In Argentina, thousands demonstrate for “food emergency”.

Demonstrations gathered thousands of people to warn of a food crisis, during a movement against the measures of Javier Milla’s ultraliberal government on Friday 23 February in different cities of Argentina.

In Tucuman (in the northwest of the country), Mar del Plata (in the east) or Córdoba (in the north), the Argentine media reported constant gatherings, but the largest was organized in Buenos Aires, where thousands of people demonstrated, monitored. By an imposing police force, Agence France-Presse noted.

Dynamics, on the theme “The food crisis cannot wait any longer”, responded to calls from unions, small parties and social movements of the left or far left, but not from the largest union centre, the CGT, which soon announced a general strike. The latter would be the second event three months after President Milli came to power.

Demonstrators are protesting planned changes to public food assistance for the roughly 38,000 soup kitchens nationwide. According to the latest statistics of 2023, more than 40% of Argentina’s population is poor.

Mili wants to remove the administration “Mediator” And “Poverty Managers”According to her, targeting numerous social organizations involved in “Extortion and the multi-million dollar deal” with help.

“Severe conditions of poverty”

Eventually, the government wants to establish direct aid at beneficiary sites, but in the meantime, demonstrators decry the suspension of aid, at a time when austerity is sending more families to soup kitchens.

“In just two months, this government has created a situation of severe poverty”At a march in Buenos Aires on Friday, Nahuel Orellana of the Socialist Workers Movement, a small left-wing party, denounced.

The government denies stopping delivery of food aid and claims “It’s all kept in the soup kitchen (standards) » and was registered with the Ministry of Human Capital continued to receive assistance.

The effects of the austerity measures are beginning to be felt: Stations empty on Wednesday due to drivers’ strike, strike at hospitals on Thursday, demonstrations on Friday, teachers’ strike planned for Monday, first day of school…

The government, for its part, welcomes the start of recovery in accounts with a budget surplus in January, and inflation – 20% in January, forecast to decline to single digits in the second half.