Grabbing land from Argentina

Running out of farm land to feed all of its people, China has been buying up land in other parts of the world. The so-called "land grabs" have been criticized as being unfair to the people near the purchased land. The food grown in the purchased land goes overseas instead of into the mouths of local residents. Since most of this land has been purchased in Africa the concern is that the food is being taken away from people who often face starvation.

From the Guardian, we learn of another large land purchase in Argentina. Writer Felicity Lawrence says that local Argentinians are concerned that the Chinese will put too great of a strain on local water resources.

Last year it was confirmed that the company had signed an agreement, with the government of Patagonia's Río Negro province, which provides the framework for it to acquire up to 320,000 hectares (790,000 acres) of privately owned farmland, along with irrigation rights and a concession on the San Antonio port.

Details of the deal, alleged to have been kept quiet, have been emerging in recent weeks as Chinese technicians have started work.

Beidahuang has also reported a 2008 deal on 200,000 ha in the Philippines, and says it plans to buy palm oil plantations and grain terminals this year as it pursues the Chinese government's policy of securing food supply lines from abroad.

Beidahuang, based in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, is the leading soya producer in China and one of the country's five largest soya processors. It also raises more than 600,000 cows, 1.3m pigs and more than 6m chickens at any one time.
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Environmentalists in Río Negro say the Chinese arrival will mean heavy use of agrochemicals, ecological degradation and severe strain on the region's water resources. Some of the land in question is virgin forest that would be deforested.

Dams have already cut the flow of the Negro river, they say, and Chinese plans to invest $20m (£12m) immediately to build irrigation infrastructure would strain resources further. The campaigners say that since soya cultivation is highly mechanised it will prompt unemployment in the area, as it has elsewhere in the country where many rural communities have seen an increase in deep poverty as jobs are lost.

Elvio Mendioroz, president of Uñopatún, an agro-ecoclogical group that opposes the Chinese deal, said the agreement had been kept secret. "China has run out of land to feed its people, and is suffering drought and soil erosion, so they come here.

A microcredit co-operative with indigenous roots

One of the strengths of microcredit was the close relationship the lender had with the borrower. Some of the microcredit banks made sure that the loan helped improve the borrowers life instead of put a bigger burden on them. Grammen and similar microcredit banks made sure that borrowers made commitments to improve their health and education as well as using the loan to improve their business. Each borrower belonged to small groups that helped each member meet these commitments as well as their payments.

We are now seeing this communal aspect of microcredit being taken a step further. Small cooperative savings and loans are staring up without a big central bank controlling the money. Members of the group will contribute to a pot of money that members can later borrow against when needs arise. We linked to a story about one such cooperative in Kenya not long ago. Today, we find a story from the Inter Press Service on one in Argentina. Writer Marcela Valente says some aspects of the cooperative have roots in the Aymará indigenous tradition.

Abra Pampa is the capital of the department of Cochinoca in the arid altiplano region of La Puna, whose scarce population is mainly of indigenous origin, as is Brajeda, a Kolla Indian who, as she says, "was born and will die here."

"You'll laugh if I tell you how much money each of us puts into the pool. It might be 30 or 50 pesos (between seven and 12 dollars) and once in a while up 100 pesos (24 dollars). The money then goes to whoever needs it," she said.

The loans are small, up to 5,000 pesos (1,200 dollars) at the most. "Anyone who wants more has to go to the bank," Brajeda laughs. The interest rate is nine percent, and has remained stable since the fund was created seven years ago.

"Our group gives out loans monthly. If we don't have the amount someone requests, we continue to collect until the next month. And the small interest fee we charge is so that the capital will not run out, so that there will always be something there," she says.

Brajeda says the system is a way "to help ourselves without so much paperwork or red tape." The money goes towards purchases of yarn or thread for weaving work, antibiotics, school supplies or shoes. "It's a big help," she emphasises.
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The original adviser to all of the projects was anthropologist Raúl Llobeta.

"This programme was conceived of from an anthropological, rather than market-oriented, viewpoint," Llobeta, a professor at the National University in Jujuy and an adviser to several Avina Foundation projects, tells IPS.

One of his studies found that South America's Aymará indigenous people used to have a financial institution: the "pasankus" – a trust-based community system of savings and credit.

The old system was recreated "to strengthen the self-esteem and cultural identity, and the political and social organisation, of local communities, and it also serves as a financial lever to break the circle of poverty," he says.

