Several thousand people took part in demonstrations in several Argentine cities on Friday to warn of a food emergency, in one of the growing protests against measures taken by the ultra-liberal government of Javier Millay, AFP reported.

In Tucumán (northwest), Mar del Plata (east) and Córdoba (north), the Argentine press reported large-scale demonstrations, but the largest demonstration took place in Buenos Aires, where several thousand people demonstrated under heavy police protection, AFP notes.

The mobilization (on the theme “the food emergency cannot wait any longer”) was a response to a call by trade unions, small parties and social movements of the left or far left, but not by the largest trade union alliance, the CGT, which in turn is announcing an imminent general strike which will be the second in three months of President Mila’s tenure.

Demonstrators are criticizing a review of government food aid for the approximately 38,000 social canteens across the country. According to the latest data for 2023, the poverty rate in Argentina exceeds 40%.

Mila’s administration wants to eliminate “middlemen” and “poverty managers” by targeting a host of social organizations it says engage in “blackmail and multi-million dollar deals” with aid.

Eventually, the government wants to introduce direct aid to beneficiary localities, but in the meantime, protesters have condemned its suspension at a time when austerity is sending more families into poverty rations.

“In just two months, this government has created a situation of critical poverty,” Nahuel Orellana of the small leftist MST party said at a march in Buenos Aires on Friday.

The government denies that it has stopped food aid deliveries and says that “no social canteen that met” the standards and was registered with the Ministry of Human Capital noticed that the aid was stopped.