Social movement Unidad Piquetera (UP) is marching to the Ministry of Social Development on Tuesday to demand more government support for Argentina’s poor and hungry.
Starting from Puente Pueyrredón, on the border between Buenos Aires city and the southern suburb of Avellaneda, the protest will finish at the Ministry of Social Development on Avenida 9 de Julio and Belgrano. Protest leaders say they will camp out in front of the building if they do not receive a response to their demands.
The slogan for the protest is “Not with the kids’ food.” Polo Obrero leader Eduardo Belliboni claimed that community soup kitchens have not been supplied with food by the government for “the last four to five months” and that funds designated to social programs are being used for “the payment of external debt to the IMF and electoral campaigns.”
The Social Development Ministry has been contacted for comment.
Protests and marches are also planned in 87 locations across the country, blocking roads and creating traffic delays. In Mendoza, protestors have peacefully assembled at the intersection of Acceso Este and Avellaneda, partially blocking the road.
Belliboni announced four demands on Twitter last night, before the start of the march: an increase in supply of food for community soup kitchens, more tools for precarious self-employed workers, a one-off extra welfare payment to account for inflation, and longer-term social welfare increases to match the rate of inflation.
At a press conference at the Obelisk last Friday, Belliboni demanded a response to the “current situation of misery, hunger and exploitation.” He was speaking alongside representatives from social organizations the Teresa Rodríguez Movement and the Movimiento Social de Trabajadores. During the conference, they said they would march if they did not receive a timely response from the government, and called on other social organizations to join them.