Protesters

[Esten]

At a massage place. Close enough!

[Jackson]

I didn't stay to watch the march get going as I had an appointment to get to.

Was it an appointment at a privado?

Ja, ja, ja.

[Esten]

A short sidebar in the BA Herald on Monday provided details on a planned protest against city brothels.

"Organizations that fight against slavery and sexual exploitation tomorrow will march to the General Prosecutor's Office to demand that Buenos Aires City's brothels be closed down. Several NGOs and national deputies announced they will join the demonstration that will start at 6pm from Callao and Santa Fe avenues... "

They were going to march to the prosecutor's office in Recoleta to demand the law that bans brothels be complied with.

I stopped by to have a look yesterday at 6pm. There were about 40 protestors, mostly women. They were in a group about 4 cars long on Callao behind a couple of make-shift signs being held at the front. They were also handing out an information sheet to people walking by. It looked like they had a police car escort waiting for them nearby but no traffic was blocked or stopped. I didn't stay to watch the march get going as I had an appointment to get to.

[Norman Stormin]

I made my customary deposit in the Sperm Bank the day after the the Sperm Bank Holiday and was ready to have a nice lunch at the Plaza Austurias. Unfortunately, about 20 protesters had selected this corner to beat their drums. They were accompanied by the customary 40 journalists to account this to their countrymen, and 200 policemen to justify their existance.

I decided to go a block away to the Globo but settled on El Imparcial because El Globo no longer offers a blue plate special. I had a nice three course lunch including 1/2 bottle of Trapiche Malbec for 35p. Great service and they have a smoking room just like the Globo.

When I left, the drummers had disbursed but the police were still around. I decided to have a coffee on the corner of Ave. de Mayo and 9 de Julio. To my amazement there was an additional contingent of police parked in vans here on Lima. I decided to have a liter of beer instead of coffee as I thought it best to have a ready weapon at hand. It´s about 15:00. At 15:30 The protesters come back from lunch.

Lots of flags and drums but not a lot of people. Che Guevera seems to outrank all the others by about four to one . Then there were a lot of the the Holy Trinity: Che, Peron, and Maradonna. A few of Castro, Lenin, Uncle Joe Stalin and Chavez. But there was was one I simply couldn´t understand. It was the Socialist Worker´s Party which said Mas Capital. Now I understand that Das Capital was the work of Karl Marx and Frederich Engle. And that their work certainly did not extoll the virtues of Capital. And I understand that MAS in Spanish means MORE.

Does this mean the Socialist Workers Party wants more money or did they simply misspell Das? Would appreciate any input from our local brothers.

[Tessan]

The farmers are suspending their strike On Wendnesday, to talk with the gov. The gov. Had set it as a condition of new talks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7527235

"The decision has to do with giving the government conditions so we can sit down and talk. The farmers want solutions," said Eduardo Buzzi, another farm leader.

And from AP.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Argentina's four main farm groups say they will suspend a 13-day strike against export restrictions to make way for talks with the government.

Mario Llambias is head of the Confederation of Rural Argentines. He said Monday that farmers will resume sales of wheat, soy and sunflower seeds early on Wednesday.

Farmers suspended grain sales on May 7 to protest high export taxes and other restrictions imposed by the government of President Cristina Fernandez.

Her government had declined to negotiate until the strike was suspended.

[Tessan]

Soybeans Plunge on Speculation Argentine Farm Strike Will End.

By Jeff Wilson.

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans fell the most in seven weeks on speculation that Argentine farmers will halt their nationwide strike to clear the way for talks with the government aimed at repealing increased agricultural taxes.

Leaders of the four main farm groups plan to meet today in Buenos Aires to determine how to proceed with the protest set to end May 21, Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation said today. The strike, which began May 7, has brought exports of farm products to a standstill and helped boost U. S. Soybean prices 5.3 percent before today.

'There's speculation the farmer strike may end,'' said Jim Riley, a grain-market broker for the Linn Group in Chicago. 'Until the Argentina strike is settled, the soybean market will be held hostage to each new development.''

Soybean futures for July delivery fell 48.25 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $13.2975 a bushel at 10:36 a. M. On the Chicago Board of Trade. A close at that price would be the biggest decline since March 31. Before today, most-active futures have fallen 13 percent from a record $15.865 on March 3 on prospects for rising global production.

