you have mentioned is accurate.
More than eighty percent of people in Lima and Callao consider insecurity the main problem. And this is something that indeed comes out of the “Lima Cómo Vamos” survey.
But not only that comes up. It also shows that the actual number of people who feel safe in Lima and Callao is six percent, right? When we look only at women, the women who feel safe in Lima and Callao barely reach three percent.
That’s the same as the margin of error. So, clearly, we put ourselves in the position of really asking how many people in our cities—and this could be expanded on a national level… We are talking a lot about Lima and Callao, which is where we currently have the most specific data.
But how many people in our cities really leave home feeling completely safe? Regarding our routes, regarding our personal safety. Very few, if any at all, right?
—Yes, how are you, Fabiola? Good morning. This is Carlos González greeting you from the city of Trujillo, which, by the way, is a clear example, right?, of insecurity in the regions, not only because of crime, but now, and you had mentioned it, because of the uncertainty we have regarding the infrastructure in the public spaces we go to.
Fabiola, I wanted to ask you what signs citizens need to see from our authorities to have some hope that the very insecure reality we face can change.
—It’s a complex question, but I believe the most immediate answer is a serious long-term political commitment.
We cannot expect, the authorities cannot expect, that the measures they take related to serious proposals against insecurity, crime, and the worst traffic problems we currently have, will yield results tomorrow or will produce results for the upcoming election just around the corner.
That is not going to happen. There must be a clear, long-term political commitment that understands that any kind of investment, especially in the case of transit, is very clear, right?
If you design transit systems, these systems are actually highly costly.
It is very likely that the fare paid by people will not be enough to sustain the entire system, but what does pay off is the amount of health people will be able to access, the number of trips that will be shortened, the number of hours people will be able to dedicate to care, work, and enjoyment.
Also, it helps activate the economy, increasing the gross domestic product. These are long-term indicators, and all are linked to serious measures to modify transportation processes and combat crime so that people feel safe when going out on the street today.
Therefore, this serious commitment, which unfortunately has not been common in our national or local political environment, is very necessary and is a commitment we must demand.
CONTEXT
THE 30 NEW WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS WE WILL LEARN!
Looks long, right? Don’t worry, I’ll make it as easy as it gets. I’ll split the words into 3 lists of 10 words or expressions each, plus an interactive game below to help you learn them. But remember, the best learning will happen when we use them together in our next chat!
PART 1
| N.º | ESPAÑOL | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DELINCUENCIA | CRIME |
| 2 | ATESTADO | OVERCROWDED / PACKED |
| 3 | EMPRESA | COMPANY / FIRM |
| 4 | ACECHAR | TO LURK / TO THREATEN |
| 5 | ENCUESTA | SURVEY |
| 6 | DELITO | CRIME / OFFENSE |
| 7 | ATROPELLAR | TO RUN OVER |
| 8 | EN EFECTO EFECTIVAMENTE | INDEED |
| 9 | APENAS | BARELY / HARDLY |
| 10 | NIVEL | LEVEL |
Now, let’s play this game so you learn these expressions in a snap!
PART 2
| N.º | ESPAÑOL | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | PLENO | FULL / COMPLETE |
| 12 | RESPECTO A | REGARDING / WITH RESPECT TO |
| 13 | SALUDAR | TO GREET |
| 14 | DE PASO | BY THE WAY / INCIDENTALLY |
| 15 | INCERTIDUMBRE | UNCERTAINTY |
| 16 | ACUDIR | TO ATTEND / TO GO TO |
| 17 | CIUDADANO | CITIZEN |
| 18 | ESPERANZA | HOPE |
| 19 | APUESTA | COMMITMENT / BET / POLICY |
| 20 | LARGO PLAZO | LONG TERM |
Let’s play and learn!
PART 3
| N.º | ESPAÑOL | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | PRETENDER | TO INTEND / TO EXPECT |
| 22 | MEDIDA | MEASURE |
| 23 | A LA VUELTA DE LA ESQUINA | AROUND THE CORNER / IMMINENT |
| 24 | ASUMIR | TO ASSUME / TO TAKE ON |
| 25 | INVERSIÓN | INVESTMENT |
| 26 | BOLETO | TRAVEL TICKET |
| 27 | RENDIR | TO YIELD / TO BE SUFFICIENT / TO PAY OFF |
| 28 | ACORTAR | TO SHORTEN |
| 29 | ALZAR | TO RAISE / TO LIFT |
| 30 | VINCULADO | LINKED |
Let’s play!
Remember, amigo, the real challenge isn’t just learning the words—it’s using them. We’ll put them into practice next time we get together!
