The Argentine government, mindful of recent bloody rioting, plans a major security operation on Friday to contain a planned mass demonstration by protesters fed up with the country's financial crisis.
Loosely affiliated middle-class and leftist groups coordinating over the Internet have vowed a peaceful protest of banking curbs in the capital on Friday night. But the government is concerned about a possible repeat of riots last month that brought down the country's elected president and left at least 27 dead. It is our obligation to ensure there are neither deaths nor destruction of property and so we are going to concentrate our efforts into a major security operation," presidential spokesman Eduardo Amadeo told local radio.
"Experience of some past marches shows there are some people who do not have the same peaceful objectives as the organizers of this march," he added. There was as yet no heavy police presence on the streets on Friday morning.
There has been sporadic violence across the country in recent weeks as Argentines vented their fury at limits on cash withdrawals from banks and freezes on parts of their savings -- nearly halved in dollar terms anyway after the government devalued the peso after defaulting on Argentina's huge debt. Small groups of unemployed said they would march on several supermarkets in Buenos Aires asking for food handouts, a worrying move for the new government, mindful of the looting that helped topple former President Fernando de la Rua.
The likely turnout at Friday's protest was unclear, but previous demonstrations saw thousands gather near the presidential palace banging pots and pans into the night. "We are protesting the bank restrictions and for people without work," said Viviana Bicensotti, who is due to protest alongside friends and neighbors from her Buenos Aires suburb.
Angry protesters set fire to a congresswoman's house near Buenos Aires earlier this week in anger at the government's decision to convert all dollar savings to devalued pesos. Bureau Report