Anti G20 protest fills streets in Buenos Aires

Thousands of demonstrators marched in Buenos Aires on Friday, November 30, to protest the G20’s economic policies as the world’s leading industrialised nations opened their annual summit in the Argentine capital.

The summit began in the Argentinian capital with a traditional “family photo” by the leaders of a group whose relationships range from warm and friendly to chilly and distrustful.

Outside, as Argentina goes through a painful economic crisis, protesters gathered to denounce the government for spending freely on the summit while the public endures rocketing inflation and unemployment.

They paraded with signs attacking Trump and the International Monetary Fund, whose largesse is keeping Argentina afloat at the cost of hard-hitting austerity measures.

President Mauricio Macri, a free markets advocate elected in 2015 amid high hopes that he could straighten out an economy distorted by years of heavy-handed trade and currency controls, has seen his popularity fall as the local peso currency loses value and average Argentines lose purchasing power.

The government said 25,000 police were on hand in case violence broke out. Last year, when Germany hosted the G20 summit in the northern port city of Hamburg, police struggled to contain black-clad anti-capitalist militants who torched cars, looted shops and hurled Molotov cocktails while tens of thousands more people demonstrated peacefully.

(Source: Reuters)