Child cash benefit programs in Argentina

Argentina produces plenty of enough food to feed all of its people. They produce so much that everyone could be fed 10 times over. Still, over 750,000 Argentinian children are malnourished.

A cash transfer program has just started in Argentina and social experts are debating its effects. Some question if it has helped to reduce child malnutrition, or if the program needs to be extended to help more.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Marcela Valente takes a look at the cash transfer program in Argentina.

A little more than a year after the creation of a cash transfer programme to poor families with children under 18, experts are debating the reach, positive impacts and limitations of the subsidy.

The universal child benefit, which went into effect in December 2009, provides a monthly payment of 220 pesos (55 dollars) per child to parents who are unemployed, work in the informal economy or are domestic workers -- in other words, all parents who do not have access to the government's family allowance scheme that already covered workers in the formal economy.

The benefit, which reaches 3.5 million children, is conditional on school attendance and regular medical check-ups and vaccinations.

A family can receive the subsidy for up to five children -- an amount that is close to the official minimum monthly wage.

However, the plan is not actually universal: 2.8 million children and teenagers are not covered by it, for different reasons.

Sociologist Gabriela Agosto, director of the Asociación Civil Observatorio Social, told IPS that the universal child benefit "is an incentive for education and health care, but does not substantially modify access to food.

"The benefit generates a transfer of income, but in and of itself it does not correct a key deficit, child malnutrition, because chronic poverty cannot be turned around with this alone: targeted policies are needed," she said.

Agosto referred to the cases of severe malnutrition and even deaths among indigenous children that are periodically reported in provinces in northern Argentina like Salta, Formosa, Chaco and Misiones, the country's poorest provinces.

Video: Argentinian farmers on strike

From Al Jazeera, a video on a farmers strike in Argentina.

Poverty levels and equality in Argentina and Brazil

A story about equality for young people in Argentina and Brazil gives us some facts and figures about poverty in those countries.

The United Nations Development Programme commissioned a report that asks if young people think that they have an equal chance to succeed. In the report, Argentina youth felt that things were unequal, which is a blow to the county's vision of an equitable society. Meanwhile, youth in Brazil had good hope for equality.

For our snippet, we focus on the figures on poverty levels from the two countries. From the IPS, writer Marcela Valente presented the poverty levels and how those can impact the lives of young people.

Argentina is highlighted as having the lowest poverty rate in the Mercosur bloc, along with Uruguay. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) puts it at 21 percent, while the official national figure for 2006 was 26.9 percent, the report says.

But (sociologist Sergio) Balardini said that the majority of the population living below the poverty line are children and young people. "If they can't get a quality education, and also have to take on responsibilities prematurely, there is an inter-generational reproduction of poverty," he warned.

"The discrimination experienced by young people who are poor is one manifestation of inequality. They live in a consumer society where 'to be' is 'to consume,' and this abruptly dispossesses them at a time when they need to make great efforts to construct their identity," the sociologist said.

Since 2007, poverty and inequality levels have increased in Argentina. However, it is the Mercosur country with the highest percentage of students completing university studies: one out of every eight young people aged 25 to 29, according to the study.

But it also found that the population below the age of 30 represents almost 60 percent of the unemployed in Argentina, as well as in Brazil and Uruguay.

The report describes the incorporation into the labour market on particularly disadvantageous terms as "unfavourable inclusion," a trend that is on the rise. Similarly, it says that in some cases the unemployed youngsters are "the third generation of unemployed, which weakens inter-generational transmission of the culture of work."

Slum residents combat negative media stories

Residents of one of the slums that surround the city of Buenos Aires got tired of how media only portrayed the bad of their lives. So they decided to combat the image with some media of their own.

Villa 1-11-14 produces their own magazine called Desde Adentro (From the Inside). The magazine contains articles about social services that are available to the residents. It also combats recent mainstream media stories of the village to give readers a perspective from the inside.

From the IPS, writer Marcela Valente describes this inventive media offering.

One of the magazine's sections is "El escrache" - "The Outing", a term coined for protests in which groups of hecklers go to the homes of people accused of human rights abuses and loudly denounce them.

"El escrache" chooses a news item or specific coverage by the media, and provides a response "from the inside."

One of the issues denounced journalist Facundo Pastor from the América TV station, which won a "best investigative report" prize at the prestigious New York Festivals for a report on Villa 1-11-14 titled "La favela argentina".

