Argentina cracks down on a three-month protest against an increase in grain export taxes
Argentina cracks down on farm blockade
By VICENTE L. PANETTA – 10 hours ago
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — 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. |
