BUENOS AIRES (CN) — The numbers are visible across the country — one out of two Argentines is poor and unable to meet basic needs by the end of the day, with more than half of Argentina’s population living below the poverty line.
In late September, a report by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses reflected what the country has seen in many forms over the last years: that needs in Argentina are increasing exponentially and are far from being met.
In Buenos Aires, the streets are filled with homeless families, while children beg in subway stations, reflecting the deepening crisis. Shops shut down or offer large discounts to sell their products. Workers walk kilometers daily to reach work because they can’t afford the increase in bus and train prices. Industry employers lay off their workers. Pensioners choose which prescription medicines they can buy monthly because health care costs usually surpass their income.
Compared to 2023, the poverty index jumped by over 11 percentage points and indigence by over 6. More than half of the country’s population — 52.9% — now lives below the poverty line, with 18.1% experiencing extreme poverty. A staggering 66.1% of children in Argentina are living in poverty, highlighting a generation at risk.
Micaela López, a pseudonym to protect her identity in an increasingly violent area, takes part in a soup kitchen organized by Movimiento de Trabajadores Excluidos, or Excluded Workers Movement, in La Matanza, the most populated district in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. She joined the kitchen during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and said she’s never seen anything like what’s happening now.
“We used to feed 50 families each time we cooked,” she said. “Now, we’re feeding 300 — and there’d be more if we had more to give out.”
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The impact of the economic recession in Argentina shows in changes in consumer habits and access to basic needs.
Recent reports from consulting firm “Sentimientos Públicos” reveal the extent of declining consumption: spending has plummeted by 65% in gastronomy, 60% in culture and more than 50% in clothing and tourism. This downturn has serious implications for access to essential needs, further exacerbating the plight of those struggling.
María Migliore, head of the socio-productive integration area at Fundar, a public policy think tank, worries about indigence statistics.
“In early childhood, this means physical and cognitive consequences, a direct impact of malnutrition,” she said. Many kids need to go out and work instead of attending school.
But there’s a further sign that’s caught the attention of groups working in vulnerable areas: the growth of organized crime gangs at the expense of the retraction of public services.
“These days, a soup kitchen is sustained by a narco structure,” López said. “Now they’re not handing out food, there are little spaces that are helping people — and the narco structure, therefore, is growing.”
Many social organizations, like López’s, have had to reduce their help or entirely retract from the area due to a lack of resources. The consequences go far beyond immediate aid — without the presence of public offices or organizations, criminal groups gain territory.
“If you need an ambulance, you’ve gotta ask narcos,” she said. “The narco structure now handles what was once in charge of the state because the national government just isn’t there any longer.”
The retraction of the state
Since Javier Milei became president in December 2023, food aid distribution — which was vital to maintaining the distribution in the barrios — has seen cuts, as have other significant public areas such as health, education, culture, science and development.
Milei won office last November advocating for “austerity measures” in the form of “the biggest financial adjustment in history.”
To meet his goal of zero fiscal deficit, Milei has closed numerous public offices and laid off thousands of workers, cutting, in particular, programs covering health care for older populations or resources for public hospitals.
Recently, he vetoed a law that would increase a pensioner’s $300 income by less than 10%, reaffirming his commitment to zero fiscal deficit regardless of who it affects the most.
Norberto Ruben, 76, worked for 43 years as an electromechanical technician. Now, as a pensioner, the $300 a month he receives each month is not enough to make ends meet.
Eight years ago, he and other pensioners founded Jubilados Insurgentes, or Insurgent Pensioners, aimed at “fighting for the retired,” he said in an interview.
Although he and his wife worked their whole lives, they now bring in less than $600, barely covering their needs.
“We used to go out once a month for a pizza and a beer,” he said. “Now, we can’t even come close: one of our daughters cooks and brings food in, now and then; the other one sometimes buys us noodles or oil or something we can cook.”
It’s not just the loss of purchasing power that’s affected them the most, but the new administration pushing back on subsidizing key medicine for pensioners that used to be covered by their public healthcare.
“Milei says he’s eliminating inflation,” Ruben said. “He’s doing so at the expense of freezing our income: we’re seeing old people unable to afford medicine for diabetes and cancer.”
The previous government, led by center-left Alberto Fernández, left the country with over 200% year-over-year inflation due to its challenges to face its $44 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund, contracted in 2018 by right-wing President Mauricio Macri.
Milei, a political outsider, won office promising to crash traditional politics and the handling of public spending.
Fernando Marull, an economist who has shown optimism about the path the government has chosen, told Courthouse News that Argentines should expect a decrease in poverty rates in the upcoming months.
“The main reason is inflation, not the lack of jobs,” he said, pointing out that unemployment rates in Argentina sit at 8%. “It’s a matter of income and inflation, and as inflation decreases, so will poverty.”
However, he said, there’s still a long way to go.
“We will need 4 or 5 years of sustained growth in order to beat poverty,” he said. “Argentina is already improving, but it needs structural growth.”
After huge protests in Buenos Aires earlier this month, activists halted the closure of a mental health hospital. But not every demand has been victorious.
During the interview, Rubén was headed to the premises of Congress, as he does every week with Jubilados Insurgentes, this time to protest against Milei’s veto of a law that would help finance public universities, a landmark of Argentine culture.
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Protests have become increasingly violent as several forces disperse the attendees. In February, Jubilados Insurgentes grew more visible when police tear-gassed and beat the group during a protest against the passage of one of Milei’s most controversial and deregulatory laws, the Ley Bases, a sweeping legislation that affected multiple areas of public policy — from science and culture to foreign investment and special powers for Milei.
“We were standing on the street, they beat us up, threw gas in our faces — some of us ended up in hospital,” Rubén said.
Meanwhile, just a day before, Milei said at a conference not to listen to “the leftist shits” that insist on measuring inequality. He said that those making money in Argentina are “heroes” because they bring prosperity to society.
Rubén thinks otherwise. In partnership with the government, “companies evade taxes that could help us gain a bit more in our pensions,” he said. “They’re impeding us to have a dignified life.”
Migliore, from Fundar, believes that the situation in Argentina can only be fixed if direct subsidies are created to recompose people’s incomes, which have deteriorated increasingly despite the lowering of monthly inflation rates.
“Without growth, we cannot address poverty,” she warned. “Argentina must prioritize policies that promote a better future for all its citizens.”