Thousands of protesters have once again taken to the streets. For many Argentines, this is the umpteenth Mass protest against President Javier Milei It is a headache, although many others see in it a justified response to their adjustment recipes that precipitated a deep economic recession.
Alejandra, who lost her job as a caregiver for the elderly several months ago and sells socks on the street, noticed that during the protest many people had nowhere to urinate and saw an opportunity there to make some more money.
That’s why, in a new street protest in June, the woman charged protesters in need of a bathroom whatever amount they wanted to pay to use a bucket as a toilet. She set up the basin inside a small tent that she erected in the middle of a square in a municipality located south of the capital, where the protesters were gathered.
“Everything stays inside…I’ll put on gloves in a little while and put it in the trash,” Alejandra told The Associated Press, pointing to the bucket of trash covered by a plastic bag. The street vendor did not want to give her full name because she feared reprisals from the authorities.
Their service prevents dozens of people from urinating in the street during marches that last for hours and also from having to pay more and more to access the toilets in bars.
Argentines are looking, perhaps more than ever, for new and ingenious ways to deal with the crisis, considered the worst since the catastrophic situation the country experienced in 2001 in terms of loss of income and purchasing powerToday, Argentina suffers from an annual inflation rate of 271% – one of the highest in the world – in a context of growing unemployment and recession. Poverty has skyrocketed and affects 55% of the 47 million inhabitants, according to private estimates.
In the eyes of several analysts, the current crisis was largely caused by the mismanagement of previous governments and by macroeconomic correction measures and adjustments applied by Milei in his first seven months in office to reduce the fiscal deficit and inflation, among other distortions, which ended up deepening the recession.
But the grim outlook also explains the reaction of a society that relies on guts and a keen sense of smell to adapt to these types of contexts and find opportunities to survive.
“The famous resilience of Argentines could be explained as a learning process that more than three generations have undertaken in the face of very adverse socioeconomic conditions, abrupt changes and cyclical crises,” said Gustavo González, director of the Observatory of Social and Applied Psychology (OPSA) of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Buenos Aires.
“From grandparents to parents, from parents to children, they have learned to deal with and protect themselves from these disturbing social factors that we have suffered for the last 40 years,” said the sociologist.
Milei said at the recent commemoration of a new anniversary of independence that Argentina has fallen “into a deep abyss” and is at a turning point that requires making profound changes.
Restoring fiscal balance has been the ultra-liberal president’s main goal. To achieve this, he cut public spending by reducing subsidies for transport and energy, freezing public works and shrinking the state to the maximum. These recipes have caused the cost of services such as electricity and gas to skyrocket and left thousands of workers and state employees without work.
The resulting recession impacted the labor market and increased unemployment to 7.7% in the first quarter of 2024. The drop in income caused more middle-class families to stop eating out and buying beef, replacing it with chicken. They were also forced to take their children out of private schools and transfer them to public schools while canceling their private health insurance to go to overcrowded state hospitals.
Economist Eduardo Levy Yeyati pointed out that the lower classes are surviving in an even more limited way. “The government is trying to cut back [la asistencia] “The social organizations on which these people depend (…) cannot save, they cannot travel, they are trapped here and are the most affected by inflation, by fiscal adjustment,” said the analyst.
The poorest go to soup kitchens run by the Catholic Church or civil groups to eat a hot meal.
Armando Fernández and Mariano Quinteros eat every night at the open-air shelter set up by the civil group Red Solidaria in Plaza de Mayo, a few meters from the government house.
That plate of food is vital because they barely scrape together a few bucks with a regular broom, their tool for survival. “We sweep the sidewalks, we volunteer to work in downtown stores,” Fernandez, 34, told AP while eating a stew prepared by a volunteer from the Red Solidaria, which has been helping Argentines in repeated crises.
“Politicians do nothing,” Fernández lamented. The two men walked the nearly 500 kilometres separating the city of Santa Fe from Buenos Aires, fleeing drugs and poverty. They sleep on a mattress spread out on the street, enduring the cold of the southern winter.
People with precarious jobs or those who have suffered a collapse in their income, such as an unemployed cook or a recently laid-off bank employee, also go to the same place.
58% of Argentines consider poverty to be the main problem. Meanwhile, 48% consider Argentina to be unpredictable and 54% consider that it has “good people but terrible politicians,” according to a survey by OPSA that included the study of 2,852 cases, with a margin of error of 1.8%.
Poverty is rife in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where basic infrastructure is lacking and austerity measures have pushed many into the underground economy.
Patricio López, 21, and his mother Noelia López, 39, make a living from the laundry service they provide in their home located in a poor neighborhood of Avellaneda, where there is no similar business.
Both wash light clothing and also coats, sheets and quilts for the neighbors in separate washing machines and dryers.
The business was born to help the family economy during the crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and today it is their main source of income. Both serve a dozen people a day and aspire to expand when they manage to buy industrial machines.
The boy’s motorbike, which he used to deliver laundry, was stolen and now he does it by bike, on foot or however he can. “You have to roll up your sleeves and get ahead,” he said smiling.
Her mother said that Argentina is always in crisis and this time “we have to face the bullet once again.”
Digital platforms like “Only Fans” have become an option in the midst of the crisis. At least for Maybel Delvalle, who is determined not to return to the poverty she suffered when she arrived in Argentina, where her Paraguayan parents moved with her when she was just a baby.
A few years ago, as a single mother of two children, she realized that she couldn’t make a living selling empanadas and started selling sexual fantasies on OnlyFans. In addition, at just 25 years old, she became the first instructor for thousands of Argentinian women who are going through financial difficulties.
The British subscription-based platform — users pay in exchange for sexual content — was not well-known in Argentina when Delvalle stumbled upon it in 2020. But as stories of women going from rags to riches using it spread online, she became intrigued.
To launch it in Argentina, she had to figure out how to remain anonymous, decide how much to charge to be a virtual girlfriend and learn enough English to navigate the platform. From the erotic and sexually explicit images and videos she creates, she now earns about $6,000 a month, an unimaginable sum for an average Argentine professional.
“I am aware of the success I have had by not giving up and by believing in myself,” said Delvalle. And revealing his despair over the chronic economic problems, he added that “no matter who comes as president,” no one will be able to save the country.
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