farmers were protesting here for 16 days by blocking the roads with their tractors because of huge increases in export taxes (up to 45% according to BBC) that were recently implemented by their president. after about two weeks, the B.A. residents got involved and hit the streets with their pots, pans and flags. these photos are a block from my apartment, where they blocked the road. add tons of relatively unorganized banging and honking, and that's about the gist.
there was about 100 or 200 people on my corner, but the bulk of people were down at the Plaza de Mayo where most protesting goes down. the large majority of people protesting in the city are middle upper and upper class citizens, but the farmers they are protesting for are in the lower classes.
my host mom told me that the porteños are protesting a lot to show their support for el campo because there is a general idea that the government and the city of Buenos Aires doesn't care about the rest of the country. but in addition to that I think they are getting mad about the price increases of all Argentine grown product. the president said she wouldn't hold any discussion until the farmers moved out of the roads so they have done that and hopefully something good will happen!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7316126.stm
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