Argentina: Hunger
Strike against Poverty
Buenos Aires - Around
400 residents of La
Quiaca city, in the
northern Argentinian
Jujuy province, will
start a hunger strike on
Monday to demand
solutions to the abject
poverty the region is
suffering.
Winner of the Nobel
Prize in 1980 Adolfo
Perez Esquivel and
priest Jesus Olmedo, of
that locality in Mar del
Plata, 248 miles from
this capital, announced
and denounced that
situation.
Both demanded "urgent
intervention of the
national government,
which has not given any
answer yet."
We make this
presentation in a city
(Mar del Plata) that is
called Happy to make the
country see that there
are other Argentinian
cities that do not have
the chance to be happy,
said Perez Esquivel.
Olmedo recalled a poem
by Leon Felipe that says
in one of its verses: "I
just know what I've seen
and I've seen that the
children's cradle are
rocked with stories, the
pain of men and women is
eased with stories, the
scream of anguish of men
and women is silenced
with stories."
He interpreted that now,
with the financial
crisis, they are telling
many stories. The same
people that have stolen
the money are demanding
more money and everybody
wants to save companies,
banks, the financial
entities. Who has
listened, amid the
financial crisis, to the
pain of those women and
these people?
The organizers of the
hunger strike reported
that the measure will be
carried out by "women
that have children and
are willing to any
sacrifice for their
children's future" and
also "single or young
mothers that can not get
a decent job."
That strike will be
carried out until its
logical conclusion, said
Perez Esquivel, who
reiterated that the
authorities are not
aware of the poverty in
the country's northern
area.
He also said that 30
percent of the
population in Jujuy
lives in poverty.
"La Quiaca rises again
to fight for the rights
of the poor, excluded by
an extreme measure," the
Nobel Prize winner said. |