In the documentary, whose title refers to Brazil's "favelas" or shantytowns, Pastor lamented that this Buenos Aires slum lacks the picturesque hills, ocean view and "garotas" (young women) of Brazil's favelas, described Villa 1-11-14 as bleak, and said that to play a football game with a group of local kids, he had to put on a bullet-proof vest.

The journalist also said he agreed to the match to "break down the mistrust of the little narco-soldiers."

In "Desde Adentro", while local residents acknowledged that there are problems and difficulties among the most marginalised people in the neighbourhood, they complained about and refuted Pastor's discriminatory statements.

"Not everything here is peachy, but it's not that bad either," Alejandro Devita, another local involved in producing "Desde Adentro" told IPS. "We know better than anyone else about the bad parts, we don't ignore them. But the magazine can be an instrument to show other aspects, and to help people understand us better."

A profile of a Poco drug user

A new drug named Poco is giving people in Buenos Aries, Argentina an escape from poverty. The use of Poco has flourished in a poor neighborhood just outside of the city, giving it's users an intense but short high. Many who give up on their hopes of providing for themselves or family turn to the drug for an escape.

Accompanying his story in the New York Times, reporter Alexel Barrionuevo has this video profiling on of Poco's users. An update on how he is doing follows the jump.



The story picks up on Mr. Eche reentry into rehab.

Mr. Eche was wasting away before his mother’s eyes in late May when the police picked him up for suspected paco possession. Mrs. Acuña intervened and got a judge to drop the criminal case on the condition that she would check him into yet another psychiatric hospital.

On June 14, Mr. Eche’s birthday, the family surprised him at the hospital. They ate cake on a patio with an unexpected visitor — Mr. Eche’s son, Enzo, 5, who was granted special permission to enter the hospital. Mr. Eche began crying when Enzo ran into his arms, Mrs. Acuña said.

She is thankful for small blessings. With swine flu raging through Buenos Aires, Mr. Eche’s stay at the hospital has kept him from sleeping on the streets and being at greater risk of catching the virus, she said.

In another month, Mr. Eche will have to leave the hospital. His mother said she hoped to get him into yet another treatment center, this one run by a church. “I have to have faith that he will recover,” she said. “I will raise my hopes yet again.”

Beyond the police raids, Mrs. Acuña said, politicians need to get to the root of what is causing paco’s spread. Oculta’s residents are starving for jobs with decent salaries to help break the cycle of hopelessness that is creating whole families of paco addicts and dealers, she said.

She and her husband said they hoped to find the money to turn the upper floor of their diner into an integrated drug-prevention center employing psychologists and professional counselors.

Ultimately, only Oculta can save itself, Mrs. Acuña said.

Guest speaker gives update on Habitat's work in Argentina

from the Pocono Record

By Andrew Scott

In a country where four out of every 10 families are forced to live on less than $50 a month in one-room tin shacks and children miss school after it rains because the dirt roads are too muddy to walk on, how do people find hope for the future?

One way is through building new homes for themselves, with the help of small no-interest loans and learning to keep and maintain their homes and budget both for living expenses and paying back those loans. Those payments go to help other families build homes.

Habitat for Humanity's sister affiliate in Argentina has been giving people in that country the opportunity to do all this since 2004.

"It boosts self-esteem when people can say, 'Now I'm not so poor because I can help another family,'" Ana Cutts, national director of Habitat for Humanity Argentina, told members of the Monroe County Habitat for Humanity affiliate during a Thursday visit at East Stroudsburg United Methodist Church.

This was Cutts' first visit to the sponsoring affiliate in Monroe County, which tithes donations it receives to the Argentina affiliate.

Founded in the U.S. in the 1970s, Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization, helps struggling, low-income families build affordable housing for themselves. Families are given loans which, when paid back, go into a fund to help other families build affordable homes.

Habitat now has affiliates in Third World countries such as Argentina, where the work it does is most needed. Affiliates function on community donations and, if in poorer countries, tithes from sponsoring sister affiliates.

Cutts on Thursday presented a certificate of appreciation to Douglas Freeman, president of the Monroe County affiliate.

"Argentina is a country of contrasts, rich vs. poor," Cutts said. "The poverty is growing and worsening (especially in light of crises like the devaluing of the country's currency in 2001 and the current farmers' strike). Families living in shacks eat at soup kitchens, churches or wherever else they can find food.

