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sandensea

(21,643 posts)
Tue Apr 24, 2018, 06:11 PM Apr 2018

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

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.
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