Thousands of people took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Wednesday to mark the Day of San Cayetano, the patron saint of bread and work.
The annual Catholic march, which highlights poverty and stresses the importance of work, had a strong political tone this year that was critical of President Javier Milei’s government, which has introduced strict spending cuts since taking office last December and overseen a slump in workers contributing to state coffers.
Gathering under the slogan "peace, bread, land, housing and work," demonstrators heeded a wide call by social, political and trade union organisations to turn out in large numbers. The rally began in Liniers at a shrine to the Italian saint, who is known to English speakers as Saint Cajetan. Protesters then marched to the Plaza de Mayo for a round of speeches outside the Casa Rosada, the seat of Argentina’s government.
"The government of the despotic Milei has multiplied poverty. Twenty-five million Argentines live below the poverty line and 8.5 million are hungry," said Daniel Catalano, a leader from the ATE state workers' union, during the demonstration’s final act.
In a homily staged earlier in the day, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge García Cuerva, had called on officials "not to pass by” the “so many wounded.” He called for help for the “victims of exclusion."
"There are many ways to pass them by: to live self-absorbed, to ignore others, to be indifferent, or to discuss poverty and destitution figures on desks, sterilised of tears and humanity," bemoaned the Church leader, who was appointed to his post by Pope Francis in 2023.
Nationwide, poverty stood at 41.7 percent in the second half of 2023, according to the INDEC national statistics and bureau. The body is due to release its next measurement in September.
However, projections by the prestigious Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) puts poverty at 55 percent and extreme poverty at 20.3 percent, a level not seen since the 2001-2002 economic crisis, the nation’s worst on record.
Extreme poverty, or destitution, affects 15.3 percent of people in the nation’s capital, double the figure seen in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from City Hall.
These figures come in a context of growing recession and an annual inflation rate of 271 percent.
Wednesday’s mobilisation, which was dominated by leaders of trade unions and social organisations, saw protesters enter the Plaza de Mayo carrying images of the Virgin of Luján. As they did so, they chanted that the country “is not for sale."
In his daily press conference, Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni decried the political nature of the religious act, complaining that the rally is “led by political figures who are responsible for the economic disaster that this government inherited.”
In the first six months of his administration, President Milei’s government has overseen a large fall in the number of registered workers. More than 600,000 have stopped contributing social security payments over the period, according to data from the Social Security Undersecretariat.
– TIMES/AFP
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