Buenos Aires. Multiple marches were held this Tuesday in Argentina in a day of protest by social organizations for the delivery of food to soup kitchens that they manage, and which they claim was interrupted in December when Javier Milei’s government began an audit.
The main rally took place around noon in front of the Olivos presidential estate, on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires, where hundreds of protesters marched to ask for greater assistance from the government.
A strong security operation, from the federal police, the infantry corps and the gendarmerie, was mounted around the residence to discourage the arrival of the protesters and clear traffic.
Fire hydrant trucks and teams of motorized police also participated in the operation deployed several blocks from the place, where President Javier Milei was not present, who arrived around noon from a tour of the United States.
“The operation is a shame because there are no murderers or criminals here, there are people here who are hungry, in need and who are making a claim, and they have the right to do so,” piquetero leader Eduardo Belliboni told reporters.
At the same time, the organizers announced 500 roadblocks (pickets) throughout the country, although outside the radius of the Argentine capital in order to circumvent the “anti-picket protocol” of the Ministry of Security.
The Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, in charge of the portfolio that manages social aid, was summoned by the courts to detail the assistance provided since December to soup kitchens in a country where half of the population lives in poverty.
In February, the leader of the Movement of Excluded Workers (MTE) Juan Grabois criminally denounced Pettovello “for not arranging the delivery of food in neighborhood and community kitchens throughout the Argentine Republic, thus violating regulations that order guaranteeing food to those who are suffering. situations of extreme poverty”.
Pettovello has signed food assistance agreements with evangelical churches and with Cáritas Argentina, dependent on the Catholic Church.
It is a week of great conflict in Argentina, after a partial transport strike on Monday and prior to the general strike scheduled for Thursday, the second called by the CGT union since Milei took office in December.
“The strike has no other motivation than strictly political,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Tuesday. “With all the damage and evil they have done in the previous government, they still (the unions) do not explain why they never said anything” until now, he added.
Argentina is experiencing a strong economic recession, with inflation approaching 290% year-on-year and a fiscal adjustment that allowed the first fiscal surplus since 2008 in the first quarter of the year, but at the cost of the closure of State agencies, thousands of layoffs, of subsidies, increase in rates and liquefaction of salaries and pensions.
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– 2024-05-07 22:13:22
