After long queues, many are told there is no money
I retired in 1993, at the age of 65, from my job at the Goethe Institute in Buenos Aires.
I was in charge of the music department and then media relations. I had a good salary because it came from Germany.
As a pensioner I feel devastated emotionally by the decisions that have been taken. I know my anger and anguish is shared by many. We have been destroyed.
I feel raped. They have stuck their hands in my pockets and they haven't even asked for my permission.
Suddenly I find that my pension has been cut by 13%, on top of an earlier reduction.
Afraid
I worked all my life thinking that my last years would be peaceful.
Now, they have taken away my ability to save, the possibility of having something extra. I have to think on a day-to-day basis.
I dread going to the bank to get my pension, wondering whether it has been paid or not.
I have to go today, and I do not know what I will find, after Wednesday's looting.
I don't know where to hide the money when I leave the bank. I am afraid of being mugged in the street.
If I do not receive my money, I will not be able to meet my obligations.
Pensioners punished
Medical insurance, for example, is expensive - I pay $250 a month.
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YOUR COMMENTS I think we have reached the bottom. But this should be the end of almost 50 years of corruption and injustice. Emilio Mendez Paz, Argentina   More of your comments | |||
But I'm lucky. If I had to depend on the state system, it just isn't working. People are not getting the medicines they need.
I can still afford to pay for medicines, because of my insurance - but I do not know how long I'll be able to do so.
I have to pay for my house. With much effort I managed to buy a flat, not big but comfortable.
I keep asking myself whether I will be able to keep my house. If I do not receive my pension, how can I keep the payments up?
Why are we always the ones to be punished?
Politicians untouched
I think that after a life of work, one has the right to live with dignity - and that is what they are taking away from us.
It is scandalous the way some politicians and their associates are overpaid, people who are not qualified for their jobs or do not even bother to turn up for work.
Politicians and the judiciary remain untouched - the sacrifice is made by one sector of the population.
I am one of the luckier ones.
But what about the majority of pensioners, who only receive $150 a month - that only allows them to buy medicines, nothing else.
No hope
Some pensioners, many of them very old, have queued for hours only to be told by the cashier that their pension has not been paid.
One woman collapsed after being told that she wouldn't even have money for the medicines she needed. The cashier gave her $50 of his own money.
That is the level to which we have fallen.
A friend of mine is on the minimum pension. I pay for her supermarket shopping, but I do not know how long I will be able to. Then what will happen to her?
I have led a happy life, but the circumstances are bringing me down.
We are living without hope, without being able to see a way out. Even worse we are living an injustice.