On a Saturday morning at the beginning of July, Leandro Bertazzo arrived at the flight school in Coronel Olmedo, Córdoba, where he worked as a flight instructor, greeting his colleagues warmly, as usual. He then took his first flight of the day with a student completing a refresher course. After landing safely, the 42-year-old pilot began his second flight, accompanying a female student who was close to obtaining her pilot’s license.
According to the young woman, after they had been airborne for some time, Bertazzo told her: “You know what you have to do.” He then removed his headphones, set his cellphone aside, unfastened his seat belt, opened the cockpit door and jumped to his death. She alerted the authorities and managed to land the aircraft safely on her own. Bertazzo’s colleagues were left stunned.
They said he had shown no signs of depression or suicidal intent. His father later revealed, however, that he had been “going through a hard time” and had recently visited a neuropsychiatric institute to enquire about getting help. Although most suicides do not make front-page news as this case did, self-inflicted deaths have become alarmingly more common in Argentina.
The latest official figures show that 5,209 people took their own life in 2025, the highest number on record. That represents a 21.6% increase compared with the previous year. The trend has been building for several years.
According to official statistics compiled by the Security Ministry, the suicide rate has risen steadily over the past six years, from 7.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020 to 11.8 in 2025. The figures reveal a striking paradox. While many Argentines cite violent crime as one of their biggest concerns, intentional homicides have fallen to a record low of 3.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025.
Meanwhile, suicides — which receive far less public attention — are not only more common than homicides, as is the case in most countries, but occur in Argentina at roughly three times the rate of intentional killings, an unusually wide gap. Since 2023, the number of suicides has also exceeded road fatalities, which had until then been the leading cause of violent death in the country. What’s behind the phenomenon Psychiatrist Demián Rodante, head of service at the Moyano psychiatric hospital and vice-president of the Suicidology chapter of the Association of Psychiatrists of …
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