MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine farmers accuse government of “obsession with power” and exploiting misery

Argentine Rural Society Hugo Biolcati: “stop punishing farmlands”

The head of the Argentine Rural Society, Hugo Biolcati carried out a harsh speech against the administration of President Cristina Fernandez saying it was time “to stop punishing farmlands and Argentina”.

At the official opening of the country’s major rural exposition at the exhibition centre in Palermo, Buenos Aires City, Biolcati underlined the qualities of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a former president but above all a respected national figure of Argentine history who left the country a legacy of harmony, dialogue and tolerance.

“It’s not normal for one to ignore Sarmiento,” he assured, because “he is an uncomfortable example for those who cannot conceive living in harmony, and free of subordination.”

Biolcati described Argentina’s current situation as “a divided society, with hundreds of thousands of Argentines living in poverty and a State consumed by corruption; obsessed by their power to negotiate votes in exchange for help” continuing to exploit misery.

The head of the powerful farmers’ organization accused the administration of President Cristina Fernandez of “falsifying figures” and estimated that “in 2008, before their first political defeat, they declared their first merciless fight against country farmlands and the media.”

“It is time to put a halt to politics that damage growth,” the Rural Society head affirmed, and criticized “the green soy desert gaining earnings for very little people while maintaining an easy checkout for the State.” “Stop punishing farmlands and Argentina,” he said.

Even though he was the only speaker at the event, he was accompanied by Committee members from agrarian entities such as Eduardo Buzzi, head of the Agrarian Federation, Carlos Garetto de Coninagro and the new head of the Argentine Rural Confederation, Juan Carlos Goya.

As with the previous ceremonies in recent years, there were no national representatives present, but Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri and San Luis Governor Alberto Rodríguez Sáa attended. Presidential candidate, Eduardo Duhalde and running-mate Francisco De Narváez were also present at the event.