Thousands of demonstrators from different social organisations on Monday demanded the reintroduction of food deliveries to community soup kitchens across Argentina, while in Buenos Aires City there were clashes with the police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters.
“The hunger experienced in different areas [of the country] is terrible. We’re here to claim for them because we haven’t received goods at soup kitchens for four months and children are in need,” said María Medina, a leader from left-wing organisation Polo Obrero.
“Hunger is the limit” was the slogan published in the call led by the Unión de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Economía Popular (UTEP) movement on its social media accounts. “Let’s go deep into our action plan in the face of a total lack of response by the Government to the food emergency and adjustment to the popular economy," said the group.
Since his inauguration on December 10 last year, President Javier Milei's government has introduced strict austerity measures to slash public spending, achieving a fiscal surplus in January and February for the first time in Argentina since early 2011.
The impact of the cutbacks has been growing social tension, stirred up by rising consumer prices and public transport and utility hikes due to the removal of price controls and subsidies for much of the population.
Milei's new Human Capital Ministry has also audited monies given out to social organisations, routing cash via other groups. Some soup kitchens report having received their last food delivery in November and say they are relying on donations and municipal aid to care for an increasing number of people.
The government claims that it will reach the most vulnerable by direct payment to avoid intermediaries who often come from picket groups and social organisations, most of whom oppose the Milei administration.
Officials in the government accuse the so-called 'middlemen' of being “the managers of poverty," lining their own pockets in the process.
The Human Capital Ministry has started an audit to allow for "the transparent purchase of food,” but community centres are denouncing that in the meantime deliveries have been suspended to some 40,000 soup kitchens across the country – saving the government money in the process.
Supporters of Milei's La Libertad Avanza party criticised violence at the protests, which demonstrators said was initiated by heavy handed policing.
Ruling party lawmaker Ramiro Marra posted a video on X showing a water cannon charging against demonstrators and praised the police for preventing roadblocks.
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich's new 'anti-picket' protocol, designed to stop street blockades, has been criticised by rights groups as impinging on the right to demonstrate.
Critics have also slammed Milei's approach to dissent, criticising his "violent" use of social media to stir up anger against his enemies.
Amnesty warning
On Monday, Amnesty International Argentina warned at a press conference marking the first 100 days of the Milei administration that his government has "used an infallible recipe of confrontation and disinformation to break boundaries that led to setbacks in human rights."
"We are concerned about the profound impact that some of the measures taken have had on people's lives and rights. We have been monitoring governments of all political spectrums for years and it is our duty to expose the measures that generate setbacks," said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina.
"To the economic impoverishment of a large part of society, this administration adds a new leadership model of non-dialogue and permanent violence. The interest of the public debate is thus fixed on confrontation, hatred and fighting," warned the leader of the NGO.
Paola García Rey, Amnesty's deputy director, said the NGO had denounced "different governments of all colours and ideologies" for creating "the deep economic and social crisis that Argentina has been going through in recent years."
"How these processes of change are carried out and the way in which these changes impact on people is as relevant as the objective to be achieved," he added.
– TIMES/AFP
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