Several thousand people gathered in various cities in Argentina on Friday for demonstrations to warn of the food emergency. This was one of the growing mobilizations against the actions of the ultra-liberal government of Javier Milei.
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In Tucuman (northwest), Mar del Plata (east) or Cordoba (north), the Argentine media reported ongoing mobilizations, but the most important was that in Buenos Aires, where several thousand people demonstrated under an impressive police force, AFP reported.
AFP
The mobilization (on the theme “The food emergency cannot wait any longer”) responded to the call of trade unions, small parties and social movements of the left or the extreme left, but not the largest central party, the CGT, which in turn announces that it is coming soon a general strike that will be the second in President Milei's three months in power.
The demonstrators are protesting against a planned overhaul of public food aid for around 38,000 soup kitchens across the country. According to the latest figures for 2023, there are more than 40% poor people in Argentina.
AFP
The Milei government wants to eliminate “middlemen” and “poverty managers,” targeting a variety of social organizations that it says engage in “extortion and multi-million dollar trafficking” of aid funds.
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.
AFP
“In just over two months, this government has created a situation of critical poverty,” denounced Nahuel Orellana of the small left-wing MST party at a procession in Buenos Aires on Friday.
The government denies that it has stopped supplying food aid and reiterates that “no soup kitchen that met the standards” and was registered with the Ministry of Human Capital stopped its aid.
AFP
Train stations emptied by a driver's strike on Wednesday, a strike in hospitals on Thursday, demonstrations on Friday, a teachers' strike planned for Monday at the start of the school year: In Argentina, the social temperature is rising due to austerity measures.
The government expects the balance sheet to begin to recover with a budget surplus in January and expects inflation to fall to single digits in the second half of the year (20% in January).