Clashes between police and protesters yesterday marked Monday 18/03/2024, a day of mass mobilization in Argentina over the “state of food emergency” and against austerity policies, as today marks one hundred days of extreme liberal President Javier Millay in power. .
At least three people were injuredaccording to a first media account that has not been confirmed by official sources, when the Police tried to stop marches and in sporadic incidents since yesterday morning in various places in Buenos Aires.
Police repeatedly used water cannons and tear gas, while some protesters threw stones at law enforcement at one of the flashpoints, the Avezaneda road bridge, AFP found. Journalists, including an AFP photojournalist, were sprayed with pepper spray by police.
Mobilizations across the Latin American country, with the central slogan “The limit is hunger”, were called by radical left organizations and social movements, which have already led a series of protests since Mr Millay took power on December 10. .
In a joint statement, they denounced the government for not supplying food for months to thousands of social kitchens to offer meals to the needy in poor neighborhoods across the country, according to international agencies and the Athens News Agency.
The government denies it has stopped supplies, but says it is carrying out strict audits of aid organizations and will create a “transparent system” in which social kitchens will receive aid “directly” and not through intermediaries it describes as “poverty managers”. .
In a recent interview, Javier Millay even stated that in some cases the collectives that offer free meals (more than 40,000, according to the previous government’s record) are virtual, or are operated by fraudsters who present inflated costs.
“We go to a social kitchen and find that it doesn’t exist. Or in some we hear that 500 people come regularly, when no more than 50 ever go,” said the president. His accusations caused an uproar and strong reactions from organizations, which countered that thousands of social kitchens never saw the government’s “inspectors”.
President Millay’s government, which today completes 100 days in power, is implementing “shock therapy”, a strict fiscal austerity program, to control inflation (+270%). Coupled with the devaluation of the currency, the peso, by more than 50% and the liberalization of prices, the program is hitting low and middle income citizens hard. Poverty now plagues 40% of the population in the once rich country.
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