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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Argentina cracks down on farm blockade
  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:10:19 -0600

Argentina cracks down on farm blockade
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310ap_argentina_farm_crisis.html

By VICENTE L. PANETTA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Police officers detain Alfredo De Angeli, a prominent farmers'
activist , for blockading the road in Gualeguaychu, on the Argentinean border
with Uruguay, Saturday, June 14, 2008. The arrests Saturday of about 20
protesters were broadcast on live national TV. They threaten to inflame a
tense standoff between farmers and the government of Argentina's President
Cristina Fernandez. All activists were released Saturday. (AP Photo/Ricardo
Santellan)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentine police in riot gear broke up a farmers'
highway blockade Saturday, briefly arresting 19 demonstrators including a
prominent leader of a three-month protest against an increase in grain export
taxes.

The arrests near the city of Gualeguaychu and Argentina's river border with
Uruguay were broadcast on national television and threatened to inflame a
tense standoff between farmers and President Cristina Fernandez's center-left
government.

Strike leader Alfredo de Angeli and the other demonstrators were later freed
following noisy protests in the capital demanding their release, including
one protest outside the government house. Riot police brought in water tanks
and monitored the demonstration, but there were no clashes in Buenos Aires.

"The government is not going to pacify us like this - on the contrary. The
protest will continue," de Angeli told Cronica TV after his release.

Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez accused striking farmers of "generating a
climate of growing public unrest." He said 19 people were arrested.

The crisis was touched off by the president's decision this spring to raise
export taxes on grains more than 10 percent, saying farmers have benefited
from rising world prices and the profits should be spread around to help poor
Argentines.

Growers countered that they need to reinvest the profits and the higher taxes
make it difficult for them to make a living.

Three months of bitter protests and road blockades have emptied supermarket
shelves and led to shortages of meat, oil, flour, vegetables and fuel. Farm
goods are the largest source of foreign currency in Argentina, which is the
world's third biggest exporter of soy and corn.

President Fernandez has refused to repeal the tax increase and government
officials have said they would guarantee free movement on roads across
Argentina.

Border police in riot gear carrying batons were seen making the arrests and
dragging away protesters.

"I believe they arrested us for blocking the road but nobody read us any
charges," Juan Maya, one of the detained, told Maxima radio.

Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo denied police violently cracked down on
protesters.

"There was no repression. The border police were not carrying guns or tear
gas, just shields," he told cable channel TodoNoticias. "They were trying to
clear the people who were on the road, and they resisted."

The farm strike has been joined by cargo truckers, who have been idled by
three separate farm strikes that all but halted grain exports for weeks. They
have vowed to protest, blocking about 200 roadways, until the farm strikes
are resolved.





  • [Livingontheland] Argentina cracks down on farm blockade, Tradingpost, 06/15/2008

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