Thousands of Argentines poured into the streets on Monday, banging pots and honking car horns to demand the government resume talks to end a 100-day farmers strike that has blocked grain exports and emptied supermarket shelves of food.
The nationwide protests came as a pro-government activist warned that farm groups opposed to grain export taxes, allied with business groups and dissident members of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez’s Peronist party, were possibly attempting to topple her administration.
About 2,000 people banging pots and yelling “Dialogue Now!” gathered in front of the presidential residence outside Buenos Aires late on Monday.
The demonstrations demanding talks between the government and striking farmers were held in cities across Argentina, including one that drew at least 3,000 people in Gualeguaychu in Entre Rios Province.
The crisis began in March when Argentina’s center-left government raised export taxes on grains more than 10 percent, arguing that the profits farmers were earning from high world prices should be spread around to help the poor.
Farmers countered that they could barely make a living with the higher taxes and that they needed to reinvest profits in their farms to boost production and meet higher demand.
The two sides have since been locked in a bitter standoff in which on-again, off-again highway blockades by protesting farmers have emptied supermarket shelves of food in Argentina and blocked exports from one of the world’s leading exporters of soy beans and corn. The economic damage from the strike has led to fears of a recession.
Farmers reinitiated road blockades over the weekend after police broke up a protest and briefly arrested 19 activists, including prominent farm leader Alfredo de Angeli.
The protesters accuse the government of intransigence for refusing to negotiate their key demands, while the government accuses strikers of hurting Argentines by cutting the food supply.
“We have shown the government that we are a peaceful people. But let it be clear, Madam President, that we are not conspiring against your government. We only want you to govern for all sectors,” de Agneli, leader of the Entre Rios Agrarian Federation, said on Monday.
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