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Argentina looting spreads to Buenos Aires province Argentina looting spreads to Buenos Aires province
(about 1 hour later)
Argentine police have clashed with hundreds of people trying to loot a supermarket near Buenos Aires. Two people have been killed in Argentina's third city, Rosario, as a wave of looting spreads.
The incident took place in broad day light outside a Carrefour supermarket in San Fernando, in the outskirts of the capital. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop hundreds of people attacking a supermarket on the outskirts of the capital, Buenos Aires.
Riot police used tear gas and managed to stop the attack. But in other parts of the country, supermarkets and shops have been looted. There have been other incidents in the central city of Rosario and in the northern province of Chaco. The looting began in the south on Thursday.
The government says trade unions linked to the opposition are to blame.The government says trade unions linked to the opposition are to blame.
"This has been orchestrated. Someone has started all this to create an atmosphere of fear," said San Fernando mayor Luis Andreotti.
Argentine television showed images of people - many of them with their faces covered - throwing stones at the police and trying to break into shops and supermarkets.Argentine television showed images of people - many of them with their faces covered - throwing stones at the police and trying to break into shops and supermarkets.
The first looting incidents happened on Thursday in the southern resort city of Bariloche. The attacks stir memories of the violence witnessed during Argentina's economic crisis in 2001 when unemployed people stormed supermarkets.
At least three supermarkets were looted there by more than 100 people, who left with electronics, toys, clothes and food. But National Security Secretary, Sergio Berni, said the looters this time had been taking plasma televisions and stereos, not food and had not been driven by poverty.
Following a request from the provincial governor, the central government sent some 400 federal troops to Bariloche, in Rio Negro province. "There is a part of Argentina that wants to drive the country into chaos and violence," Mr Berni said.
Plasma TVs "But this Argentina is not the same of 2001,"
Other attacks were registered overnight in the industrial cities of Campana and Zarate, in Buenos Aires province; Resistencia, in the north; and in Argentina's third city, Rosario. The government has deployed 400 military police to the Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche, which witnessed the first incident of looting.
Two people were killed in Rosario as security guards tried to stop the looting. At least three supermarkets were looted there on Thursday by more than 100 people, who left with electronics, toys, clothes and food.
At least 117 people were detained in Buenos Aires province and 128 in Santa Fe province, the authorities say. 'Orchestrated'
Memories of the 2001 looting and riots, during latest economic crisis, are still fresh in the South American country. Further attacks were reported in the industrial cities of Campana and Zarate, in Buenos Aires province, in Resistencia in the north and outside a Carrefour supermarket in San Fernando, on the outskirts of the capital.
But the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner accuses organised groups, linked to the opposition and the "right-wing media", of trying to undermine its social reform programme. Riot police managed to stop that attack but smaller stores and kiosks in the suburb were looted.
"There is a part of Argentina that wants to drive the country into chaos and violence," deputy Security Minister Sergio Berni said in Bariloche. The mayor of San Fernando, Luis Andreotti, said: "This has been orchestrated. Someone has started all this to create an atmosphere of fear."
"But this Argentina is not the same of 2001," he added.
Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli also says the disruption is politically motivated.Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli also says the disruption is politically motivated.
"People who are leaving looted shops with plasma TVs are not hungry," said Scioli. But union leader Hugo Moyano, who opposes the government's economic policies, dismissed the government's accusations.
Opposition union leader Hugo Moyano dismissed the government's accusations.
"This is probably triggered by the difficult situation the people of Argentina are facing. I cannot imagine that this has been organised by someone," said Mr Moyano, head of the powerful CGT union."This is probably triggered by the difficult situation the people of Argentina are facing. I cannot imagine that this has been organised by someone," said Mr Moyano, head of the powerful CGT union.
Private banks say inflation is again rampant in the country, though government figures have it at just 9%.
The IMF has threatened the country with a "red card", meaning potential expulsion from the Fund and the G20, if it does not do more to produce reliable statistics on its inflation and GDP.
Economists say Argentina's state-centric policies are damaging its growth.
New import restrictions mean that companies are allowed to bring in only the same volume of goods as they export.
In many cases, this seems to have had a devastating impact on industrial production.
Some analysts believe Argentina could now be in technical recession.
Former Finance Minister Orlando Ferreres says the biggest concern is political.
The left-wing populism embraced by President Christina Fernandez seems, he says, to exclude considered debate and a necessary change of strategy.