"Out of all the Latin American countries, Argentina has the third-highest need for adequate housing for its poor," she said, showing a short film featuring families' grateful reactions to Habitat's work there.

Habitat provides families with small loans, each ranging from $1,000 to $1,500, and has each family take part in building their new home. One-room tin shacks are replaced by one- or two-bedroom homes, built from square-meter concrete panels, with kitchens and dining and living rooms.

Habitat's More Than Houses program teaches families:

* Financial literacy, which involves budgeting and deciding what expenses (such as toys or snacks) to cut.
* Legal literacy to avoid mistakes like signing away home ownership.
* "Little Bricks," an effort that lets the children do presentations on what they've learned about the responsibilities of having a new home.

So far, Habitat has helped 397 families in Argentina and plans to help even more, Cutts said.

The other benefit is building relations between the families and Habitat volunteers from the U.S. helping them.

"People in Argentina tend to have a negative view of Americans," Cutts said. "But when they see these Americans coming there to help them, they connect with them as fellow human beings, regardless of whatever their politics may be.

"This goes hand in hand with changing Argentina's view of its poor," she said. "Not all poor people are criminals. Many obey the law, have jobs and do the best they can to raise their children to have morals and values, despite the conditions under which they live."

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Training Health Agents to Reduce Child Mortality

from IPS News

By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, An ambitious new programme for training health agents to help reduce infant mortality in small rural communities and indigenous villages, launched by one of Argentina’s best-known human rights groups, drew many more applicants than the organisers had hoped for.

"We expected 500 people to register, but we had to expand the programme to 800, and many health professionals even signed up," Oscar Natalichio, extension secretary at the Popular University of the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, told IPS.

The University was created by the Madres (Mothers) of Plaza de Mayo, a group founded during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship to demand that their sons and daughters, who were "disappeared" by the military regime, be returned to them alive.

The formal name of the health agent project, which has the backing of the Ministry of Social Development, is "’Mothers’ Territory’ National Labour Plan for Promotion and Training in Child Development", better known as "Territorio Madres".

It was launched in mid-April with introductory workshops in Chapadmalal, a village in the southern part of the province of Buenos Aires.

"We are going to put an end to poverty and ignorance, and improve the health services, all of us working together," promised the president of the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, at the start of the programme, accompanied by Minister of Social Development Alicia Kirchner, President Cristina Fernández’s sister-in-law.

Professors from the Popular University and universities in the provinces will provide the applicants with training in areas like primary health care, child development and social work. The students will be split into two groups of 400. The first group begins the course in May.

"The participants have at least a high school diploma, and we especially asked for experience in community work with small children. They will be trained to detect problems that can be referred to professionals in the health sector, social work or education. Many of the people who signed up are actually doctors," said Natalichio with evident surprise.

Romina Colachi, secretary of extension at the psychology department in the National University at Mar del Plata, 400 km south of Buenos Aires, told IPS that in her region, applicants included psychologists, social workers, students of psychology and social work, and members of indigenous communities.

"This is a very heterogeneous group that shares, nonetheless, a common experience and objective: working with children," said Colachi. In her psychology department, students have already been working with children in the areas of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

"Now our work will expand, because we have joined a nationwide programme that has support from the state," she said enthusiastically.

According to the latest Health Ministry statistics, child mortality stood at 13.3 infants under the age of one for every 1,000 live births in 2005. But that average conceals huge disparities between provinces. In the northern province of Formosa, for example, the rate climbs to 25.1 for every 1,000 live births, compared to just eight in Buenos Aires.

Reducing infant mortality is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by United Nations members in 2000. The fourth MDG is to cut the mortality rate among children under five by two-thirds by 2015, from 1990 levels. In addition, Argentina has committed itself to narrowing the gap between any two regions to no more than 10 percent.

"What we want is not for people to earn a diploma to hang on their wall, but for them to go and get involved, on the ground," said Natalichio.

Colachi agreed on the need to live up to that challenge. "The plan must then move into a second stage, in which the trained agents are hired in the communities, and become, in turn, trainers," she said.

For the training programme, "Territorio Madres" divided the country into 10 regions covering two or three provinces each.

The students will take the courses at a university or social agency with experience in working in children’s health issues, in the main city in each of the 10 regions.

Besides the Mar del Plata and Madres de Plaza de Mayo universities, training will be provided by the Autonomous University of Entre Ríos, in the eastern province of that name, the University of Río Cuarto, located in the central province of Córdoba, and several social organisations that work with children.

