Yachts bob in the harbor as dockside steakhouses fill with well-heeled diners sipping red wine and eating costly cuts of beef. But now the exclusive Buenos Aires tourist zone has a new eatery: a drab soup kitchen for the poor.
And that is causing an uproar here as tourists gawk and locals debate.
It could be any soup kitchen among scores that sprang up after a deep economic crisis four years ago.
PHOTO: AP
But Raul Castells, a leftist leader of the jobless, said he set up his food giveaway operation on a swanky restaurant row to show the poorer side of post-crisis Argentina.
"Some people blow US$300 for a good night out down here, but we want people to know there are 20 million people living in the worst possible conditions in Argentina," Castells said. "Instead of rooting through bags of trash to eat, hundreds of people are going to be eating here."
On Thursday, the soup kitchen began operations in the posh Puerto Madero section of Buenos Aires near an outlet to the River Plate. About 600 people showed up as volunteers served up fried bread cakes and a hot Argentine tea, called mate, drunk through a metal straw.
Castells charged that Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, instead of repaying more than US$9 billion to the International Monetary Fund -- as he did in January -- should instead have paid the poor.
He vowed his eatery would bring in full view Argentina's "total" reality, declaring on Thursday night: "Here we plant the flag of the poor."
Latest government statistics show 38.5 percent of Argentina's 36 million people live in poverty in a country ranked a century ago as among the world's richest.
After a 2002 meltdown marked by a debt default and devaluation, the economy began growing again. But Castells charges that rebound has hardly benefited the poor whose biggest slums are far from view on the capital outskirts or located in remote areas nationwide.
"Many tourists pass by here and we are putting up signs in English, German and French, maybe even Japanese, to explain the situation. We are calling for an Argentina where the dogs of the rich aren't better fed than our poor. Tourists should know about this reality," he said.
Social worker Silvia Novoa witnessed the shop's opening on Thursday in sight of a luxury hotel, steakhouses, coffee shops and even the president's pink-colored Government House blocks away.
One person held up a sign reading "Anyplace is fine to feed the hungry." Another person at the opening was a man dressed as a red-caped ant superhero to show solidarity the poor.
"It's like a slap in the face of the rich. It's a little startling that this is here in such an exclusive area, but this reflects the reality of poverty that goes on in the city," Novoa said.
While cooks fried bread cakes, volunteers put boxes of pasta noodles on a shelf with other handouts for the hungry. A picture of Argentine leftist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara hung on the wall along with strings of pictures showing malnourished children in hospital beds.
One camera-wielding American in a Yankees baseball cap just shrugged and walked on.
"The locals must be happy about this," quipped another Spanish tourist, Maritina Benito, jokingly saying that she couldn't find the joint in her Lonely Planet guide.
But a Madrid native, 21-year-old Mar Gutierrez, said: "It's definitely meant to be a provocation. The location calls attention to itself."
Tourists here have a gamut of eateries to choose from: Brazilian and Argentine-style steakhouses to bistros, wine bars and outdoor cafes were cappuccinos are served by tuxedoed waiters.
Susana Alicia Munoz, an unemployed mother, took her daughter for the free food.
"For those that don't suffer, this place is an annoyance, but for those who live in poverty, it's good," she said, promising to return three times weekly.
Others had a more cynical view of the soup kitchen's location.
"This is a circus, nothing more, and I don't think it's going to last long," maintenance worker Walter Diaz said. "They're taking advantage of having the image of helping poor people to do something political. For needy people to come here they have to travel far. It's a bad example for the tourists."
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