'We have to make it easier for discussions to take place,'' farm leader Buzzi said in a speech broadcast on television channel C5N yesterday. The protest has won wide support from provincial governors and senators, Buzzi said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...er=commodities

[Tessan]

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Striking farmers in Argentina are counting on the plunging popularity of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to help force the repeal of higher export- taxes that have disrupted grain shipments.

Farm-group leaders extended their protests yesterday for at least another six days, after the government failed to renew talks over the taxes. Farmers won the support of governors of agricultural provinces Santa Fe and Cordoba and pledged to continue to block grain trucks from ports and withhold crops.

The escalating dispute has sent the president's positive image to 23 percent from 30 percent a month ago, pollster Jorge Giacobbe said. Fernandez, who took office five months ago with a 42 percent rating, is the most unpopular president since Fernando de la Rua raised taxes in 1999, Giacobbe said. De la Rua quit two years later amid a financial crisis.

'Confidence in the president is falling quickly,'' Giacobbe said yesterday in an interview from Buenos Aires. 'If she doesn't want more conflict, there won't be any more. It's all up to her.''

The president hasn't directly addressed the farmers in public speeches since April 1, increasing public concern that the escalating conflict may hurt Argentina's economy, the second- largest in South America, Giacobbe said. He polled 1,000 people between April 30 and May 13 and the results have a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

'Urgent' Meeting.

The protesters have requested an 'urgent'' meeting with Fernandez, said Mario Llambias, head of the Argentine Rural Confederation. The farmers plan to meet on May 21 to evaluate the progress of the protest, which resumed May 7 after a one-month pause failed to result in an agreement, Llambias told reporters yesterday in the city of Santa Fe.

The government must produce 'concrete measures'' before farmers will return to talks aimed at ending the strike, said Luciano Miguens, head of the Rural Society, the country's biggest farmers' union.

Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo and Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez all declined to comment, according to their press offices.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...=latin_america

[Tessan]

Soybeans Fall as Argentine Government, Farmers May End Dispute

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...er=commodities

Argentine Food Companies, Banks Rally as Strike Concern Eases

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...=latin_america

With Fernandez's speech late Wednesday prompting investors to return to Argentina's beaten-down asset markets, a warning from a senior farm leader during the last hour of trading did not prevent local equity and fixed income markets from closing higher.

Whereas the President had called for dialogue and the unity of her country - now bitterly divided over the two-month battle over a soybean export tax - Argentine Agrarian Federation leader Eduardo Buzzi said farmers needed to see "concrete results" before they could call off their strike.

Buzzi made these comments one hour before he and the leaders of three other farm groups were to announce their decision on whether to continue the halt in grains sales they announced last week. Thursday was the deadline for this decision on whether to extend what initially was a conditional 8-day strike.

http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-n...1-7dee86e0824b

[Tessan]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...=latin_america

[Tessan]

From bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...=latin_america

At ports on the Parana River, where most of Argentina's grain exports originate, only two cargo trucks arrived overnight, compared with 5,969 on the same day a year ago, the Rosario Board of Trade said today on its Web site.

From Latin Businuess Chronicle Uruguay. http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.co...e.aspx?id=2371

The opposing banks of the River Plate are contrasts in style. They were always that way. Buenos Aires was usually metropolitan and bright, while Montevideo was provincial and sullen.

Argentine farmers and international grain companies are descending in hoards to buy up fertile farmland and escape the export tariffs on the other side of the river. The price of farmland spiked four-fold in some parts of the country. Likewise, building developers are transforming the skylines of Punta del Este and Montevideo into the Riviera of the South Atlantic. The massive capital inflows forced the Uruguayan peso to appreciate and international reserves to soar. It also helped overheat the Uruguayan economy, pushing the inflation rate to 8 percent. However, the massive mobilization of resources is allowing Uruguay to overcome the loss of competitiveness and emerge as one of the more affluent societies of Latin America.

From http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia...1&formato=HTML

Cordoba and Santa Fe provinces support farmers' claims.

Argentine striking farmers confirmed on Monday a powerful supporter in their conflict with the President Kirchner administrations over the grains and oil seeds export taxes controversy.

Juan Schiaretti the governor of the province of Cordoba, one of the country's richest, called on the federal government to lower the tax system and also requested that farmers put an end to their protest mobilization.

Farmers' representatives and governor Schiaretti, who belongs to the ruling party in Argentina, met for over an hour on Monday. Farmers described the meeting as "productive" and said the governor "ratified" his position regarding the export levies sliding system.