The health agents will later be hired to work in indigenous communities or rural towns and villages with populations of less than 2,000. Financing for scholarships has come from the Ministry of Social Development, and the organisers hope the government will continue to provide support for the agents’ fieldwork.

The course itself is tuition-free, and students who must bus in from other towns will be given free housing and meals for the one week a month when the classes are on, as well as a monthly scholarship of 100 dollars for travelling costs and other expenses.

At the introductory workshops held earlier this month in Chapadmalal by the Ministry of Social Development and the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, the participants were presented with the subject matter to be studied, and the final objectives of the course were explained to them.

Inflation jeopardizes Argentina anti-poverty gains

from the Guardian

By Lucas Bergman
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina's five years of breakneck economic growth has more than halved poverty in the country, but the government's failure to curb inflation threatens to reverse that progress.

President Cristina Fernandez and her husband and predecessor ex-President Nestor Kirchner have overseen an annual growth rate of 8 percent a year, but analysts say poverty rose in late 2007 for the first time in four years although official data is not yet available.

"Poverty and extreme poverty today are rising in Argentina due to inflation, even though the economy is growing 7 to 8 percent," said Rosendo Fraga, a prominent independent political analyst.

Argentina's official Consumer Price Index rose 8.5 percent last year, but private calculations estimate the real increase was up to three times that, and experts say that explains deteriorating living conditions of millions of people.

Dramatic increases in prices for meat, vegetables and other food have hit lower-income people especially hard.

Official poverty data for the second half of 2007 was due for release a month ago. The official statistics agency INDEC has delayed its publication indefinitely.
The last official figures put the poverty rate at 23 percent for the first half of 2007, down from a peak of 57 percent in October 2002.

But analysts and consumer associations say even the first half 2007 poverty rate may be understated due to faulty inflation data, widely believed to be stated as underplayed.

The government steadfastly denies INDEC manipulates statistics. But INDEC staff members have resigned charging the Kirchners have massaged data which could prove unpopular.

POLITICAL SENSITIVITY?
The widespread perception of the understating of inflation is cited as a reason in polls for the erosion of popularity of President Fernandez, who took office in December.

The Poliarquia Consulters polling firm show her approval rating fall from 56 percent January to 47 percent in March.

The government has tried to curb inflation by signing price accords with companies and also limiting grains and beef exports. But analysts in Buenos Aires and on Wall Street widely believe that current policies will not curb inflation.

"Poverty and extreme poverty, taking into account the real prices hikes in foods, is undoubtedly increasing," said economist Jose Luis Espert, who is a government critic.
"With this inflation rate, salaries in real terms stop going up. We have more poverty and extreme poverty and the distribution of wealth, the flagship of this government, starts deteriorating," he added.

Argentina's official poverty line for a four-member family was last calculated at $308, the minimum seen needed to pay for food and consumer staples and key services and transport.

ANTI-POVERTY TREND AT AN END?
"The goal to reduce poverty, shared by the government and the society, is tied to a decrease in inflation," the local labor issue consultancy SEL said in a report.
"The most important fact is that the number of poor would have risen by 1.3 million people in 2007, breaking the (downward poverty) trend seen since 2003," it added.
SEL calculates the second half 2007 poverty rate at 30 percent, up from 28 percent in the first half.

In the absence of up-to-date official data, anecdotal evidence suggests growing poverty.
Social workers say they are noticing an increase in children coming to government-funded food programs.

"We see there is more demand. Continuously people come here to ask" for help, said Mirta Vissani, manager of a public kitchen where at least 100 children a day come for a hot meal.

"There are lots of informal workers who get little pay and prices are rising. People complain all the time because they don't get enough money. I don't understand the government statistics. Who is the economy growing for?" she said.

EXTREME POVERTY
Sociologist Artemio Lopez said food price increases have a disproportionate impact on the extremely poor.

"We see poverty keeping steady in general terms, but extreme poverty is different because the impact of the food prices is really strong," he said.

Extreme poverty -- defined as the inability to purchase a basic $46 worth of food per month per person -- peaked at almost 28 percent in the first half of 2003 and fell steadily to 8.2 percent in the same period of 2007.

Cristina Kirchner To Push For Latin American Integration And Tackle Poverty

from Nasdaq

Cristina Kirchner has said in an interview after getting elected as Argentina's president that tackling poverty and pushing for Latin American integration, especially in energy issues, are among her priorities.

