Posted on 04/01/2008 10:00:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - President Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally of 20,000 supporters Tuesday, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to a 1976 strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup.
Seeking to build popular opposition to the strike against a disputed export tax increase, Fernandez urged farmers to immediately end hundreds of highway blockades.
"Is it good that highways are cut so that food cannot be transported to market?" she said angrily, adding that such pressure tactics will not work in times of democracy.
On the strike's 20th day Tuesday, farmers manned 300 road blockades, which for weeks have strangled the flow of farm goods to cities, emptying supermarket shelves, blocking key exports and causing the biggest crisis for Fernandez since she took office in December
Small farmers are denouncing a March 11 presidential decree that raised export taxes on soybeans from 35 percent to as much as 45 percent and slapped new duties on other farm exports to attack inflation.
On a stage outside the presidential palace, Fernandez told some 20,000 supporters including trade unionists, laborers and social and human rights activists that farmers imposed "food shortages" on Argentina in February 1976 — just before "our nation's worst tragedy."
The subsequent coup launched a seven-year dictatorship.
The president accused farmers of waging a media campaign to win over Argentine support. "Believe me, I've never seen so many attacks on the government in such a short time, so many insults," she said.
The speech marked a return to tough talk, a day after her government offered concessions intended to benefit at least 62,000 small farmers, including transport subsidies, credits for dairy farmers and tax rebates for small soybean farmers.
Farm groups said they would have no immediate statement on the speech, adding they would make an announcement on Wednesday — the date they say they will decide whether to extend the walkout.
Alfredo De Angelis, a hardline strike leader in Entre Rios province, expressed anger over charges by the president that farmers were allied with the military in leading a chaotic rural strike in February 1976 just a month before the coup.
"We are not coup plotters," he said angrily from a barricade northeast of the capital.
Earlier Tuesday, Argentina's interior minister warned that the government is growing weary of the protests.
"There's no reason for the countryside to still be on strike," Florencio Randazzo said. "We are not going to allow the shortages to continue."
Nestor Barrera, a Tucuman municipal employee who drove past farm blockades in Argentina's heartland to the rally, said it was time to support Fernandez's center-left coalition.
"A big soybean monopoly is behind this strike," he insisted.
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, right, arrives with her husband Nestor Kirchner to a rally at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Tuesday, April 1, 2008. Fernandez called on striking farmers to end a 20-day old nationwide strike. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Take, for example, soy beans. The new export tax will be raised to 44% from 35%. But since farmers also have to pay a 35% income tax on profits, the effective tax rate is significantly higher. "The farmer ends up paying essentially a 63% tax on gross income," says Pablo Guidotti, dean of the school of government at Argentina's DiTella University. If the price of soy goes up, Mr. Guidotti adds, the "retention rate" increases until the government can end up taking as much as 95% of any marginal increase in farmers' gross income.
Tax Rebellion in Argentina
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
March 31, 2008; Page A18
Did the President say “in times of democracy”? What self serving nonsense. Just because they put a “democratic” face on their dictatorship. Shades of Juan Peron.
Que se pudra la pu*a.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
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