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- Crisis Begins
Argentines protest in front of the HSBC bank in Buenos Aires on Jan. 16, 2002. Thousands of Argentines have gone to the streets over the government's freezing of bank assets. Unable to convert their savings to dollars or another hard currency, middle-class Argentines have watched in outrage as their nest eggs shrink with the peso's decline.
photo credit: REUTERS/Rickey Rogers
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- Barter System
A woman considers trading self-baked bread for a pair of running shoes in downtown Buenos Aires on Feb. 20, 2002. Barter markets first sprang up around the country when Argentina's recession began in 1998. With one in six stores now closed, and nearly one-quarter of working Argentines out of a job, the country's non-money economy has become essential for many.
photo credit: REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
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- Food Rations
An estimated 20 percent of Argentina's children are no longer able to meet their daily nutritional requirements, according to the Centre for Child Nutrition Studies, an advisor to the World Health Organization. With more than 40 percent of the population now living below the national poverty line, many families depend upon donated food rations. In this photo, children enjoy a soup-kitchen meal in La Matanza, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
photo credit: REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
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- Scavengers
When on March 23, 2002 a cattle truck overturned near the city of Rosario, the owner of the injured animals decided to donate them to residents. Here, a slum owner departs with fresh meat, which he has just carved for himself from the hastily slaughtered cows.
photo credit: REUTERS/Enrique Rodriguez-La Capital
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- Protest
On April 23, 2002, Argentines protest against a proposed government plan to give depositors their savings in bonds instead of cash. Such pot-banging protests have become so frequent that some sections of Buenos Aires have produced semi-permanent neighborhood committees known as "casseroles." Rejecting what they see as an impotent public sector, these groups of between 5,000 and 15,000 people are now running grass-roots health, employment and waste-collection services.
photo credit: REUTERS/Alejandro Kaminetzky
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- Riot Gear
Dressed in riot gear, Argentine Coast Guard officers guard the entrance to a suburban oil refinery. In an effort to force the government to provide employment and food aid, worker organizations called for a blockade of the nation's refineries. Such blockades have repeatedly paralyzed Argentine transport, further exacerbating the economic situation.
photo credit: REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
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- Official Response
Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde opens the ordinary session of the Congress on March 1, 2002. Since its massive default on foreign debt in Dec. 2001, the Argentine political establishment has been caught in a catch 22. In need of an IMF bail-out, the Duhalde administration is also wary of imposing further austerity upon industries and workers already in economic misery.
photo credit: REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
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- Breaking the Bank
In June 2002, after President Duhalde signed a decree that offered to pay bank depositors their savings in government assets, Argentines took to the streets with picks and hammers. Here, residents of Buenos Aires attempt to gain entry to a Bank of Boston branch in the city's financial district.
photo credit: REUTERS/Marcos Haupa
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- Deadly Clash
On June 26, 2002, worker demonstrations turned violent leaving 60 injured and two dead -- one of them this man, who here lies mortally wounded after a clash with Buenos Aires police.
photo credit: REUTERS/Marcos Haupa
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- Public Outrage
Outraged by the violent response of what many see as an otherwise ineffectual government, Argentines again took to the streets on June 27, 2002. Here, Buenos Aires residents protest, not for government solutions to the Argentine economic crisis, but against the democratically elected government itself.
photo credit: REUTERS/Anibal Greco
