Protesters demand food for soup kitchens and reject adjustments

2024-02-23 14:42:02

BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Dozens of social organizations and left-wing parties demonstrated on Friday in Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina to demand that ultraliberal President Javier Milei send food to soup kitchens attended by families without resources and in against their adjustment policies.

Thousands of protesters gathered near the Ministry of Human Capital, partially blocking public roads despite the government’s security protocol that prohibits cuts, to demand that Minister Sandra Pettovello “resolve the problem of hunger” in Argentina, where the Poverty affects more than 50% of the population of some 47 million inhabitants, according to private organizations.

The day of protest, which was called with the slogan of cutting 500 streets and routes throughout the country, brings together Peronist and left-wing social organizations behind the same claim that previously channeled their demands separately.

Eduardo Belliboni, leader of the Polo Obrero party, told The Associated Press that more than 50 organizations “that fight against hunger” have joined forces in a context of rampant inflation “because the State has not delivered food for more than two months” to about 45,000 soup kitchens “as a result of Milei’s adjustment policy.”

“We hope that the government listens to this claim because if it does not, we will continue with the fighting plan,” said the leftist leader.

Belliboni questioned that the government’s program to reduce public spending and achieve balance of accounts is “being paid by the most impoverished social sectors such as workers, retirees, the unemployed or those who have precarious jobs.”

Carlos Fernández, who works in a soup kitchen south of the Argentine capital and is a member of the Front of Organizations in Struggle (FOL), said for his part that the food shortage that began to occur last year under the management of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) was seriously exacerbated by the Milei government, which took power on December 10.

“Last year they only made five food deliveries to us; We already came with a terribly bad floor… the canteens today are supported by pure self-management of colleagues who ask for donations from companies, neighbors, municipalities and with that they try to open even a few days a week; But that won’t be able to last much longer,” Fernández lamented.

The government has admitted that the most urgent social programs are being held back by an audit of the aid delivery processes that are tainted with “discretion” and corrupt maneuvers.

In that sense, he announced that a new method will be implemented so that aid arrives and is not diverted through intermediaries, alluding to the social organizations that coordinated this assistance with the State.

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