Anger boils over in Argentina

Gangs have looted supermarkets in several cities

Protesters in Argentina set fire to the town hall in the provincial capital of Cordoba, after a night of violence there and in the capital, Buenos Aires.

In Buenos Aires, demonstrators pelted President Fernando de la Rua with eggs and paving stones as he left a crisis meeting on Wednesday morning.

In Cordoba, a car-making centre northwest of Buenos Aires, workers protesting at government plans to reduce wages and apply other austerity measures, occupied the town hall, and then set light to the ground floor of the building.

The poor are helpless, and the rich are worried. No sector of society is satisfied with what they are experiencing

Jose Manuel de la Sota
Governor of Cordoba

Police dispersed the demonstrators using tear gas and rubber bullets.

So far there have been no official reports of casualties, although local television showed several people hurt and others being arrested.

In several poor suburbs of Buenos Aires, people smashed shop windows in the early hours of Wednesday, stealing food and clothing as police in full riot gear fired tear gas to disperse them.

The violence continued on Wednesday in poor suburbs of Buenos Aires, with supermarkets and shops being looted in Banfield and Lomas de Zamora.

Looting of supermarkets was also reported from other cities such as Rosario, north of Buenos Aires, and Mendoza in the west.

The opposition governor of Cordoba province, Jose Manuel de la Sota, said the situation was descending into "anarchy", and put the blame on the central government.

"The poor are helpless, and the rich are worried. No sector of society is satisfied with what they are experiencing," he told a local radio station.

Earlier, the government announced it would distribute some 200,000 kilos (425,000lb) of food to help alleviate the situation in poorer areas of Argentina.

Deepening recession

The social unrest has been provoked by a deepening economic crisis in Argentina.

There has been a recession in Argentina for almost four years, and unemployment has risen to almost 20%.

Mr de la Rua and Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo are desperately trying to avoid a devaluation or a default on Argentina's foreign debt payments.

Women fight to get food handouts

Earlier this month, the IMF refused Argentina a further $1.3bn in standby loans, unless it balanced its budget for the year 2002.

Mr Cavallo has put forward budget proposals slashing government spending by 20% - but only by cutting public sector wages and reducing pension provisions.

Opposition critics

Opposition Peronists have criticised the measures, and the Peronist-dominated CGT trade union organisation called a 24-hour strike last week in protest.

Mr de la Rua's Radical Party government has already introduced eight previous austerity packages to stave off an economic meltdown.

But Jose Luis Gioja, the Senate leader of the Peronist Party said: "Austerity programmes have only served to complicate the lives of Argentines."

The previous Radical government under President Raul Alfonsin was forced to hand over power to the Peronists several months early in 1989, when food riots over hyperinflation threatened the country's stability.