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Latin America
Protests continue in Argentina against austerity decrees
Workers, students, retirees and the homeless staged protests across Argentina over the holidays against President Mileiās austerity measures.
In Buenos Aires, homeless workers, retirees and impoverished renters laid down on the street and set up soup kitchens across from the National Legislature against Mileiās housing measures that abolish rent regulation laws and give banks and landlords unlimited power over rents and mortgages, including in what currency they are payable.
Organizers of the protest pointed out that rent controls are essential for social equality. āA home is not a dream, it is a right that is conquered and defended on the streets,ā declared a demonstrator.
Argentina's newly sworn-in President Javier Milei speaks outside the Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023.
On Wednesday, scores of workers rallied in Central Buenos Aires, as part of a campaign by the trade union apparatus to pressure the Supreme Court to cancel Mileiās emergency decrees on deregulation of employment and wages. The protest was triggered by the governmentās announcement of 7,000 layoffs in the public sector.
Last Wednesday, protesters blocked one of the national highways in Buenos Aires Province. The protests took place a day after the new government sent in new proposals to the national legislature (the āomnibus lawā) mandating across-the-board economic deregulations. Milei has also declared a āstate of government emergencyā until the end of December 2025, giving his executive branch dictatorial powers.
In Chubut Province, dockers were on strike in the Atlantic port of Rawson. The work stoppage began as a surprise strike last Thursday. The workers demand higher wages and safer and more hygienic working conditions. The strike interrupted the export of seafood during shrimp season, and 60 shrimp boats could not be unloaded.
Port managers are refusing to negotiate over these demands, claiming that SUPA, the union that represents the strikers, had agreed in October to observe āsocial peaceā during the shrimp harvest. Rather than give in to the workersā demands, government authorities in this Patagonian province cancelled the shrimp harvest until January 15.
In a sign of the current economic crisis, hungry workers in the region, including striking dock workers, lined up on Friday at the port hoping to get shrimp for free or at a discount.
In Greater Buenos Aires on Friday, December 29, workers and retirees staged a rally and an assembly in the working-class suburb of San Martin, protesting president Mileiās dictatorial measures, banging pots and pans. The demonstrators called for workersā unity and for a general strike with their chants.
Demonstration marks 30 years since the Zapatista uprising in Mexico
Supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) arrived during the week from various parts of Mexico to San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas State, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the uprising led by that group, which is taking place between December 30 and January 2nd.
The 1994 uprising revealed to Mexicans and the world how rural workers in Southern Mexico, many of them from indigenous populations, were forced to live in misery and fear of violence.
Protests in Peru over the threatened privatization of Machu Pichu
Following the announcement by Peruās Culture ministry that the sales of tourist tickets to the Inca monuments of Machu Pichu in Peru, which attract thousands of visitors each year, will be privatized, workers at the site launched a strike forcing the ministry to postpone its plan.
A spokesperson of the striking Machu Pichu employees promised to spread and āradicalizeā the strike unless the government cancels the plan.
Human and social rights groups announced last Tuesday the beginning of mass protests.
Opponents of the privatization of ticket sales claim that this is a step toward the privatization of Machu Pichu and the monopolization of the tourist industry in Peru, harming local businesses, part of the economic structure on which many Peruvians depend.
United States
California nurses reject tentative agreement after five-day strike
The 800 nurses at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California, voted down a tentative agreement reached by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The union and management worked out the proposal under a federal mediator after nurses carried out a five-day strike over Thanksgiving.
The agreement offered nurses a 17 percent wage increase over the course of three years. But the major hurdle was staffing ratios. SEIU 121RN excutive director Rosanna Mendez admitted in a written statement that the majority of nurses believe the staffing āguardrailsā didnāt provide protection to patients and staff.
Nurses charge that Los Robles repeatedly violates state-mandated staffing ratios. āThe hospital must do more to assure nurses that it will comply with the law, so that nurses can safely care for their patients,ā wrote Mendez.