A demonstrator blows a plastic horn during a protest against Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 31, 2012.
(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Pot-banging protesters rail against Argentina govt
A demonstrator blows a plastic horn during a protest against Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, May 31, 2012.
(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
May 31, 2012
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The "cacerolazo" is back in Argentina -- a noisy anti-government protest where citizens bang casserole pots and honk horns to express their anger.
Frustrated by soaring inflation and government currency controls that make it difficult to buy dollars, citizens spread word of Thursday night's street protest on social networks. Then, for nearly an hour, drivers honked horns and apartment dwellers banged pots as they leaned out of windows and balconies in support.
The protest appeared to have been limited to middle and upper class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. But cacerolazos are highly symbolic in Argentina, where a decade ago pot-banging citizens angered by the collapsing economy marched in huge crowds and drove several presidents from office.
The latest protest drew much smaller crowds than in 2001 and 2002, but it had a similar message: "For an Argentina that all of us want, we say ENOUGH."
"People are fed up," said Ines Salcedo, a 45-year-old schoolteacher who joined the protest. "They don't let you buy dollars, you go to the supermarket and your money doesn't make it."
The government of President Cristina Fernandez had no immediate comment, but her aides have said that only a fraction of Argentines are inconvenienced by the currency controls.
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