| versión para imprimir - envía este articulo por e-mail |
Eyewitness Report: Ex President Menem Surrounded by Demonstrators
Por Argentina Now -
Sunday, Jun. 09, 2002 at 6:02 PM
Argentina_Now@yahoo.com
Eyewitness Report: Ex President Menem Surrounded by Demonstrators Menem Dines While Protestors Bang Empty Pots
Carlos Menem may have been expecting a quiet dinner with some of his supporters on Thursday night. Instead, his after-dinner speech was nearly drowned out by the noise outside the restaurant as about five hundred protestors, many of them carrying the banners of the neighborhood assemblies, banged pots and drums, struck the metal doors of the building with hands, fists, feet, sticks, hammers and anything else they could make noise with, and shouted "Ladron!", (Theif!) "Hijo de Puta!" (Son of a Bitch) and "Que Se Vayan Todos." (Get Rid of Them All)
Carlos Menem was president of Argentina for two terms during the nineties. Though he was popular with many during his first term, while money came flooding into the country from all the state industries that were being sold to private multinational firms, his popularity waned during his second term, which was plagued with rumours of corruption and other unsavory practices, and Argentina began its slide into the economic crisis it is currently engulfed in. Menem's "privatization" policies made Argentina the poster child of the IMF and World Bank but left it with a a 25% unemployment rate and virtually no industry of its own. Now, Argentines pay for the water that comes out of their taps; they pay export prices for their own oil; and they pay the highest telephone rates in the world.
Menem's fall from his golden boy status included a stint in jail on gunrunning charges during ex-president De La Rua's reign. But pressure from fellow Peronists on the Supreme Court, another unpopular institution, got him released several months ago, and his pricey $2,000 a night stays in holiday resorts outside Argentina made the news shortly thereafter. In the meantime, half of Argentina has slipped into poverty, twig-thin malnourished children have been showing up at hospitals in the provinces, the middle class has seen its savings disappear into banks that suddenly have "no money" to give back to them, and a lot of people are banging on pans and shouting at the politicians and the policies of the IMF whom they feel got them into this mess.
Menem, however, seems to believe he can set things right. He's made it no secret that he'd like to be elected president of Argentina for yet another term in the national elections which are scheduled for next year. In fact, his visit to the United States this week has current president Dualde worried that he is not just gathering support for his candicacy but seeking help from Washington to "destabilize" Dualde's government.
Menem is not without his supporters, both in and out of Argentina. Many in Washington like him because his "sustainable economic plan" includes "complete allegiance with the US" in economic policies as well as in President Bush's war on terrorism. And in Argentina, there are those who think a "strong man" like Menem, a leader with charisma, is exactly what the country needs to set itself back on the right course.
"Who cares if he's corrupt?" said one Menem supporter recently. "Sometimes you have to be corrupt to get things done."
The people outside the Lejana Oriente restuarant last night didn't seem to think Menem's presence, in the Pink House as president, or anywhere else in Argentina for that matter, was a good idea. Most of these people are members of Argentina's newly impoverished middle class, who, if they have any money at all, can't get to it because it's trapped in the bank freeze. Many of them are unemployed. Some have had their telephones cut and their heat stopped because they can't afford to pay the high rates. Some worry on a daily basis about how and what they're going to eat. Others were demonstrating because they are frustrated with the promise of a democracy that has never arrived, tired of being led and lied to by politicians who they feel are more interested in lining their pockets and placating multinational corporate interests than in reconstructing the country. And some are angry that they themselves have allowed this to happen by succumbing to the fear that was instilled in them during the military dictatorship and staying in their houses too long.
The rage and frustration in the crowd was palpable; the banging on the metal doors became an insistent, angry rhythm, and the atmosphere was made even hotter by a man holding a large fire stick that spewed forth flames as he waved the stick over the heads of the crowd. Nobody in this crowd of men, women and children was going to let Menem dine, or speak, in peace. "Who does he think he is, the son of a bitch?" said one woman. "He's the one who sold off Argentina," said another.
