Reuters. 11 January 2002. Protests Continue as Argentina's Peso Returns.
BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's peso currency faced its baptism of fire in the markets on Friday in the shadow of new protests at a government freeze on bank deposits. Several thousand people, exasperated by years of recession and mismanagement of the economy, clanged pots and pans in a protest in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace in the early hours of the morning. The demonstration, and others throughout central Buenos Aires, were mostly peaceful but they brought back memories of anti-government protests and food riots in December in which 27 people died. The latest protests were sparked by Duhalde's attempts to protect brittle banks by allowing them to keep some deposits under wraps until 2003. After the vast majority of protesters quietly went home, a few isolated vandals broke windows at banks, destroyed telephone booths and looted at least one supermarket after police dispersed with tear gas those left behind. "If I rob a bank, they throw me in jail. But if they rob me, then they say that's OK," one man screamed on local television as cars streamed by blasting their horns outside the historical building where Peronist Duhalde has worked since taking power just last week. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