Argentina's first lady told the Todo Noticias network on Monday that her victory in Sunday's election was a recognition of her husband's success as President. Cristina will take over from Nestor Kirchner as head of the nation on December 10.

Riding on the image of her husband, who oversaw Argentina's recovery from the economic crisis of 2001, and the glamour often compared to Hillary Clinton and Eva Peron, Cristina Kirchner won nearly 45% of the vote, ahead of her nearest rival, former MP Elisa Carrio, who received 23%. She acknowledged that Nestor Kirchner had played a major role in her win.
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Christina said she would tackle unemployment and poverty and work to improve health care and education. Equally important is the need for strengthening the regional trade bloc, Mercosur. The consortium consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, has invited oil-rich Venezuela to join.

Answering a question on what Nestor Kirchner will do once he is out of office, Christina said her husband would remain active in the political life of Argentina, indicating the possibility of him returning to run in the 2011 election.

Argentina's first female president-elect said she was happy to be compared to U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, both law graduates, senators, and former first ladies.

"Everything seems to indicate that she is the favorite of the Americans," said Christina Kirchner. "And why not? Another woman wouldn't be bad."

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

Prosperity and poverty divide Argentina

from Yahoo News

by Olivier Baube

RAFAELA, Argentina (AFP) - In this farm town deep in Argentina's "Pampa," the collapse of the national economy six years ago is a distant memory that has been tilled over and given way to a lush prosperity.

This is one of the areas that has done very well out of skyrocketing worldwide demand for commodities, which has helped add 45 percent to Argentina's gross domestic product since 2003.

The devaluation of the peso from its one-to-one peg with the US dollar to less than a third of that has also been beneficial, allowing farmers rich in export dollars to pay off peso-denominated debt more easily.

"When the peso and the dollar were at parity we sold soya beans at 180 pesos for 180 dollars. After the devaluation we got 500 pesos so that year we paid off a big chunk of that debt. It was a real boost," said 30-year-old farmer Fernando Clacha. He has expanded his holding to 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares), growing soya, wheat, maize and sunflowers.

Even the government's take -- a 27.5 percent tax on each tonne of exported soya, for instance -- has done little to undermine the boom in the sparsely populated countryside.

Dairy farmers are the only ones to grumble a bit, saying that government price controls designed to put cheap milk on the domestic market are robbing them of the export manna.

"Today all production for export is controlled by a fund that sells milk at 4,600 dollars but only pays us 2,100," complained one, Jorge Pesce.

Pesce, looking comfortable in his Ralph Lauren shirt and designer sunglasses as he tended his 1,200 acres, is now getting a quarter of his income from crops.

Omar Perotti, mayor of Rafaela, 500 kilometres (300 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, proudly points out that local unemployment is just 6.6 percent, less than the 8.5 percent national average, and well under the 20 percent seen at the worst of the economic crisis.

But the contrast between the increasingly rich countryside and the forgotten slums that circle Buenos Aires could not be more flagrant.

In the latter, the economic recovery has completely bypassed the ramshackle collections of dwellings that have swelled in the wake of the collapse that decimated Argentina's middle class.

In one such poor suburb, known as "Misery Town Number 20," 25,000 people, most of them immigrants, live hand-to-mouth.

One resident of 25 years who gave her name as Natalia said her family had to get by on her 600 pesos a month. Her husband, a builder, is out of work.

Her home is often flooded when it rains, and the neighborhood is prey to insecurity linked to "paco," a cheap street drug.

One neighbor, Alberto Scrazzollo, is a "cartonero," meaning he lives off what he finds in the trash dumped in the streets of Buenos Aires.

"I was a laborer in 1999, but I lost everything with the crisis," the 35-year-old explained.

At least 250,000 people now live in such shanty towns around the capital -- a figure that is nearly triple that of before 2002, according to the city-funded agency in charge of the slums.

Although some have recently pulled themselves out of poverty in the slipstream of the booming economy, chances of others following have narrowed.

Argentina holds a presidential election on Sunday, which First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is hot favorite to win. She has emphasized the economic turnaround under her husband's stewardship, and vowed to pursue his nationalist, leftist policies.

Argentina's economic growth is showing signs of faltering, undermined by inflation estimated to run at 20 percent and the wariness of foreign investors.

The country's farmers will ride high as long as the demand for commodities stays strong. But those in the ramshackle poor zones look set to be staying put for some time to come.