Police presence was strong. During the food riots last December, Argentine televisions were filled with images of police standing by passively while hungry crowds looted corner markets and small businesses. But here, there were more than enough police to protect the would-be presidential candidate from the angry throngs swarming outside and banging on pots. A row of about fifty helmeted police with pellet guns and batons held in front of their chests stood guard at the front and side entrances; four paddy wagons, a fire truck, and several patrol cars moved into a waiting position directly behind the demonstrators. Demonstrators and the media ran back and forth, somewhat confusedly, from the front to side entrances, as police also shifted and realigned their battle positions from one entrance to the next.
The banging and clattering on metal doors was non-stop, but the crowd was determinedly non-violent. Suddenly, a man came running around to the front entrance from the side, waving his arms in panic. "Estan reprimiendoooo" he yelled. "The police are beating people uuuup!" Some members of the front entrance crowd, along with camera and videocam toting journalists, ran to the side entrance in time to catch a glimpse of batons moving through the air and the blood-streaked face of a woman getting into a car. Most of the police then fell back into position, backs against the restaurant wall, batons and pellet guns up. Then there was movement, commotion, confusion, helmets, elbows, police batons moving, television and video cameras shoved into the faces of police and demonstrators, it was difficult to see who was doing what. The crowd surged forward, then back, then forward again. Most were not intimidated by the batons slicing the air or the sight of blood and moved in even closer to the police, yelling "Traitors! Traitors! Traitors!"
Abruptly the police began marching in battle formation around the corner, pushing the crowd back. They aligned themselves near a plate glass window with bars on it, where a few faces peeked out, some of them children, none of them Menem's. Hands attached to the faces made the V for victory sign, presumably in anticipation of Menem's victory in the 2003 elections.
Simultaneously the police at the front entrance also began pressing the crowd back, shoving and pushing, creating a wide space in front of the restuarant for Menem and his entourage to exit. Some of the crowd attempted to hold their places, but they were continually pushed back. Others sat down on the street. The police line finally stopped, their faces in military neutral, their batons and guns held diagonally across their chests, while the demonstrators faced them from a foot or two away.
A space had been cleared, a very wide space, between the exit for the people who had dined and listened to speeches and were ready to leave the restaurant and the angry crowd outside. "It's going to stop! It's going to stop! This habit of stealing is going to stop!" The chants were stubborn, insistent, and had been sung before in many different demonstrations like this one. The incesssant banging on the corrugated metal across the street continued. "Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!" the crowd yelled. "Look at all those police!" said one woman. "Yeah, and we're the ones who are paying for Menem's private bodyguard" said another. In the confusion, a young man could be seen letting the air out of one of the expensive cars parked in front of the restaurant.
Finally, the crowd looking past the guns and batons of the row of police could see the entourage exiting the restuarant. It was not clear whether Menem himself was with the departing crowd. The noise level of the crowd increased to a roar. Insults, garbage, sticks and other objects went flying over the helmeted heads of the police, landing in the empty street in front of the building. Some of the men in suits yelled back at the crowd and moved agressively forward towards them, but they were pulled back by their friends. As Menem's group retreated, the crowd continued to chant and yell until there was no longer anyone left to yell at. "Let's go back," a man shouted. Most headed back to their respective neighborhoods while a few stayed on in front of the restaurant. "
Some in the departing crowd seemed to carry their frustration, hopelessness and rage home with them. Others were more pragmatic, feeling that this demonstration, and others like it, was a necessary part of the slow and ongoing struggle to change the status quo. "We did what we came to do," said one man. Others were more exuberant, like one sixty four year old woman, an activist in her youth, who walked home with a determined stride and a smile on her face.
" We have so much rage pent up from all these years of swallowing it that you have to let it out every now and then," she said. "It makes me feel good to shout at those sons of bitches. It makes me feel young again."