Buenos Aires Protesters Demand Release of Food Aid

Demonstrators take to the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to demand the delivery of 5 million kilos of food aid destined for the country, which is being held and blocked by the government of Javier Milei.

The controversy has hit the government in a sensitive area: aid for the most vulnerable in a country where one in two people live in poverty.

Poverty reached 55.5% of the Argentine population at the end of the first quarter of this year, according to a report from the Social Debt Observatory of the private Argentine Catholic University (UCA), which represents about 25 million people.

The latest official data available corresponds to the second half of 2023, when the poverty rate stood at 41.7%, according to the Indec statistical institute, which will report the results of the first half of this year in September.

The Catholic institution released the report a week after the Episcopate urged the government of Javier Milei to distribute thousands of tons of food collected since it interrupted food assistance through community kitchens in December to audit them.

According to the UCA Observatory, indigence also grew and stood at 17.5% in the first quarter.

In its last report, corresponding to the third quarter of 2023, the UCA had reported 44.7% poverty and 9.6% indigence.

Argentina is going through an economic crisis with a strong recession that contributed to the slowdown in inflation, whose latest index in April placed it at 8.8% monthly.

Purchasing power deteriorated while the costs of essential services increased by more than 300% on average in the last quarter thanks to rate deregulation and the policy of reducing subsidies.