MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rampaging fishermen set six plants on fire in Santa Cruz

Six plants on fire in Pto. Deseado

Striking Argentine fishermen in Patagonia rampaged and set on fire property and vehicles belonging to several of the companies in conflict, two of them Spanish. The serious incident took place in Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz province, 520 kilometers from where President Nestor Kirchner and his candidate wife were on an official event.

Protestors have been on strike since July 3 and belong to the local chapter of the United Maritime Workers Union from Santa Cruz but disavow the federal leader and authorities of the federated union, closely linked to Kirchner's political group. The official event in Puerto Santa Cruz with the Kirchner couple attracted the mayors and local authorities of most of Santa Cruz province including Puerto Deseado's Arturo Rodriguez who had an appointment to meet with the striking fishermen Friday midday. Furious because Rodriguez was not at Town Hall and his deputy could not contact him, protestors begun smashing windows and chairs and later headed for the Industrial Fishing Park of the city where they rampaged and set fire to six processing plants including Santa Elena, Abrumasa and Santa Cruz belonging to Spanish interests and which made headlines in Spain's main newspapers. The Argentine press reports that after the rampage the strikers and Santa Cruz governor Daniel Peralta agreed a truce until mid day Saturday when negotiations would resume. Last night the Kirchner administration informed the local fishing industry it was sending special gendarmerie forces to protect property and ensure personal safety but not to "repress" according to Alfredo Pott, president of the of Argentine Chamber of Fishing Vessels, Capeca, and owner of one Santa Isabel one of the plants attacked. Capeca claims losses to property could delay resumption of activities costing the companies and the local industry in the range of 100 million US dollars. The leader of the local chapter of the union Omar Suarez blamed the attacks and violence on agents provocateurs infiltrated among the protestors "with the purpose of causing a climate of chaos with political consequences". However most protestors belong to the local chapter of the union whose leader Suarez was removed last Monday for not accepting the national pay agreement between the fishermen's union and companies. Further more the replacement of Suarez, named by the union, Nicolas Fuentes, head of Interior affairs was literally kicked out from the Puerto Deseado union headquarters earlier this month. "Nobody could expect this to happen. The mayor had promised us an interview for midday Friday but instead he went off to court Kirchner. Here are the consequences", Daniel Medina one of the leaders of the protest was quoted by local television. Actually the conflict was triggered when the Santa Cruz fishermen rejected the national labor agreement signed by SOMU and begun blocking access to the industrial park where most of the fish processing plants are located in Puerto Deseado. Since then fishing activities in Puerto Deseado have come to a halt causing shortages in the Argentine domestic market and blocking exports. Official statistics show that Puerto Deseado annually exports 300 million US dollars of fish produce.