The piquetero encampment on July 9 rose yesterday / Télam
Members of the Piquetera Unit (UP) lifted yesterday the encampment that they had maintained since Wednesday afternoon on Avenida 9 de Julio, in the center of Buenos Aires, in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Social Development, in demand for casualties derived from the regularization process of the Empower Work program.
“We lifted the camp giving continuity to the fight plan, although we did not receive a response. We are going to meet tomorrow to define what new measure we are going to take next week”, said the leader of the UP and referent of the Polo Obrero, Eduardo Belliboni.
The decision was adopted in an assembly that took place in the camping area at 11, during which it was decided to decentralize the mobilization.
As a result of the protest, traffic remained interrupted on 9 de Julio avenue in the section that goes from Corrientes avenue to San Juan, a situation that normalized in the afternoon.
The decision to camp on the main avenue of the city was taken on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in an assembly, after a day of protest that began at 3:00 p.m. and lasted all afternoon in front of the Social Development portfolio building, located at the intersection of 9 de Julio and Belgrano avenues.
For its part, the portfolio headed by Victoria Tolosa Paz described the protest as a new “extortion” and ratified the validation process of the program.
UTILIZATION
“Picketing and extortion is not the consideration for Empowering Work. Taking boys and girls, four-year-olds and babies with their mothers to camp on 9 de Julio is not suitable either. It makes me very sad to see this Argentina where a sector of the UP, to do politics and position itself in an election year, uses the poorest people,” said the Minister of Social Development, Victoria Tolosa Paz.
“The ministry is not the ministry of the piqueteros, it is the Ministry of Social Development whose objective is public policies that guarantee that the most vulnerable sectors of Argentina can find the transfer of income to survive and have a plate of food in their homes” remarked Tolosa Paz.
Belliboni assured that although they lift the camp, “they will resume the assemblies” to decide how to continue.
“On March 3, we are going to a plenary to draw up a fight plan for the coming months that does not accept the adjustment that is being made to the workers,” he said.
The Piquetero Unit is made up of militants from the MTR-Votamos Luchar, CUBA-MTR, the Polo Obrero, Libres del Sur, the National Piquetero Bloc, the Armando Conciencia Group and the November 17 Organization, the MTR Teresa Rodríguez, factions of the FOL and of the Liberation Territorial Movement (MTL-Rebelde).
The Coordinadora por el Cambio Social, the Socialist Movement of Workers (MST), the Federation of Grassroots Organizations (FOB) and the Neighborhood Movement of Workers (MBT), among others, are also part.
BACK
Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff, Agustín Rossi, supported Tolosa Paz yesterday, within the framework of the encampment that the Piquetera Unit (UP) maintains on Avenida 9 de Julio, and assured that the official “is doing a very good job.” .
In addition, he said that the objective is to guarantee that “there is no abuse” among the beneficiaries of the Potenciar Trabajo program.
“The minister is doing a very good job. The only thing that she tries is that there are no abuses regarding a decision made by the national government that is committed to reaching the most vulnerable sectors, ”said Rossi.
Rossi maintained that “the role of social organizations is out of the question in Argentina” and insisted that the objective is to guarantee that “there is no abuse.”
For her part, the head of Social Development yesterday again described the camp as “extortion” and pointed against Belliboni, assuring that “she cannot explain where the 10,000 beneficiaries who did not go through the validation process are.”
