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Reuters; BBC (with additional material by MSNBC and AFP). 20 December 2001. Argentine President De La Rua Quits - Govt Source; Argentina president defies protesters. Argentine President Fernando de la Rua resigned on Thursday amid some of the worst social unrest in more than a decade over his government's austerity policies, a government source said. "It's true, he's resigned," the source told Reuters. De la Rua was only halfway through his four year term. In theory, the presidency will be taken over by Senate head Ramon Puerta, next in line to take up the leadership of the country after De la Rua's running mate quit last year, leaving the vice-presidency vacant. But Puerta, a member of the opposition Peronist Party, could choose to call early elections. All the members of the cabinet handed in their resignations. A seventeenth person was killed in street protests in Argentina on Thursday as frustration with skyrocketing unemployment and deepening poverty bubbled into a second day of massive demonstrations against the government. The latest victim was reportedly shot and killed by the owner of a service station, who fired on looters in a middle-class section of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people around the country have taken to the streets since Wednesday. Tens of thousands of people have defied the state of emergency - which grants the police special powers of arrest - to protest against the government's austerity measures. Hundreds of people gathered on the historic Plaza de Mayo outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires. Riot police on horseback, tear gas and water canons were used to disperse the crowds. More than 200 demonstrators, some beating calfskin drums and waving the Argentine flag, chanted anti-government slogans outside the Government House, where the president has his offices. Riot police then swept across the adjoining square, hauling at least seven of the protesters into vans. Meanwhile, Argentina's largest labor union, the CGT, with eight million members, called a general strike for 6:00 pm (2100 GMT) Thursday, union sources said. The strike will continue until midnight Friday, the sources said. A dissident segment of the CGT had announced earlier Thursday that it would call workers out on strike Friday for an indefinite strike. The BBC's Tom Gibb in Buenos Aires says there is a power vacuum in Argentina as no-one is taking decisions. Our correspondent says most Argentinians do not trust any of their politicians and this appears to be a revolt against a whole political class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
