Thousands of Argentinians took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Saturday to protest against the lack of jobs and poverty in a country that has suffered for years from the economic crisis, intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.
Unemployed organizations and leftist groups headed the protest that began in a church in the west of the Argentine capital, where thousands of people make annual pilgrimages to ask for jobs at the shrine of San Cayetano -the local patron saint of work-, ending at the Plaza de Mayo in front of the seat of government.
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“I come to ask for the people who don’t have a job: my brother doesn’t have one, my neighbors have been left without work, and a lot of people we see who are worse off in every way,” said Néstor Pluis, a 41-year-old school assistant.
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Argentina is seeking to grow 7% in 2021 to leave behind a recession with high inflation that began in 2018, which was aggravated by the quarantine enacted with the Covid-19 pandemic. The crisis has left 42% of the population in poverty, with an unemployment rate of 10.2%.
