Argentina: Police kills 13 year-old boy during food riot
Last edited Wed Sep 5, 2018, 01:33 AM - Edit history (1)
A 13 year-old boy was shot dead by police Monday night while officers dispersed an attempted food riot in northern Argentina.
The boy, Ismael Ramírez, was reportedly shot in the chest with a rubber bullet. He was among a group of 50 locals who sought to force their way into a small supermarket in the city of Sáenz Peña. Several injuries were also reported, one serious.
The episode was the fourth such incident in Argentina since Friday - though the first involving a fatality.
The first took place Friday afternoon in a Carrefour supermarket in Comodoro Rivadavia, a normally prosperous coastal city in Argentina's southern Patagonia region whose economy has been hard hit by slowing oil and gas activity as well as cuts in federal utility subsidies.
The store was raided by a group of around 20, leading to nine arrests.
Later that afternoon, a group of some 30 attacked a small supermarket in the city of Guaymallén, in western Argentina's scenic Andes foothills, followed by a smaller attack on a store in nearby Godoy Cruz.
All three incidents were thwarted by police within minutes, with no injuries and only minor damage. Following today's tragedy however, authorities fear an escalation.
Economic crisis
These incidents mark a violent turn in a rapidly worsening financial crisis that began in April, when reports that Argentina's 2017 current account deficit had doubled to a record $31 billion touched off a wave of capital flight - some $25 billion so far this year.
Efforts to stem the flow, including raising the central bank discount rate from 27% in April to 60% currently, have thus far failed: The peso has since lost half its value, helping push inflation from 25% in 2017, to an offically projected rate of 42% this year.
The currency crisis intensified on August 29 after President Mauricio Macri falsely claimed to have secured IMF approval for an $18 billion advance on a $50 billion bailout package agreed to on June 8. Prices are now expected to rise 6% in September alone.
Higher interest rates are in turn exacerbating a recession that began in April, with GDP down 6.7% as of June and retail sales down 8% in August.
Opposition lawmakers have demanded not only policy changes; but a full list of those known to have taken advantage of central bank dollar sales to offshore billions in capital - particularly government officials.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infonews.com%2Fnota%2F318208%2Fel-ajuste-muestra-su-cara-mas-cruel-un
Police surround the site of tonight's deadly incident, a grocery store in a poor neighborhood in the small northern city of Sáenz Peña.
Authorities fear more such incidents as the nation's economic crisis intensifies.
