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By Ryan Villarreal: Subscribe to Ryan's RSS feed | November 21, 2012 9:01 PM GMT
A general strike has paralyzed Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires, bringing public transportation to a halt and shutting down ports and airlines Wednesday.
The 24-hour strike was called by workers that operate the country’s buses, trains and airports and is the latest demonstration against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner amid widespread protests against soaring inflation, rising crime and repeated government corruption scandals.
Demonstrators blocked roads with burning tires, while others rallied in the Plaza de Mayo and in front of the presidential palace. The city’s commercial districts were quiet as public transit shut down and many businesses closed for the day.
"The silence of the streets, the absence of people in the streets, in the shops, in the businesses -- this is the voice that the government must hear," said Hugo Moyano, a representative of the CGT labor union, Reuters reported.
In addition to general dissatisfaction with the economy and government performance, the unions have demanded lower income taxes and an increase in the minimum wage.
Fernandez downplayed the unions’ claims of public support, saying that the demonstrators had intimidated people in the capital, but that other parts of the country were not as greatly affected.
"Today wasn't a strike. It wasn't even a picket. This was about strong-arm tactics and threats," Fernandez said, according to Reuters.
"Luckily the strike was restricted to a few areas in the capital, because people in the rest of the country went to work as usual," she added, the BBC reported.
Regardless, public discontent is mounting as inflation hits 25 percent, though the government has reported it at around 10 percent, and economic growth has slowed to 2.2 percent this year from 9 percent in 2011.
"This general strike raises the possibility that she [Fernandez] is losing control of the street and it puts the unions that are allied with her in an uncomfortable position," Ignacio Labaqui, an economic analyst at Medley Global Advisors, told Reuters.
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