Live from BsAs

Months before my arrival in Argentina, Cristina Kirchner´s government has increased their taxation on farmers and their products. They also have limited the amount of beef exportation to keep down the national price on meat products. This has caused lots of civil unrest on the parts of those who own farm lands and are in the agriculture business.

The neighborhood where I live, Recoleta, is rather wealthy and many of its residents are landowners whose incomes come from the profits that products on their lands provide. Ever since government´s new taxation on the "el campo,¨ people have been organizing protests against the current president. Besides street demonstrations, everyday there are people who just start banging their pots and pans simultaneously as a form of protest. Every night when I get home, around eight o´clock, the whole neighborhood is drowned in those banging and clanking noises.

Today (Wed). I witnessed my first huge demonstration on Avenida de Mayo, the heart of the Buenos Aires. Av. de Mayo is the street where most government buildings are, starting with the Plaza de Mayo, where the president´s office resides. It also happens to be where I work. So going to work this afternoon was rather difficult. The bus dropped me few blocks away from I usually get off, and I had to walk through mobs of people to get to where I intern. People were waving flags of different colors, rifles were being fired on the air, protesters were beating their drums and shouting angry phrases. Some guy saw me walking down the street, trying to get past all the protestors, and screamed ¨china!" (chinese girl) - I have no idea why.

But in any case, I got the cross street where I work, Av. de Mayo and Av. 9 de Julio, which happen to be the two biggest streets in BsAs and where lots of demontrations start. Trying to get to work, I found myself right between two masses of people facing each other, each carrying a different color flag. "Oh crap, a crossfire!" I thought and started running in the opposite direction. Apparently, these demonstrations were to support the government and its actions of taxation on the rich farmers. At 4pm, Kirchner gave a speech at Plaza de Mayo, attended by thousands of supporters, protestors, politicians, etc.

While this protest is a big one for this month, protests and public demonstrations are just a part of Argentine life, especially in Buenos Aires, where people are forced to care about politics and accept this political instability as a way of life.