Unions clash, pension reform approved

At least five state workers were injured yesterday as demonstrators of the dissident CTA union umbrella group clashed with members of the UOCRA construction workers union outside the provincial legislature in Santa Cruz province. The clashes broke out during a demonstration by state workers against a pension reform bill sponsored by the provincial government.
The Santa Cruz branch of the CTA announced a 24-hour strike for today to “condemn the actions of the government, who allowed to the UOCRA gang (to act),” said Pedro Muñoz, secretary-general of the Adosac teachers’ union.
Demonstrations were announced for today across Santa Cruz to condemn the clashes. The five injured workers are members of the teachers’ union, the court clerks’ union and the healthcare workers’ union. All five were allegedly attacked by UOCRA members armed with sticks and stones.
UOCRA activists staged a demonstration yesterday morning in front of the provincial Lower House yesterday morning “to support the bills for the construction of dams on River Santa Cruz,” said UOCRA leader Carlos García.
The Santa Cruz teachers were on a 24-hour strike yesterday and marched with other unions to reject the pension reform bill, which was being debated at the provincial legislature at the time.
Teachers said there was no police at the scene of the protest when they were allegedly attacked. “The zone was cleared (by the police) for the UOCRA gang to act,” the teachers’ union said. 

UOCRA members had being accused of violence in the past. Last September, provincial Deputy Omar Hallar (Radical Party) was attacked by UOCRA activists during a protest. In October, UOCRA members clashed with activists of the farleft Workers’ Party (PO).
Santa Cruz deputies passed a controversial pension reform bill yesterday which increases the required years of contribution for retirement from 20 to 25 in order to receive 82 percent of the minimum salary. Those who do not reach the minimum years of contribution will suffer a discount of one percent per year (workers with 20 years of contribution would receive 77 percent of the minimum salary).
Personal contributions also increase from 12 to 14 percent, while employer contributions increased from 14 to 16 percent (teachers’ contribution are currently at 5.5 percent. Pension payments — currently based on the best salary of the last 10 years — will also be changed and will be based on the average salary over the last five years. The reform also establishes a “solidarity contribution” until the age of 60 for women and 65 for men with different scales — from seven to 12 percent — depending on each pension.

Federal forces bring calm to V. Soldati

Tension began to decrease at the Indo-American Park in the Buenos Aires city neighbourhood of Villa Soldati yesterday as the presence of the Border Guard and the Coast Guard in the perimetre helped to pacify the situation and prevented any new clashes between residents and the squatters who took over the park last Tuesday.
Buenos Aires city Judge Elena Liberatori visited the park yesterday — which is now surrounded by agents of the Border Guard while the Coast Guard patrols the surroundings — and considered “everything is calm.”
Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández released a statement yesterday expressing his vision of the conflict — during which at least three people were killed and several others were wounded or injured — and blamed Buenos Aires city Mayor Mauricio Macri for the incidents.
Liberatori said her presence at the park aimed to generate the necessary “climate” to “arbitrate” and “reach consensus between opposite interests.”
At least three people were killed and several others were injured during the violent clashes that broke out following the occupation of the park last week when police tried to evict squatters from the park.
Squatters received food and medical assistance yesterday while authorities of the federal and city Social Development ministries began to take the census of the people who had taken over the 130-hectare park.

The Judge considered the census is carried out to determine the “vulnerability” situation of the people currently camping at the park and the “living conditions” at the occupation.
City Social Development Minister María Eugenia Vidal said the census aims to determine “who took advantage of the situation” and added several of the squatters are residents from Buenos Aires province. Therefore, Vidal urged Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli to “come to Soldati” to see “what  the situation is.”
“It would be interesting that the Buenos Aires government could participate in the solution (of the conflict),” said Vidal.
Meanwhile, the political row between the national government and the city administration continued yesterday as Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández blamed City Mayor Mauricio Macri for the occupation of the park and the incidents.
Fernández said Macri instigated “the escalation of violence” in the area and aimed to evict the squatters “without caring about the blood, injuries or deaths” it could generate.
In an article posted by the Cabinet Chief at his personal blog, Fernández insisted the administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner “does not allow the occupation of any public space” and claimed “the solution to the conflict has to be political,” but he stated Macri “refused to negotiate with the squatters”
The Cabinet Chief insisted the “xenophobic statements” of the City Mayor led to the “violent escalation” of the conflict and claimed the national government “had no choice but to intervene (in the conflict) to avoid an escalation without limits.”
Incidents at the Indo-American park broke out last Tuesday following the decision of the city government to evict the squatters from the park. Two people were killed during the violent clashes that night and another was shot dead on Thursday when squatters and Vi-lla Soldati residents clashed after the police left the area. More incidents broke out on Friday as residents entered the park and tried to evict the squatters, beating them up and burning their tents.
A fourth victim was reported that night by SAME emergency service director Alberto Crescenti, which was later denied by city authorities and the police, alleging the man Crescenti referred to was hospitalized in critical condition.
No further incidents were reported yesterday, although press reports said a minor group of demonstrators — not clear if they were residents or political activists — had clashed with Coast Guard officers outside the park. However, the situation was reportedly calm at press time.

