Here's the background:
Governor de la Sota and President Cristina Krichner are not friends and have squabbled for years. In the 2001/04 elections, la Sota considered running against Krichner. He is rather open about his opposition to her as president. The consequences: the federal government has systematically delayed delivering federal checks. Short of funds, Cordoba -an important province as well as Cordoba, Argentina's second-largest city- de la Sota has faced continuous social and political unrest plus financial challenges.
The government gives each province a certain amount of funds, which often differ from province to province, consequently affecting the rate of pay to police in different parts of the country. Similarly, the wages have not changed even with the high inflation rates. The conflict was initiated after failure to resolve a wage dispute and they went on strike.
Following Cordoba's example 19 out of the 23 provinces had similar protests and strikes also resulting waves in crime. Federal police were sent to trouble locations to subdue the chaos and protect shops, temporarily serving as a substitute police
The result? Up to 53 percent wage increases. Now Cordoba's police are some of the highest paid in the country.
Personal Experience
While some of my AFS friends were sent to Buenos Aires, Cordoba, or Mendoza; I'm in La Pampa. It is one of the least populated provinces and far from anything. Not so different from my little hometown in Wyoming. Recently, I found out that La Pampa in German is an expression to that means, "the middle of nowhere". La Pampa literally means the middle of nowhere!
I was in Buenos Aires on a brief two day visit with my host-family. Watching the news, they were worried about their shop in Santa Rosa. Somehow I figured 1) Santa Rosa, La Pampa will be the last place in Argentina to react and 2) an organic and special foods store will be the last place to be looted.
On the way back from Buenos Aires my father, going a whopping 70 kilometers over the limit passed 11 green military trucks of the Federal Police headed to Santa Rosa. Then, when we passed the center and plaza it was like we had walked into a town after a zombie apocalypse. All merchandise was pulled off shelves in the window displays and all the shops were boarded up. I still can't get over the strangeness of seeing the whole display of a sports shoes store empty.
For the next couple of days, the police and federal police were posted in all the major streets (not quite as many as the picture). The governor of La Pampa and the president are very good friends from what I here so we had good back-up and support. All precautionary but unnerving non-the-less.
Hunger Games anyone? The cities rebel against the capitol... That reminds me: I need to see the Catching Fire.
~ From Argentina With Love
Sources:
Argentina News
Host Family
Personal Experience
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