"He told us that the issue of the export levies must be reviewed and a way to lower it to ensure the profitability of the farming sector must be found. We believe the camp has confirmed a very strong supporter in governor Schiaretti", said Fernando Gioino, head of Coninagro one of the farmers' organizations.

In a release following the meeting governor Schiaretti, who has repeatedly proclaimed his support for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, said that farmers and the federal government must return to the round of negotiations. He also asked farmers to definitively lift the protest strike next Thursday and revealed that "on the same Monday", he had requested authorities in Buenos Aires to modify the export levies system, originally announced March 11 and which triggered the ongoing conflict.

Schiaretti as well as other governors and provincial elected officials and members of Congress are feeling the pressure from voters who elected them just six months ago. Cordoba in particular has a strong thriving manufacturing sector, linked to agriculture equipment as well as a significant farming sector.

Farmers next Thursday will be meeting with Santa Fe governor Hermes Binner, who belongs to the opposition Socialist party. He strongly supports farmers and has repeatedly asked for dialogue resumption and a review of the farm export taxing system.

Other Argentine governors and members of Congress are known to support the farmers' position but so far only Schiaretti and Binner have done so openly.

But on Monday also, Buenos Aires province governor, Daniel Scioli, who was scheduled to meet farmers, at last moment alleging that they had anticipated his support, had the delegation meet with his cabinet chief and ministers of Economy and Agriculture following the formal structure of the dialogue round with the central government in Buenos Aires city.

Mr. Scioli, former vicepresident has a strong reputation but no personal political backing, and depends entirely on the Kirchner's. Buenos Aires province in the heartland of Argentina's fertile pampas and efficient agriculture but is also home in the suburban areas of the power base of the hegemonic Justicialista party, currently, --since 2003--, under the Kirchners.

[Caveman01]

I didn't see the point in going on and on. I graciously gave you the last word, and you handled it with your usual class.

Thank you,.

I didn't know I had the class, also.

[Monger514]

I didn't see the point in going on and on. I graciously gave you the last word, and you handled it with your usual class.

[Caveman01]

I don't know the owners of the bank I do put my money in, and I doubt you know the owners of yours. You should not be so concerned what people do with their own money.

Those taxes paid for the Falklands War, and the Dirty War that killed 30,000 people (and here in America, taxes pay for lots of evil things, too) If the farmers won't pay their taxes, then I assume you advocate putting them in jail? More humane than cutting their hands off; no less moral.

I'm signing off from this thread. You can have the last word.

So, I should presume you have the habit of retiring of a discussion when you don't have the answers. It's a pity for one who once sounded so proud and sure at the beginnig of this thread. But yes, making absurd statements about things you don't even half known usually carries to that sad kind of conclusions.

My reference to the banks was not because I care or not care about the owners of the ones I have the money in, but because the banks here mention had a lot to do with the freezing accounts you mark.

The reference to the taxes (or, as I try to understand, TO NOT PAYING THEM (¿?) is so nonsensical that I'll refrain myself of any comment. So, I suppose, that you are in favor, in a world where 4/ 5 can't cover their basic needs, that this 1/ 5 that holds the money don't be forced to pay their taxes to cover at least part of those needs. Very ethical of you.

But as I wrote some post ago, keep on writing about the things you care and don't have to use your brain on and overall don't pay any taxes: night clubs, gatos, etc.

Bye.

[El Perro]

Dogg,

Why are you retracting the comment, he has certainly earned that.

Exon

Just doing my little bit to keep the karma in the straight and narrow. Off to Gibralter for a few beers. You fellows play nice now.

[Exon123]

514-my issue (other than supporting my friend) is with non argentines who seem obsessed with criticizing Argentina, the government, the people, the culture and whatever, but who will rise up in a self righteous, indignant rage if argentines (or foreigners in general) have the audacity to criticize anything about the USA. Its the arrogant, "we are immune because we are the best country in the world" mentality that I find absurd, and is ultimately leading to an avalanche of problems in the states. So, the criticism that "argentines should figure out how to deal with real problems." is a criticism that applies to most of the world, and certainly to the USA as well as Argentina. Hey, its a case of glass houses don't you know, not to mention throwing the stones.

I will retract the "dumbfuck" comment specifically for you but will keep it for those ugly americans who endeavor to glory in it at every opportunity.

Cheers,

Dogg

Dogg,

Why are you retracting the comment, he has certainly earned that.

Exon