Plagued by inflation, Argentina is facing a wave of looting
In Argentina, a wave of looting of supermarkets and shops over the past four days has put the country on alert, reviving traumatic memories of the “Gran Crisis” of 2001 [See here the brochure Recueil de textes argentins (2001-2003), ed. Mutines Seditions, 2003], against the backdrop of presidential elections scheduled for October. Although the government denies any causal link, the wave comes at a time when the Argentine peso has just been devalued by around 20% in mid-August. Latin America’s third-largest economy is grappling with endemic inflation, which has been in double digits for over twelve years, and is now running at 115% year-on-year. JPMorgan even expects inflation to reach 190% by the end of the year. Inflation is so high that in May, the government launched a 2,000 peso banknote, the largest ever in circulation.
The looting, which has occurred in the southern Patagonian city of Bariloche, around the capital Buenos Aires and in the Mendoza wine-growing region, is the work of small groups who break into shops to steal food and other goods. Gangs of 20, 40 or more people descend on a supermarket or other business in “piranha attack” mode, or smaller groups, driven by last-minute appeals via social networks, sometimes force their way into closed stores. The assailants grab food, but also whatever they can find: alcohol, cigarettes, various and sundry objects, as evidenced by the full supermarket carts abandoned when the police arrived. Sometimes, as in Moreno on Tuesday, the store is set on fire.
In all, almost 200 people – many of them minors, sometimes aged 12 or 14 – have been arrested in four days, following looting or attempted looting, often halted by the police, in the provinces of Cordoba (central), Mendoza (west) and Neuquen (south), and more than a hundred since Monday in the “Conurbano”, the huge suburbs of Buenos Aires. On Wednesday August 23, the Buenos Aires government reported that in the capital, there had been more than 150 looting attempts at the same time, with 94 people arrested.
Today, August 24, the Argentine press announced that the national government has formalized the creation of unified commands to prevent looting. These Unified Commands of the Federal Police and Security Forces will be made up of the National Intelligence Directorate and the Secretariat of Security and Criminal Policy, the Argentine Federal Police, the National Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture and the Airport Security Police, as well as representatives of the police forces of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the provinces.
Buenois Aires cops deployed to prevent supermarket looting
Ditto Patagonia, August 23, 2023
[Quick summary of the Argentine & French-language press, August 24, 2023]
Source: Sans Noms