Second round of 'Ruidazo' protests in Argentina against Macri's 300-1000% utility rate hikes.

[forest444]

Less than a month after the first massive Ruidazo ("big noise&quot protests against sharp increases in public service rates took place in cities across Argentina on July 14, a second Ruidazo erupted in different parts of the country.

The protests were held in support of recent court injunctions against utility rate hikes authorized by the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration that range from 300% more for water, 600% more for electricity, and 1000% more for gas. The courts have determined in each case that the hikes were not only “unreasonable” but illegal because they were never submitted to public comment, as the law requires for all large rate hikes.

Hours earlier, Federal Judge Luis Arias of La Plata ratified his July 18 injunction against the gas rate hikes and Federal Judge Martina Forns of San Martín issued a separate injunction against electricity rate hikes. Both injunctions have been appealed by the Macri administration but apply nationwide until the Argentine Supreme Court rules on each case.

A poll conducted by the University of Buenos Aires School of Social Sciences showed that 77% of Argentines have had to make "significant adjustments" in their household budgets to pay the higher utility rates (as well as public transport fare hikes of 100%).

The rate hikes - known in Argentina as tarifazos - are part of a broader, IMF-endorsed austerity package which Macri defends as a way to trim $4 billion from the nation's budget deficit, which reached $25 billion last year (4% of GDP). Critics, however, point out that because the massive rate hikes also affect schools, hospitals, government buildings, and many other public institutions, the net savings would be at most $1 billion - a figure dwarfed by the $10 billion in tax cuts Macri enacted for agroexporters, large corporations, and the well-to-do.

The rate hikes have also contributed to a doubling in overall inflation to 47% a year as of June - twice the rate under Macri's populist predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Macri had made inflation a key campaign issue in last year's election, which he won narrowly; he repeatedly dismissed his opponent's warnings about plans for a tarifazo as a "fear campaign."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201608/15757-ruidazo-segunda-protesta-masiva-en-todo-el-pais-contra-el-tarifazo.html&prev=search

[Judi Lynn]

1. Making attacks upon Argentina's economy with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner then driving the country

right into the ditch immediately doesn't speak well for Mauricio Macri.

He must assume Argentine people have short attention spans, don't remember how things go with right-wing lunatics running the show. What a shame he has control of the country now and has handed it over to the fascists who openly support the atrocities of the Dirty War dictatorship.

Hoping the people will find the cohesion and strength to make a powerful statement to these treacherous clowns.

Thank you for sharing this information our domestic "news" people don't want to publish. We need to know, since clearly our own country, and our tax dollars have always been involved in political schemes to influence and support monsters, and afflict the honorable, patriotic (to their real countrymen/women) ones who attempt to help everyone.