On Friday February 23, several thousand people gathered in different cities in Argentina to warn of the food emergency, during one of the mobilizations against the measures of the ultra-liberal government of Javier Milei.
Argentine media reported ongoing mobilizations in Tucuman (in the northwest of the country), Mar del Plata (in the east) and Cordoba (in the north), but the largest took place in Buenos Aires, where several thousand people demonstrated under the supervision of an impressive police force, noted Agence France-Presse.
The mobilization on the theme “The food emergency cannot wait any longer” responded to the call from unions, small parties and social movements of the left or extreme left, but not the largest trade union center, the CGT, which announces a general strike soon. The latter would be the second in three months since President Milei came to power.
Demonstrators are protesting against a planned overhaul of public food aid for the approximately 38,000 soup kitchens across the country. According to the latest figures for 2023, there are more than 40% poor people in Argentina.
The Milei government wants to eliminate “middlemen” and “poverty managers,” targeting a variety of social organizations that it says engage in “multi-million dollar extortion and trafficking.”
“Critical poverty situation”
Ultimately, the government wants to provide direct aid to recipient locations, but protesters are now denouncing the suspension of aid at a time when austerity measures are sending more and more families to soup kitchens.
“In just over two months, this government has created a situation of critical poverty,” denounced Nahuel Orellana of the Socialist Workers Movement, a small left-wing party, at a procession in Buenos Aires on Friday.
The government denies stopping the delivery of food aid and claims “all soup kitchens have complied.” [aux normes] » and were registered with the Ministry of Human Capital and continued to receive assistance.
The effects of the austerity measures are noticeable: on Wednesday train stations were emptied by a drivers' strike, on Thursday there was a strike in hospitals, on Friday there were demonstrations, on Monday a teachers' strike was planned, the first day of school…
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For its part, the government welcomes the start of the fiscal recovery with a budget surplus in January and forecasts inflation of 20% in January, falling to single digits in the second half of the year.
Also read | Article reserved for our subscribers “We are having a bad time”: in Javier Mileis Argentina, inhabitant between fatalism, resilience but also hope
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