ARGENTINA-FARMERS TARGET CONGRESS.
Striking farmers protested along rural highways for a fifth day yesterday and worked to build support in Congress for their calls to cut taxes on soy exports. They also complained that no security forces were guarding the roads where roadblocks were being staged although a court order for the Border Guard to do so remains in place.
Farmers will halt sales of grains and cattle through tomorrow as part of a week-long strike in protest at the center-left government’s refusal to reduce soy export duties. The farm leaders’ Liaison Committee is to show off its muscle to rally support among farmers and non-farmers alike during a mass protest to be staged in Armstrong, Santa Fe province.
The expected massive demonstration, to be led by Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA) leader Eduardo Buzzi, will be held at the crossing of national routes 9 and 15 and mark the virtual end of the national farming strike kicked off early last Saturday.
Armstrong Mayor Fernando Fischer, one of the first inland leaders to oppose the government’s announced revenue sharing plan on grain exports and a member of the ruline Peronist party, has stressed that "the government has nationalized soybean" by levying a 35 percent duty on exports but farm-related industries in his city were now "falling to bits" due to "poor national policies".
Meanwhile in Entre Ríos Province, Governor Sergio Urribarri yesterday said he planned to press charges against farmers staging roadblocks on National Route 14, the vital regional road transport lane also known as Ruta del Mercosur. "A handful of them", Uribarri said "are harassing and causing troubles to all the rest."
He also described Entre Ríos farming leader Alfredo De Ángeli as "a tragic-comic figure."
In a local radio interview, Urribarri said protesters halting traffic along Route 14 "are merely folk whose main business over the last few years has been to cut off roads — however sad, they seem to find joy in it." De Ángeli is heading a roadblock by farmers near Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos province.
Further jumping on the bandwagon of mutual accusations, Entre Ríos-based tourism businessmen said they would join Urribarri to take road blockers to court. The businessmen also pledged to rally further support from other sectors hit by the roadblocs.
The strike in a leading global supplier of soy, wheat, corn and beef escalated a long-running political battle between the farmers and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. It has also pushed up US soy futures on fears Argentine exports could be hit.
Farmers kept up their protests yesterday, but appeared to be blocking fewer roads than in previous days.
A farming group official, who asked not to be named, said farmers were instead turning their attention to Congress, hoping to persuade lawmakers to support an opposition-led proposal that would lower export taxes. "We’re looking to lower the tone of the protests," the official said. "The idea is to continue meeting with the government and appealing to Congress."
Also yesterday, the Lower House Agriculture Committee met yesterday to look into ways of streamlining the current scheme of grain export duties. The meeting was chaired by Agriculture Committee Deputy Speaker Cristián Gibaudo (PRO). Deputy Alberto Cantero (FPV), the head of the committee, had failed to show up while De Ángeli was in attendance. Cantero needs to be present for the committee to session in full.
Meanwhile Agustín Rossi, the ruling party’s Lower House speaker, said it was "up to the opposition" to gather the required number of votes to table a draft bill for a floor session debate to scale down grain export duties.
Late yesterday, opposition parties tackling the farming crisis said they would make a new attempt at securing parliamentary treatment of a proposed cut in soybean export duties. Lower House Farming and Agriculture Committee Speaker Christian Gibaudo (PRO) told a meeting of opposition legislators yesterday that a new special session by the Lower House — aiming to rally a 120-strong attendance — has now been called for next Wednesday, March 31 at 10am.
Commenting on farming leaders’ call for ruling party lawmakers to attend the special session in the Lower House, Rossi recalled that he had to shoulder it to gather the required quorum to discuss original draft bill put forward by the government last year. The opposition is currently short of the 129 deputies needed for the session to drop grain export duties to go ahead in the Lower House.
Rossi also repudiated threats flung at Argentine Agrarian Federation head Eduardo Buzzi. However, he lamented that "we may be threatened on national radio, like De Ángeli did to Deputy Alberto Cantero and everybody keeps mum."
"Violence like that is to be denounced whatever its aim," Rossi reflected.
On Monday, Buzzi had said he had received phone threats "to shut up or your (5-year-old) son will be wiped out". Cantero, in turn, charged De Ángeli with openly threatening him during his speeches in Gualeguaychú last week.
In an interview on Radio Continental, Rossi also made a strong defence of the government’s decision to implement a revenue sharing plan to soybean export duties, a move he described as "a first" for Argentina. Still, he added, the government would have no leverage over how provincial governments and municipalities will spend those funds.
Last week, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s allies in Congress blocked opposition attempts to debate the bill to lower the grain export duties, but farmers say they are stepping up lobbying efforts to drum support for it. Fernández, meanwhile, spares no opportunity to lash out at farmers protesting her soybean export duties and revenue sharing plan.
Announcing a plan to expand the sewage network in the Greater Buenos Aires district of San Fernando yesterday, she said that "there are those who, with a certain degree of intolerance and cynicism" failed to grasp that "everyone is called upon building on the Fatherland for all Argentines". She further held that "narrowing the social gap is the key to fighting crime."
"We’re working to round up the biggest number of lawmakers who understand the problems affecting the farm sector," said Hugo Biolcati, head of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), one of four leading farm groups.
