National Ledger - Angry Farmers vs. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner: Truce!

Share This \| Related Angry Farmers vs. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner: Truce!
By Jo Anne Way Apr 2, 2008

It's a truce for the angry farmers that are challenging Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. On Wednesday Argentine farmers' unions agreed to suspend three-weeks of strikes and blockades aimed at reducing new export tariffs on soybeans and sunflowers, calling for a 30-day truce and new talks with the government.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Gets a Truce

The move follows an appeal by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to end the strike, which has emptied food shelves and caused beef shortages and temporarily ends the 21-day strike over government tax hikes.

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The move to call the truce came just hours after they had lifted many of the highway blockades that stripped store shelves of produce and meat and now farmers have lifted most of the roadblocks across the country that prevented the products from reaching markets and ports.

"We have decided to allow the products to reach markets and the highway blockades are being lifted," said Eduardo Buzzi, a hard-line leader of the Argentine Agrarian Federation.

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The Associated Press notes that the farmers' announcement came a day after Fernandez told a rally of 20,000 supporters that the last widespread food shortages in Argentina -- caused by striking farmers in 1976 -- preceded "our nation's worst tragedy," a reference to the military coup that led to a seven-year dictatorship.

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