Argentine farmers take to the streets to protest leftist government's astronomical taxes

Thousands of farmers took to the streets of the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, on Saturday to protest against leftist President Alberto Fernandez’s decision to raise taxes on food stuffs in an attempt to curb the country’s rampant inflation.

Enraged farmers waved the country’s blue and white “albiceleste” flag and rode tractors in front of the country’s presidential palace – la Casa Rosada – a rare site in Latin America’s third-wealthiest country and one of the world’s top food exporters, the Buenos Aires Times reported.

#Tractorazo en una Plaza de Mayo repleta.
El campo en Buenos Aires.
Protesta masiva contra las políticas del gobierno de Alberto Fernández, Cristina Kirchner y Sergio Mazza.pic.twitter.com/u8inY0Oxuv

— Alfredo Lara (@Alfredolara29) April 24, 2022

According to a report from Reuters, protesters also voiced their demands for tax cuts in an open letter to the government that was read at the protest and later provided to the media for circulation.

"We have a simple demand: we are no longer willing to fund the rope that is being used to choke us," the letter read.

Taxes rose in Argentina under the administration of former President Mauricio Macri and have continued to rise under Fernandez. Currently, a 12% tax is levied on wheat and corn exports and a 33% tax has been added to soy, flour and cooking oil exports.

Inflation is no stranger to Argentina, however, and the South American nation battled inflation which hovered around 50% in 2021 – a sad reality that has forced the government to experiment with questionable food policy in recent months.

In the past year, farmers have also protested against limits on meat exports – a move that eventually forced Fernandez to repeal his protectionist policy.

Last February, Argentina’s leftist president broke ranks with the United States and Europe and travelled to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. The controversial visit marked the first leg of a diplomatic tour that came in the wake of a breakthrough in debt talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in which agreed with the IMF on a new $44.5 billion deal – a breakthrough in ongoing talks to restructure loans that the Southern Cone country has been unable to pay.

But upon landing in Moscow, Fernandez -- who is struggling to revive his country's economy and replenish dwindling foreign currency reserves -- was quick to tell Putin that Argentina must abandon its economic “dependence” on the United States and the IMF and that Russia could help reshape the regional power dynamics. 

"I'm certain Argentina has to stop being so dependent on the Fund and the United States and has to open up to other places, and that is where it seems to me that Russia has a very important place," Fernandez told Putin.

Fernandez also played into Putin’s Latin America ambitions and promised the leader that the “environment is very favorable” for Argentina to be the Kremlin’s “gateway to Latin America.”

The Peronist leader’s words came just days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Duma that Russia will strengthen its strategic cooperation with Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua “in all spheres,” and the Kremlin threatened to place troops in the Western Hemisphere should tensions over Ukraine not diminish.

"We have very close relations and strategic cooperation in all spheres: in terms of economy, culture, education, and military-technical cooperation," the head of Russian diplomacy said.