The
administration of president Cristina Fernandez was facing on Wednesday the
major challenge of her second mandate as thousands of troops and petty officers
from the border patrol and coast guard, plus some naval and police sectors went
on strike over wage cuts and working conditions.
For
second day running protests have continued despite firing chiefs.
The
magnitude of the protest took the Argentine government by surprise, which
reacted by firing the Coast Guard and Gendarmerie chiefs and forcibly retiring
their ten commanders while promising to maintain the same level of pay checks
as the previous month.
National
Security Minister Nilda Garre announced the moves Wednesday evening, naming
replacements and declaring that “the situation with the two security forces is
therefore normalized”.
However
late Wednesday night the new chiefs were holding talks with the striking
members of the Coast Guard and the Border Guards plus retired personnel, whom
turned the initial protest into a long list of demands.
The
trigger was decree 1307 which eliminated all extra compensations and benefits,
which meant cuts of 30% to 70% in pay checks. The government blames the
administration of both forces for the ill-implementation of the decree which
was meant only to be applied “to officers and not at troop level”.
However,
protestors are now demanding not only the elimination of decree 1307, but a
basic salary of 7.000 Pesos (approx 1.200 dollars) for a starting coast guard and
border guard (compared to 3.400 Pesos currently); that the whole sum be taken
for pension contributions and that the many court sentences favouring rank and
file and retirees demands be complied by the Argentine government.
Under
the current system only the basic salary contributes to the pension fund with
all other payments and compensations not included. This was part of a policy
implemented by the Kirchner couple when taking office in 2003 to lower the
military budget, weaken pension funds and at the same time pay out lower
pensions to the retiring officers.
However
all along protestors have been very careful to point out that the issue is
salaries, work conditions and pensions; it is no military mutiny or coup or any
attempt to bring down a democratically elected government.
Nevertheless
the irony of the situation is that back in 2003, then President Nestor
Kirchner, who distrusted the Army, Navy and Air Force and drastically pruned
their budgets, on the other hand boosted the Coast Guard and the militarized
Gendarmerie, doubling their numbers and relying on them for intelligence
gathering, plus custody of government buildings and other properties.
“Our
idea is to stay until they find a solution” Gendarmerie officers gathered at
the Centinela building told the press. “We support democracy. This is not a
political uprising. It's nothing strange” officer Fernando Parodi shouted into
a bullhorn at the rally in Buenos Aires, where hundreds of olive-green clad
officers chanted slogans in solidarity.
“We are
workers, like any others, who need to support our families; we are demanding
wage conciliation talks” said the protestors at the Centinela building in
downtown Buenos Aires.
In
addition to the downtown area of Buenos Aires, officers across different parts
of Argentina were also taking part, including in Rosario, Mar del Plata,
Quequén, Zárate, Jesús María, Posadas, Paso de los Libres, La Plata, Dock Sud,
Ensenada, Barranqueras, Comodoro Rivadavia and Río Gallegos.
The
situation actually took off Tuesday night when Coast guard officials began
protesting the passing of decree 1307 that had decreased their salaries by
“between 30 to 60%”.
President
Cristina Fernandez called an emergency meeting Tuesday night on her return from
Peru and met with Secretary of Security Sergio Berni, Minister of Security
Nilda Garré and Economy Minister Hernán Lorenzino. Berni and Lorenzino had held
negotiations that failed.
Political
analyst Rosendo Fraga stated in a column that this is the most serious
situation presented by the Argentine Coast Guard in its 200 year of existence
and similarly with the 70-year Gendarmerie and blames the “anarchic income
policy” implemented by government in the different forces.
Fraga
points out that active officers under the current system are paid two and three
times what a retired officer makes, but sooner or later he will also retire and
this has triggered thousands of court demands most of them with favourable
sentences further disrupting the wage scale.
“From a
historic perspective it is an important crisis and its consequences currently
hard to anticipate. Government mistakes can worsen the situation and getting it
right can help to channel it” says Fraga.
He adds
that many times wrong calculations can escalate situations and this evidently
has played its part in this case but also “the attitude from members of the
Argentine government who underestimate or are simply ignorant about security
forces”.
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