Buenos Aires is a city of beautiful people where appearances are important. The men will tell you that Argentine women are the most attractive in the world; the women say much the same about the men.  But not everyone in Buenos Aires is beautiful. Gonzalo Otalora, for instance, is downright ugly, and he is not embarrassed to admit it.

In fact, he is fighting back on behalf of all those Argentines who don't fancy themselves as film stars or models.  I went out with him on a grey day in the Argentine capital. It was raining and windy which can cause havoc if, like many Argentines, you have spent hours dressing and making yourself up to join the ranks of the beautiful people on the streets of Buenos Aires.

But Gonzalo Otalora does not much care what he looks like. He planted himself in front of the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada or Pink House, to harangue President Nestor Kirchner to change the law.