Argentina's president, under heavy pressure to end a grinding recession, asked his weary country for patience on Saturday hours after overnight street protests turned violent and injured more than 20 people.
After tens of thousands of Argentines banged pots and pans in the biggest nationwide demonstrations yet against Eduardo Duhalde, the president told local radio he needed more time to stabilize the economy after a recent painful devaluation.
"I'm asking for a little understanding," Duhalde said. "So many things have been happening lately that people forgot that this president has been in power for only 25 days."
Since taking office on Jan. 2, Argentina's fifth leader in just over a month has tried to defuse a harrowing financial crisis by reducing the peso's value by 30 percent, but the measure has put some banks on the brink of collapse and many deposits remain frozen to prevent a run.
The untouchable deposits have been the last straw for many Argentines exhausted by a deep recession in its fourth year.
Police said at least 21 people were injured and 65 arrested after Argentine riot police on motorcycles fired tear gas and rubber bullets early Saturday at small groups of protesters hours after the end of a bigger, planned demonstration.
As the protest in Buenos Aires petered out amid torrential rain, police fought running battles with several hundred people near the presidential palace in the early hours of Saturday.
The protest had been planned for days by loosely knit groups of city residents and left-wing groups with the help of the Internet and by word-of-mouth.
Many restaurants and banks in the city center had boarded up their windows, nervous after previous protests ended in looting, fires and the smashing of store windows.
"This government is protecting the same interests that are making people take to the streets," Duhalde said. "Only if we all get our house in order, if we act with prudence ... are we going to be able to make it."
CALMER THAN PREVIOUS RIOTS
The violence early Saturday was on a much lesser scale than riots in December that killed 27 people and led Fernando de la Rua to resign as president as frustration boiled over at an economic slump that has impoverished thousands.
Duhalde, a former provincial governor widely seen as a populist who has so far been unable to mend relations with the International Monetary Fund, has tightened controls on billions of dollars in bank savings since taking office.
There has been sporadic violence across the country in recent weeks as Argentines vented their fury at limits on cash withdrawals from banks and freezes on parts of their savings -- nearly halved in dollar terms after the government devalued the peso after defaulting on Argentina's huge debt.
Duhalde is caught between a public demanding access to bank savings and IMF pressure to cut public spending -- and his cabinet is fiercely divided on where the ax should fall.
Some local banks have said they do not have the cash on hand to cover deposits that were totally interchangeable between pesos and US dollars for a decade under Argentina's currency peg, which snapped earlier this month.
Several foreign banks have said they could simply walk away from their operations in Argentina if the government makes them return the dollar deposits in devalued pesos at an unfavorable exchange rate.
Argentina's economy is in tatters, with international companies halting investments and cutting back operations, and retailers desperate as Argentines tighten purse strings, unable to access their cash.
(China Daily January 27, 2002)
