WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT US ABROAD
FROM ABROAD
THE OTHERS ARE WATCHING
A harvest of grievance
What a drive through Argentina’s breadbasket reveals
Anger at the government is intense in the country’s interior
Lorry-drivers at a roadside grill near Vicuña Mackenna, a small town in central Argentina, looked on appreciatively as Jorge Gutiérrez rode up bareback on a young stallion, doffed his blue boina (gaucho hat) and sat down to join them for lunch. “Normally a gaucho has little, or nada, in common with truckers,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow with a red scarf as he tucked into a flame-grilled matambre, or flank steak, so rare that it was almost the hue of that scarf. “But now we agree this pandemic is creating a disaster.” Aldo, a middle-aged trucker with a youthful ponytail and the body of a prize-fighter, interjected: “My friend, all of us will be buried by this crisis if it goes on much longer.”
Discontent is louder in Buenos Aires, the capital, and other big cities, where large protests have taken place since July. But it is just as intense in the agricultural interior. That part of the country was never going to be friendly towards Alberto Fernández, the Peronist president. He was elected a year ago, with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a populist former president, as his running-mate. Córdoba, the province where Vicuña Mackenna is located (see map), voted strongly in favour of Mauricio Macri, the conservative incumbent who lost. The province, like most of the others along the route of this correspondent’s road trip in September westwards from the capital, is bound to pose problems for Mr Fernández’s Front for All coalition in crucial mid-term elections due in October next year.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario