More here in time, the current protest in the countryside is behind the deep drought that is plaguing Argentina and is expected to generate losses of more than US$10,000 million.. Weeks ago it was the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, accompanied by his Secretary of Agriculture, Juan José Bahillo, who launched a battery of measures aimed at bringing economic relief to small and medium-sized producers affected by this practically unprecedented climatic event.
What is offered by the Government and that is currently being implemented ranges from debt forgiveness, through soft loans and tax exemptions. Meanwhile, from the countryside they specifically demand a scheme of gradual reduction of withholdings, something that today seems like a utopia taking into account the sensitive economic situation generated by the drought.
It seems ironic but it is not, since not so long ago, in the 2017/2018 campaign when the drought also put the Argentine economy in trouble and the president was Mauricio Macri, the ruralistas not only did not go out on the roads but that endorsed an increase in withholdings. The entity that took the lead was the Rural Society, with its former president Luis Miguel Etchevehere as Minister of Agroindustry. So much so that shortly after the measure was announced, they issued a statement in which they detailed: “We echo the President’s message that calls on all Argentines to work together to definitively get the country out of the crisis and put an end to corruption. The field will continue once again, collaborating with any initiative that aims to project our Nation definitively on the path of development”.
The context and the crisis that the countryside was talking about at that time was after the drought and when Macri had already agreed with the IMF on a loan for US$50,000 million through which he also promised to lower the deficit and inflation . Two objectives that were not achieved despite the disbursements from the Fund of which nothing remains today.
In this 2023, the confrontation between the countryside and a Peronist-biased government remains intact and, according to the ruralistas themselves, promises to escalate with mobilizations to the Casa Rosada and the National Congress.
Source: Ambito
