Argentines protest new round of utility hikes, power outages with candlelight march

[sandensea]

Argentines participated in a massive candlelight march in downtown Buenos Aires Thursday night to oppose the latest round of utility rate hikes announced by President Mauricio Macri.

The march, led by trade unions and social advocacy groups, followed pot-banging protests on Wednesday in cities around the country.

The candles were in reference to a 1700% rate increase for electricity since Macri took office in December 2015, as well as the fact that power outages have become two-thirds more frequent despite a relatively mild summer this year.

Consumer prices in general have doubled since Macri took office. Additional rate hikes of 1300% for gas, 1000% for water, and 300% for public transport, have led to the most prolonged consumer slump in nearly 20 years.

Pocketbooks and lined pockets

The Macri administration, according to Transport Workers Union leader Pablo Moyano, is insensitive to people's pocketbook issues.

"We hoped the administration would give families a break and revisit the issue; but, regrettably, they govern for only one sector," he said referring to the energy lobby - which includes the president's best friend and co-owner of the country's second-largest electric utility, Nicolás Caputo.

The resulting political fallout led Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren, a longtime Shell executive facing calls to resign since appearing in the Paradise Papers tax evasion scandal last year, to propose allowing customers to pay utility bills in installments.

Macri's 'Let's Change' caucus remained defiant however, and succeeded in blocking any discussion of rate hikes on the floor of the House by one vote on Wednesday.

"Instead of spending on electricity, people used to spend on 50-inch LED screens," pro-Macri Congressman Yamil Santoro scoffed yesterday.

The administration and allies such as the IMF defend the rate hikes as a way to spur investment by utilities as well as reduce fiscal deficits, which under Macri ballooned from $24 billion to $34 billion as corporate tax cuts weigh on revenues.

"It's easier to increase gas or transport," Moyano noted, "than to tax banks or mining companies."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diariopopular.com.ar%2Fpolitica%2Fprotestaron-contra-el-tarifazo-una-marcha-las-velas-n350433&edit-text=

Marching by candlelight against Macri's repeated utility rate hikes, Argentines are now paying 18 times more for electricity but enduring two thirds more blackouts.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Each step on the way to this stage has seemed to be a step Macri should wish to retract,

as the plunge into hell was happening so fast it appeared there would be a serious backlash at any time.

What on EARTH has he done to the country of his birth? My god.

The leader, Pablo Moyano, was so right when he said Macri is only governing for one sector of the population. That is a very narrow, very elite fragment of the people who also call their country their homeland.

Sandensea, this is beyond belief. The numbers are getting crazier and crazier.

It makes one imagine that they realize the people are going to feel they must do something to keep from being destroyed,and soon, and that there will be a scheme to create an incident through which they can put the fear of God in them by dragging out the military in a show of strength to remind the citizens of what has already happened in Argentina at the hands of a vicious right-wing dictatorship.

I would almost expect to see something like this any time. Remember, our own military has developed crowd-control weapons using technology it has never even thrown at the public before. I would have no doubt it would be feasable to see any of these vehicles showing up in any right-wing controlled country from now on, courtesy of the US taxpayers, who also will be funding the same weapons used to suppress dissent right here in the US, should dissent grow to the point someone like Trump decides to smack us all down at demonstrations.

The way things are going in Argentina, it would seem so likely something has to give, somewhere. How much more can the public indulge their greed?

Thank you for the news, painful, of course. We definitely need to know.

[sandensea]

2. And this amid a debt-fueled 'boom', so can you imagine what could happen when the loans dry up

Argentina, as you've pointed out, has been down this road before:

A brief, 2 or 3-year bonanza that relatively few people share in to begin with (somewhat like the U.S.'s in the late-1920s), followed by a bitter collapse under the weight of the bad debts.

It happened in '79-'81, and then again in '96-'99. Mountains of foreign debt to prop up the economy temporarily while the elite (including the Macri family) hot-foot billions out of the country, followed by the inevitable crash.

I just hope someone - even Macri - can come to their senses before it's too late.

Thank you as always, Judi, for your keen observations.