ARGENTINA: Social Crisis Triggers Wave of Looting

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 19 2001 (IPS) - The acute social and economic crisis plaguing Argentina has sparked a wave of looting of supermarkets by men and women of all ages.

President Fernando de la Rúa ordered the Ministry of Social Development to urgently distribute seven million dollars worth of food. But jobless, hungry and tired of empty promises, thousands of people decided to take the matter into their own hands and help themselves to food in local grocery stores and supermarkets.

“I have never before had to do this in my life,” said a 60- year-old woman who cried after wrestling with her neighbours to fill a bag with food items that she took from a mountain of packages piled in the middle of the street outside a supermarket in Ciudadela, a neighbourhood in the Greater Buenos Aires, a city of around 12 million.

The unrest heated up in this Southern Cone country of 36 million after the Economy Ministry slapped restrictions on cash withdrawals three weeks ago to curb a run on banks.

The measure, which hurt local businesses, dealt a deadly blow to millions who barely scrape by on the small cash income they earn in the informal economy.

On his way out of a meeting with cabinet ministers, provincial governors, and business, labour and church leaders Wednesday, the president was insulted by a crowd, and a stone was hurled against his car.

A businessman who took part in the meeting said people were “rightfully” demanding food. He added that De la Rúa was “too calm” about the situation.

While the government was discussing measures to assist the population, at least 100 supermarkets and shops were looted, and the legislatures of the provinces of Cordoba and Buenos Aires became the targets of violent incidents.

Police cracked down on protesters in Cordoba, the capital of the province of the same name, after they set fire to the local parliament to protest salary cuts and demand back wages.

“We prefer to die in the street than to die of hunger and indignity!” shouted a municipal employee in Cordoba, outraged by the police repression of workers whose incomes were not only slashed, but who have not been paid for months.

Incidents were also reported in the capital of Argentina. In three Buenos Aires neighbourhoods, people crowded outside supermarkets noisily demanding food.

The unrest erupted in various parts of Argentina simultaneously, but in an isolated manner. The rioting was not connected to the frequent roadblocks staged by the movement of the unemployed over the past several years. On Tuesday, at least five blockades were thrown up around the country.

“They threw the food on the ground, for us to fight with each other like animals!” complained one woman who said she had five children and a husband who has been out of work for three years. Similar scenes were repeated in at least 10 neighbourhoods in the Greater Buenos Aires, as well as in other provinces.

“We’re hungry! You should see the children when they have to go to bed on just a cup of tea…the hunger is driving us mad,” said one demonstrator outside a supermarket.

“We want work, but there are no jobs, and we’re hungry!” echoed a man carrying his young son on his shoulders.

In the last wave of looting and rioting in Argentina, 771 shops were vandalised from May 1989 – shortly after the electoral triumph of Carlos Menem (1989-99) – to March 1990. At that time, inflation had soared to a four-digit figure.

Then-president Raúl Alfonsín (1983-89) was forced to hand over power early to Menem in June 1989, six months before the end of his term, due to the unrest. The riots left 17 dead, at least 300 injured and over 3,100 under arrest.

But many more people in Argentina are armed today than in 1989, warned a leader of the unemployed movement, Juan Carlos Alderete. Indeed, TV cameras on Tuesday filmed shopkeepers proudly showing off their shotguns in the city of Rosario, in the central-eastern province of Santa Fe.

Many of the demonstrators complain that they have been out of work for months, and some for years, while retirees point out that they earn ridiculously small pensions.

One-third of the population has fallen into poverty and 18 percent is unemployed.

However, casual work, the classification and selling of garbage, and panhandling allowed many to barely eek out a living – until the 1,000 dollar monthly cash withdrawal limit was announced by the government, and people saw their sources of cash dry up.

None of the looters went to the trouble of covering their faces or avoiding the TV cameras. Residents of poor neighbourhoods who had gathered in small groups outside supermarkets to demand food broke through the metal curtains and the windows and worked like ants until, in some cases, they emptied the shops.

Men, women and children emerged carrying boxes, bags, bottles of champagne or wine, whole sides of beef and vegetables. Some were even seen dragging a soft-drink refrigerator out of a store. People who depend on garbage for their livelihood, selling paper and cardboard, offered their carts to haul merchandise.

“We’re going to drink champagne like they do!” shouted one young man carrying several bottles. He was alluding to the high incomes of political leaders and legislators, who are the targets of harsh criticism for failing to come up with solutions to the grievances of the citizens.

The rioters “take what they find, whatever they can carry, not only food…but you can see it is an expression of rage. Some even break whatever they have in front of them,” commented one retailer whose small shop was ransacked in the town of Concordia, in the province of Entre Rios.

Most shopkeepers admitted that the looting was triggered by people’s hunger. But they also complained that in the present circumstances, with sales down and taxes growing higher and higher, rioting and the prospect of having to keep their shutters down will deal a coup de grace to their businesses.

Many business owners shouted to people to go and demand food outside the seat of government. “But there is no food there,” responded one unemployed man in Rosario. “And people need to fill their stomachs today, they can’t keep waiting for assistance plans that never arrive.”

The tension began to be felt last Friday, when hundreds of people in different towns in the interior gathered peacefully outside supermarkets, asking for bags of food.

In some cases the demonstrators were sent away with food, and in others they were violently dispersed by police.

But by Tuesday night and in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the crowds demanding food had mushroomed and things became more and more ugly, culminating in looting, not only of supermarkets but also of stores selling clothing and home appliances. Some businesses were totally trashed.

The rioting occurred spontaneously, although in a few cases shop-owners complained that small groups incited their neighbours, promising free food. Later, those same individuals broke into the stores, urging those around them to haul out the merchandise.

The police were given orders not to “repress,” but to “persuade” the looters to drop the food and return home. However, TV crews filmed police using tear gas and rubber bullets, while in other cases police stood by passively while people carried off furniture, computers and even refrigerators.

Once the rioters broke into the stores, the police could be seen urging them not to take money or cash registers. Meanwhile, people drove up in cars, which were packed full of merchandise.

The supermarkets are trying to organise orderly donations of food, which many were already doing through church charity groups, in order to prevent throngs of thousands from standing outside demanding food and blocking access to customers.

A number of stores, especially those belonging to large supermarket chains, decided not to open Wednesday. The shops that did open their doors did so under heavy police guard, including police on horseback, like in La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires.

One crowd complained loudly when a supermarket made them wait a long time before handing over wilted and spoiled food items.