Argentina fallout

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

New York Times, April 22, 2000

Argentina Holds 14 Officers in Beating of Labor Demonstrators

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

BUENOS AIRES, April 21 -- Fourteen police officers have been arrested for
beating 35 union supporters and shooting another during a crackdown on a
demonstration this week that has jeopardized the centerpiece of President
Fernando de la Rúa's economic policy.

The incident on Wednesday, in which the officers bludgeoned demonstrators
as they lay on the ground, was televised live, stunning the country and
deeply embarrassing Mr. de la Rúa.

It was one of the worst cases of police brutality here since civilians
retook power from a military dictatorship in 1983.

Several hundred labor supporters demonstrated to block access to the
Congress building to impede the start of a Senate debate on a new labor
code. The change is intended to lower labor costs and make businesses more
competitive on world markets, with measures like reducing the power of
national unions to set wages in local businesses.

Leaders of the opposition Justicialist Party, who control the Senate,
responded by putting off the debate until next Wednesday. Union leaders say
they will demonstrate then to halt the bill.

The police crackdown put the government on the defensive. The top law
enforcement official, Interior Minister Federico Storani, conceded that the
beatings represented "a political bill the government will have to pay."

"The police who exceeded their powers will be severely punished," Mr.
Storani added.

Before a federal judge ordered the officers' arrests on Thursday night, Mr.
de la Rúa echoed press speculation that the harsh measures of the police
might have been planned to embarrass his government and stymie the changes
in the labor law.

"It could have been lack of professional skill on the part of the police or
something else," he told reporters. "We are investigating."

When Mr. de la Rúa ran for president last year, he made cleaning up police
corruption and brutality a campaign issue. Since he took office in
December, he has purged the civilian government and military intelligence
branches of hundreds of officials suspected of wrongdoing.

Government officials suggested that the violent officers might have been
trying to embarrass the new chief of the federal police, Rubén Santos, whom
the new government appointed to improve crime fighting and conduct.

Forty-nine demonstrators were arrested in the demonstration. Nine officers
were reportedly injured. A union leader was seriously injured by a rubber
bullet that struck him in the groin.

The demonstration put the Justicialists, who have been associated with big
labor since their party was founded by Gen. Juan D. Perón a half-century
ago, in a difficult position with regard to supporting Mr. de la Rúa's
proposal.

That has raised the likelihood that the bill could be watered down.

The bill is being delayed as Mr. de la Rúa struggles to show progress in
reinvigorating an economy that has been in recession for two years. Tax
receipts last month fell 3.3 percent below the total for March 1999,
despite an increase in rates, suggesting that domestic demand is still
suffering. Meanwhile, the 14 percent unemployment rate is creeping up.

But officials say they still believe that the economy will grow 4 percent
this year, after a 3 percent decline last year. They cite the 9.4 percent
growth in industrial output in the first quarter over the same period last
year as evidence that a pickup has begun and will gain momentum in the
second half of the year.

Still, Mr. de la Rúa has said he needs the labor bill to cut the
unemployment rate. The bill appeared to be sailing to enactment six weeks
ago, after a planned national labor strike had failed and the lower house
of Congress passed it overwhelmingly in late February.

When former President Carlos SauÀl Menem joined crucial Justicialist
governors in backing the legislation, Senate passage looked certain. But a
dissident faction of the national Peronist labor confederation has sworn to
continue resistance to the bill, and opposition senators are calling for
amendments that government officials say are unacceptable.

Some Peronist senators are now thought to favor enactment of the labor bill
by presidential decree, so that they do not have to vote for the measure
and anger organized labor. But others appear willing to continue
negotiations with the government.


Louis Proyect
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