Argentine Leader Rejects ‘Chaos,’ Vows to Break Bus Strike

President Carlos Saul Menem, facing the first crisis of his four-month-old government, vowed Wednesday night to break a day-old nationwide bus strike that brought transport to a halt and sent the Argentine currency into a nose dive.

Menem accused both the drivers’ union and the bus owners of attempting to sabotage his recovery program. He declared that he will not tolerate “a return to the chaos of the past, to hyperinflation, to social anarchy, to looting, to fighting among brothers for a slice of bread, to national disintegration.”

After months of calm, Menem suddenly faced not only the bus strike but also the prospect of walkouts by a host of other unions to demand pay increases to rebuild inflation-ravaged salaries.

Since taking office, he has managed to slash inflation from a 196% rate for July to just 5.6% in October and to stabilize the austral in part by winning accords for restraint on wages and prices.

But concerns over labor unrest sent people scurrying to convert their australs into dollars Wednesday. The dollar shot up from less than 700 australs to as much as 840.

That reminded many Argentines of the chaos that broke out in February, when the dollar leaped from 17 australs into the hundreds, feeding the burst of inflation. The economic crisis that ensued led to the electoral defeat and then the early resignation of former President Raul Alfonsin.