Riots, looting erupt in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Jobless Argentines stormed supermarkets, shops and kiosks Wednesday in an outburst of looting that spread from the capital to several big cities, prompting the beleaguered president to convene an emergency session of his Cabinet.

Riot police sent looters fleeing amid a fusillade of rubber bullets and tear gas during unrest in the impoverished neigborhoods fringing the capital, marking a troubling new chapter in the financial crisis that has tormented Argentina for more than four years.

It was the most furious unrest after sporadic looting that has taken place daily since a national strike Dec. 13 -- the eighth in two years. It also marked the most serious challenge to the increasingly unpopular government of President Fernando De la Rua.

By midafternoon, looting erupted in at least a half dozen cities across Argentina, including Mendoza, Rosario, Santiago del Estero and San Juan, as hundreds of people descended on stores and carried away everything from bicycles and home appliances to washing machines.

Iron barricades

De la Rua met with his top aides in an emergency session at the Casa Rosada presidential mansion to consider his next step, as police put up iron barricades ahead of a scheduled march through downtown by hundreds of jobless.

The government sent federal police to back up the local Buenos Aires police in cat-and-mouse games with angry crowds that shifted from street to street, forcing shopowners to shutter metal gates and flee.

Argentines are desperate after four years of recession and 18-percent unemployment that has stopped South America's second-largest economy in its tracks. The government, strapped to make payments on the country's staggering $132 billion public debt, has partially frozen accounts to halt a run on the banks. The jobless rate has soared to near record levels.

Violence erupted late Tuesday night, with some 2,000 people looting in the San Miguel commercial district in greater Buenos Aires.

Thousands of angry, disgruntled Argentines regrouped during the day Wednesday in poor and widely scattered neighborhoods around the capital.