ARGENTINA: A Proclaimed Economic Plan – and People Eating Cats

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 9 1996 (IPS) - The Argentine government expressed its concern on Thursday about reports that slumdwellers are eating cats, snakes and horses, but tried to calm the general alarm.

Secretary of Social Development Eduardo Amadeo said President Carlos Menem called from Central America, worried about news of the survival strategies of a group of poor families in the eastern Argentine city of Rosario.

“The worst urban poverty in Argentina is in Rosario,” said Amadeo. But he denied that the current neoliberal economic model is to blame for the rise in poverty in that city, where 21 percent of the population is unemployed. “Poverty grew in Rosario 15 years ago,” he argued.

According to statistics, national poverty levels rose again last year after dropping from 1991 to 1994.

The Secretary of Social Development admits a 24 percent rise. But the Mediterranean Foundation, which provides researchers for the Ministry of the Economy, says poverty grew 45 percent.

In the town of Pergamino in Buenos Aires province, there is an enormous garbage dump, which some 200 people visit every day in search of food. And in the capital, elderly people dig through garbage cans, while hamburger chains have “clients” who wait outside for leftovers.

Vice-President Carlos Ruckauf said the increased offer of employment seen in April “marks the beginning of the end of the recession.”

And Interior Minister Carlos Corach called the report from Rosario a political “maneouvre.”

“There is no starvation in Rosario,” said Corach, who told reporters to ask the mayor of that city, who belongs to the left- leaning Solidarity Front, about the slums.

The closing of a number of factories was the main cause that led to 200,000 people living in extreme poverty in the city of Rosario, located in the eastern province of Santa Fe. And an average of 30 people a day reach the city, fleeing hunger and unemployment in the northern part of the country.

Soup kitchens run by the State feed 75,000 people. But others are foced to look through garbage or eat domestic animals.

In the Rosario slum ‘Ciudad Oculta’ (Hidden City), it was discovered that desperate people are eating cats and other animals. The heads of only four of its 29 families have jobs. The rest are unemployed, and many sell cardboard collected in the garbage.

The Catholic Church expressed its horror, and pointed out that its bishops have been warning about the extreme poverty for a long time.

Bishop Rafael Rey, the president of Caritas – the Church’s social aid organisation – said “the country is on the wrong road if it continues to forget its poorest citizens, because stability is of little use to those who have nothing: They don’t have any bread today, and won’t have any tomorrow either.

“The economic plan cannot continue sacrificing the poor to be successful. That should not be tolerated. How long will people continue to suffer like this? It is intolerable that children die of hunger, and don’t receive any support.”

Rey said “we cannot incite violence. But there is a lot of crime that is a consequence of poverty.” He added that people come to see him, admitting they will have to steal because they have no work and have not eaten for days.