The Government was left since last night under a strong piquetero pressurewhen groups such as the Polo Obrero, Libres del Sur and the MST-Teresa Vive, among others, set up in front of the Ministry of Social Development with a camp that they promise to hold until Wednesday. They claim for the cancellations in the Potenciar Trabajo plans y They denounce that the portfolio led by Victoria Tolosa Paz does not comply with the delivery of food for soup kitchens and tools for the work cooperatives. The minister, who spent the day yesterday in the province of Misiones, did not anticipate receiving them under the protest conditions established by the groups, grouped in the Piquetero Unit.
The columns were concentrated in the Obelisk (Libres del Sur and MST-Teresa Vive) and in the corner of Independencia and 9 de Julio (Polo Obrero, MTL and MTR, among others), in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires. From those points, they converged on the ministry at 5:00 p.m. “Officials say that this time there will be no food reinforcement. We tell them that we are going to continue mobilizing. This Piquetero Unit is going to remove the mask from these officials who are far from the town“, held Silvia Saravia (Barrios de Pie) when announcing the camp, seconded by Eduardo Belliboni (Worker Pole) and Monica Sulle (MST-Teresa Vive), among other leaders.
From the same microphone. Belliboni asked Tolosa Paz for “a meeting to discuss serious social problems.” The leader of the Polo Obrero also sent them A critique of the official social movementssuch as the Evita Movement and Somos Barrios de Pie. “We are not here for pleasure, nor do we do party politics; Those who are in the Government do it and even launch parties, ”she shot.
“[La ministra] You will not receive them under these conditions”affirmed official sources consulted by THE NATION. “We gave them four months of chance for validation [de datos de los beneficiarios del Potenciar Trabajo, para mantener el plan]. We are talking regarding 10,000 casualties out of more than 1,200,000 beneficiaries”, they stressed from the Social Development portfolio.
This Monday, Tolosa Paz and Belliboni crossed paths in media statements. In addition to accusing him, on Radio 10, of “using poor people” for political purposes, the minister asked Belliboni “to line up on 9 de Julio, so that we can validate your identity [de los beneficiarios del Potenciar Trabajo]”. With a statement, the Polo Obrero replied: “It is the State that must address the problems and not the people standing in line, in this heat, at the Ministry of Social Development.”
In the moments before the announcement of the camp, Belliboni told THE NATION that the casualties in the Potenciar Trabajo plan continue to be an active claim, but he clarified: “If the Government had the possibility to talk regarding the issue of food and tools, from that we might chat for the people who were left out.” Likewise, he asked that the ministry put in place “a mechanism [de validación de identidades] for communities like Wichi”. The Piquetero Unit agreed to a claim from the Classy and Combative Current, which denounced casualties in the plan in communities of Impenetrable Chaco. For his part, Sulle stated that “the problem is work, food for the canteens and the tools to work.”
The protest generated a traffic chaos on 9 de Julio and surrounding streets. The protesters completely blocked the avenue, including the metrobus lanes, which Buenos Aires traffic agents had tried to keep open. With this objective, at 2:00 p.m. they had already placed plastic fences to protect the exclusive lanes for the movement of the buses. Later, that fence served as a backup for the protesters who were sitting in the street, waiting to deploy the tents. Many of them had folding stools and, to a lesser extent, with lounge chairs. Individual tents that function as makeshift bathrooms were also set up: they have a bucket inside and you have to pay one hundred pesos to use them.
Motorists were forced to detour through Lima and Bernardo de Irigoyen streets, both sides of 9 de Julio.
At the protest there was a low proportion of children. as far as he might tell THE NATION, the groups proposed to reduce their presence. The mobilization, at its peak, occupied seven blocks of 9 de Julio. At night, the number of people began to dwindle.
The hot day that was lived this Monday did its part. Saravia suffered a picture of low pressure while giving an interview to a television mobile, in the Obelisk and under the sun. Minutes later, she recovered and led the column of his group. On the contrary, Belliboni had high blood pressure (16.9) and was treated in a SAME ambulance on the spot. After a few minutes of checking, he got out of the ambulance and announced the camp for three days along with the rest of his allies from the Piquetero Unit.
In the preview of a protest of the Picket Unit, Toulouse Peace charged once more once morest the leader of the Polo Obrero, Eduardo Belliboni. Besides accusing him of “use poor people” for political purposes, launched: “Let him line up on 9 de Julio so we can validate his identity.” It was in response to the complaints of the social referent for the alleged “lowered” in the Empower Work program. It is that from the portfolio that leads the La Plata insist that if the holders complete the data, the full payment of this benefit will be restored to them.
“I ask Belliboni that instead of making the camp, and exposing the boys and girls, make a long line on July 9 so that we validate their identity one by one. We would do it faster than in three days of camping ”, he maintained in Radio 10 Tolosa Paz, who considered: “In the background, the discussion is different, it is a political discussion that we have to give at the polls, not using the poorest people.”
Thus, the minister Ladera of President Alberto Fernández clarified that the process of ratifying the data of the beneficiaries to continue with the collection of the plan has been done since November and emphasized that “the only way” is to carry out this process to remain as recipients of the social help. “The only excepted area is the Impenetrable in Chaco due to its characteristics, where with Coqui [por el gobernador Jorge Capitanich] hand in hand we are trying to fulfill that. The rest of the country has to do the validation”, bluntly said the official who was immovable in the face of the claims that the piqueteros will deposit in the center of Buenos Aires this week.
“I keep telling Eduardo Belliboni that the way is to sit in the Ministry y bring people who have not validated the identity. We started on November 22, four months have passed, more than 93% of people validated their data, only 7% have not. When I tell Belliboni to come and bring the people who have not been able to do it, it is that instead of mobilizing them, make a camp and shout out in the open that this is a fit; to organize her people and bring them to the door of the ministry, that we have all the tools to validate the data, ”Tolosa Paz insisted and even chicaneed him: “If he found the more than 10,000 headlines he can’t find, this sticking point would be resolved.”
On the last piquetero day, the referents of the leftist organizations that come together in these mobilizations -even since Daniel Arroyo was head of the area- were upset that the minister did not receive them at the headquarters of her portfolio, since she had made a trip to Entre Ríos.
For this new instance of protest, they said that Tolosa Paz “is satisfied with the casualties of Potenciar Trabajo”, since you want “show the International Monetary Fund (IMF) what a good student it is of the adjustment”. They also complained regarding the inflation and for the “destruction” of salary, retirement and fixed income.
Under these reasons, the camp will run from this followingnoon until Wednesday, March 15. “In the City we go to the Development gate to ask once once more for a meeting with the minister and We are not leaving until you receive us”, they warned.