Border Guards deployed

Macri welcomes talks with CFK officials but decries ‘opportunism’

The national government ordered the deployment of Border Guard and Coast Guard troops to secure the surroundings of the Indo-American Park in the Buenos Aires City neighbourhood of Villa Soldati yesterday, following a meeting between city and national officials including Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández and City Mayor Mauricio Macri, after four days of violent clashes over the occupation of the park that killed at least three people since Tuesday. A fourth death was initially reported late on Friday but it was confirmed the youth was hospitalized in critical condition.
The government had initially summoned Macri and city officials to the Government House late on Friday, when a demonstration of local residents to protest against the occupation of the park ended in violent clashes with the squatters during which a fourth death was reported. The meeting began around midnight and extended well into the small hours of the morning when officials decided to take a recess and resume around noon.
In a new day of crossfire, Aníbal Fernández claimed the meeting had  to be halted when Macri “left the room without having reached a formal conclusion.” Representatives of the squatters and human right groups also took part in the negotiations.
Talks were resumed shortly before noon and although no agreement was reached between the parties, Fernández announced in a press conference the national government had ordered the deployment of both the Border and Coast Guards to secure the perimeter of the park and patrol the Villa Soldati neighbourhood in order to “avoid conflicts” between the squatters and the residents.

Representatives of the squatters staged a press conference at Government House earlier, stating they would not leave the park until they receive “decent housing” from the city government.
Afterwards, the Cabinet Chief also talked to the press where he announced the intervention of the Border and Coast Guards. Fernández fiercely criticized Macri, saying he repeatedly told the City Mayor during the meeting that the conflict “will not be resolved via evictions.”
Fernández also blamed the city administration for the incidents, as he considered “from a jurisdictional point of view, the national government has nothing to say on this issue.”
Macri held a press conference after Fernández’ statements where he praised the decision of the national government to deploy the Border Guard and Coast Guards at the Indo-American Park but criticized the words of the Cabinet Chief, which he considered “full of false information and political opportunism.”
“Despite the malice of the government’s rhetoric, I celebrate the fact that we were able to work together to resolve this crisis,” said Macri. The City Mayor insisted “the responsibility of public order in the city belongs to the national government, since they refused to transfer the Federal Police (to the city).”
The Border Guard arrived at the Indo-American Park around 5.10pm yesterday with hundreds of agents in trucks, vans, buses and helicopters flying over the area.
No incidents were reported throughout the afternoon, although left-wing demonstrators who had arrived at the park to support the squatters were denied entry by the police.
Villa Soldati residents also held a demonstration to reject the occupation yesterday, despite Macri’s request to suspend the protest in order to “pacify” the area.
Clashes in Villa Soldati began on Tuesday, when City Hall ordered the eviction of the people who had taken over the park. Squatters clashed with the police and two people were killed that night during the violent incidents — a 22-year-old Paraguayan man and a Bolivian woman of 24. Tension continued all Wednesday, eventually ending in new clashes on Thursday, when, given the zero presence of the police, residents and squatters clashed and another Bolivian citizen (38) was shot dead, with his wife blaming the city’s Metropolitan Police for the killing.
On Friday, tension mounted during the day as national and city authorities discussed who was responsible for security in the area — with Fernández stating the government would not deploy the Federal Police to evict the squatters. While President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced the creation of the Security Ministry on national broadcast, a demonstration of Villa Soldati residents escalated into a violent eviction of the squatters by the residents, burning down the tents of the people who had taken over the park while beating up and injuring several of them.
SAME emergency service director Alberto Crescenti told the media a 19-year-old youth had been shot in the head when doctors were putting him in an ambulance, but police and city sources denied such information yesterday and claimed the teenager was hospitalized in critical condition.