Argentina Rocked By Bloody Riots

June 27, 2002
By Simon Gardner

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Police firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters have fought pitched battles with anti-government protesters in the Argentine capital, leaving two dead in the worst riots since the elected government was toppled in December.

The clashes began when riot police tried to disperse hundreds of unemployed protesters, some wearing ski masks and holding slingshots, blocking roads into the capital to decry economic policies that have deepened poverty and joblessness across Argentina.

Officials said at least 17 people were injured and 160 arrested.

As evening fell, hundreds more protesters gathered outside Congress and the presidential palace in central Buenos Aires, and the clanging of pots and pans as ordinary Argentines joined in the demonstrations recalled scenes that preceded the fall of President Fernando de la Rueid food riots.

Argentina's caretaker leader, Eduardo Duhalde, languishing in the polls and fighting for his political future, had vowed a get-tough approach on protests as he struggled to convince a sceptical International Monetary Fund to agree to an aid pact vital to stemming a spiralling social crisis and punishing four-year recession.

Protesters, who demand government aid for everything from medicine to food and who regularly block main highways around Argentina, accused the baton-wielding police of heavy-handedness. They said more than 90 demonstrators were injured.

"We have got to end Duhalde and the IMF's reign. If we don't get change, we will have to fight on," said one picketer brandishing a catapult. Tear gas mingled with smoke from burning tires laid on the road by demonstrators.

Television footage showed the corpse of one of the two protesters shot to death on the outskirts of the capital being rushed from the scene in the back of a pickup truck, his lifeless eyes wide open. It was unclear who fired the shots.

Rights group Amnesty International called for a probe into the killings, while the smallest of Argentina's three major unions, the Centre of Argentine Workers, called a general strike for Thursday to protest the deaths.

The riots were the latest in a series of violent protests this year against Latin American governments as they grapple with mounting economic problems.

Peru has been hit by major riots against privatisation plans, Venezuela was rocked by a failed coup, and neighbouring Uruguayans have gone on strike against IMF austerity policies.

DESPERATE MEASURES

In the Argentine capital, hundreds of protesters scattered through the streets, falling over each other as they ran through a gritty industrial suburb after the clashes. Some threw Molotov cocktails. Others shattered car windows.

One protester was caught on television beating a policeman on the head outside a hospital where injured had been taken. A camera panned in on the bloodied faces of protesters.

One in four workers is unemployed as Argentina scrambles to pull out of a recession that culminated in a default on part of the $140 billion public debt and the end of a decade-old currency peg to the dollar.

The IMF wants clear signs that a government pressured by growing poverty and unemployment will stick to vows to end the runaway spending that put the economy in crisis.

Deepening poverty -- one in two Argentines are no longer able to buy basic food and clothing -- and soaring unemployment have made Argentina a social pressure cooker.

Twenty-seven people died in December amid food riots and looting that forced the resignation of De la Rua, ushering in the political chaos that finally saw Duhalde named as interim leader a month later by Congress.

The peso has now plunged toward four to the dollar -- shedding 75 percent of its value against the dollar since January's devaluation and prompting sharp price increases on supermarket shelves that analysts fear could herald a return to the hyperinflation of the late 1980s.

An advance IMF mission left Argentina over the weekend with no sign of progress toward a package analysts say would be just a rollover of existing obligations to lenders such as the fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank at best -- if a deal could be reached at all.

The unrest came as Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna was in the United States to meet senior IMF officials on Thursday in a bid to get negotiations on the pact rolling.

Lavagna's spokesman said in New York that Argentina was discussing aid of about $9 billion with the IMF -- the amount of multilateral debt coming due this year.

Analysts say Duhalde's future depends on his securing a deal. If he fails, he could be forced to call early elections, which would likely only deepen Argentina's chaos.

The protesters' deaths will only compound the pressure.

"It's going to cause a tremendous problem for Duhalde," said local political analyst James Neilson. "They're going to accuse Duhalde of being a fascist and being overly committed to the IMF. It's very, very bad news."
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