The cops fired rubber bullets and tear gas against the workers, who were demanding jobs and overdue pay. Dozens of workers, and some cops, were wounded in the ensuing battle, and one worker, trucker Víctor Jofré, died of a heart attack.

The cops forced the protesting workers, known as piqueteros, to retreat into the town of General Mosconi, where the provincial police chased protesters into private homes and hospitals as they clubbed, tear-gassed, and fired rubber bullets at them.

In response, thousands of furious residents of Mosconi poured into the streets in solidarity with the piqueteros. They set the town hall afire and trashed some stores. The 400 provincial cops were forced to beat a retreat as residents organized a demonstration to denounce the repression, marching behind an image of the Virgin of Fatima.

The demonstration converged with a march by 10,000 workers who came over from the neighboring town of Tartagal in a show of support.

Government authorities hastily negotiated an end to the protest by pledging funds to expand job programs--largely miserly makework schemes such as sweeping streets--from 1,600 jobs to 3,000, and other unemployment subsidies. They also released those arrested and promised no reprisals against other protesters.

Workers held a meeting on the highway and voted to approve the agreement. Standing on a fuel truck as a speakers platform, piquetero Juan "Pepino" Fernández declared, "There are still things pending and we expect them to be resolved. Otherwise we're going to have to come back onto the highway. This was a lesson for the politicians. I hope that now there will be peace, but for that we need jobs."

Salta and other Argentina provinces have been seething since the government of President Fernando de la Rúa, which took office in December, cut funds to job programs as part of an austerity program demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

Salta has been hit hard by layoffs in the oil industry since the sell-off of the state-owned oil company YPF. Unemployment in the area has climbed to 25 percent.

Meanwhile, on May 30, some 3,000 rice farmers blocked National Highway 18 in the northeastern province of Entre Ríos. They demanded relief from the devastating crisis facing small agricultural producers.

In December, the northern province of Corrientes erupted as hundreds of public employees demanding back pay waged a pitched street battle with the police, who killed two workers.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home