this is the most significant story after ther afghan war, Argentina was once one of the richest counties in S America.Strike grinds country to a halt

Argentina’s economy, already crippled by nearly four years of recession, ground to a halt yesterday as President Fernando de la Rúa faced his eighth general strike in two years. The strike closed down offices, factories and public transport across the country. However, many shops were open in downtown Buenos Aires. There were also riots and roadblocks in some provinces. Driven to desperation by spiraling unemployment and plummeting living standards, tens of thousands of unionized workers stayed off the job yesterday amid scattered protests around the country and sporadic violence. The general strike was called by the official and dissident General Labour Confederations (CGT) and the Argentine Workers’ Congress (CTA). Official CGT leader Rodolfo Daer said the strike had “high levels of support” and demanded that the government lift restrictions it imposed two weeks ago on cash withdrawals from bank accounts. Daer said the strike had between 75% and 98% of support, depending on the province. But Labour Ministry authorities played down the magnitude of the protest, claiming that only 59% of workers nationwide joined the strike. Dissident CGT leader Hugo Moyano also said support for the strike was “very high” and that the protest evidences “the opposition to the (banking) restrictions” imposed by the government. The support of transport workers was crucial to the strike’s success as millions of Argentines were prevented from getting to their jobs. In the provincial city of Neuquén hundreds of state workers clashed with riot police amid flying rocks and tear gas. Six people were injured in the riots. Defying heavy rain, about 70 protesters crowded the entrance to the home of Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo on the upper-crust Avenida Libertador in this capital. Chanting anti-government slogans, they waved a huge banner painted with the face of working- class heroine, Evita Perón. “Look what these economic measures have done!” said one demonstrator, Roberto Pietronavi, 43, pointing to a group of protesters’ children eating a watery corn stew out of plastic bowls under the banner. “There are no jobs, people are really hungry, Cavallo must resign,” he said, as about 20 police officers armed with nightsticks and riot shields lined up outside the entrance. Down the avenue, protesters set fire to garbage strewn across the asphalt, forcing cars to snake through a fiery slalom. In the city neighbourhood of Retiro, taxi drivers also staged a protest and blocked roads. Unemployed workers and workers grouped in the Class Struggle Movement (CCC) blocked roads in the city of La Plata and in several Greater Buenos Aires districts. In the province of Córdoba, protesters threw rocks and smashed windows of two banks and one pro-government newspaper. A group of protesters meanwhile started a fire in City Hall in the Buenos Aires province city of Pergamino. Damages were estimated at 70,000 pesos. Former Peronist president Carlos Menem meanwhile backed the strike, saying it is the “right” of workers. The four-year economic slump has left Argentina so cash-strapped that it is struggling to meet payments on its 132-billion-dollar debt. A run on banks on November 30 forced the government to partially freeze bank accounts, which sparked the latest wave of protests. The International Monetary Fund last week refused to release nearly 1.3 billion dollars Argentina needs to keep its accounts afloat, saying not enough was being done to control spending. The deepening crisis has raised fears of a possible devaluation, a default on the staggering debt load or some other combination leading up to a financial meltdown. (AP-DyN-Télam)