Home of prominent Argentine opposition figure attacked by Macri supporters
Last edited Sun Apr 23, 2017, 11:07 PM - Edit history (1)
The governor of the Argentine Province of Santa Cruz, Alicia Kirchner, was the target of a violent attack on her home yesterday. The attack took place during a personal visit by the governor's sister-in-law, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The incident occurred shortly after midnight on Saturday when a group of supporters of President Mauricio Macri, holding signs with racial epithets common to right-wing protests during Cristina Kirchner's 2007-15 tenure as president, forced open the main gate to the governor's residence.
Once inside, the group ransacked the front yard, pelted the residence with rocks and human feces, and destroyed the gas meter. Cristina and Alicia Kirchner, who were alone in the house with three housekeepers and Cristina Kirchner's 18-month old grand-daughter, were able to keep the group from battering the front door open by piling furniture against the door.
A Gendarmerie unit arrived at the scene around 1 a.m. to disperse the group, which left only after tear gas and rubber bullets were fired. Two protesters were injured by rubber bullets, as well as an ambulance driver and a news photographer who were injured by rocks thrown by protesters.
The group had joined a larger protest of some 500 members of the Santa Cruz chapter of the Argentine State Employees' Union (ATE), which did not take part in the attack and later repudiated it as well as the police response.
"This attack was planned," Governor Alicia Kirchner said. "It was instigated by right-wing media and politicians such as Congressman Eduardo Costa (a Macri ally). They want my head for the upcoming mid-term elections."
Former President Fernández de Kirchner held the Macri administration responsible for the protests that preceded the attack. She noted that since Macri took office, federal revenue sharing for Santa Cruz Province has declined by 85% even as revenue sharing for the City of Buenos Aires (Macri's stronghold) rose, by decree, by 168% in 2016 alone.
"They even canceled a large hydroelectric project being built jointly with China," she added. "This was important not only for Santa Cruz but for the whole country."
Santa Cruz, a scenic but nearly desolate province in Argentina's windswept Patagonia, is among the most prosperous in the nation but has been hard-hit by the slump in world oil and gas prices since 2014. Its finances are also saddled by a public sector workforce of some 86,000 employees - for a population of 320,000.
Governor Kirchner, who has frozen hiring but so far has avoided layoffs, has announced a $350 million bond issue to cover this year's deficit and to cover March paychecks owed to some 30% of state employees. The Macri administration, however, so far refuses to approve the issuance despite approving over $7 billion in provincial bonds during 2016; Santa Cruz was not among them.
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Santa Cruz Governor Alicia Kirchner[/center]