Argentine Business Group Calls on Government to Prevent Attacks

Argentine Business Group Calls on Government to Prevent Attacks

May 14, 2003

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's biggest business association called on the government to prevent violence against companies after a militant group of unemployed workers threw burning tires and Molotov cocktails into Repsol YPF SA's headquarters in Buenos Aires.

``The law needs to be applied,'' Jaime Campos, director of the Argentine Business Association, said in a telephone interview. ``These things have an international impact. The government needs to help so that confidence is not eroded and the economic recovery can keep going.''

Wednesday's attack on Repsol -- the latest against multinationals in Argentina -- came after President Nestor Kirchner blamed energy companies for causing the country's power shortage by failing to invest enough. Last week, Kirchner said companies such as Repsol, Europe's fifth-largest oil producer, were holding the country ``hostage'' for allegedly deciding to halt gas production as they awaited price increases.

The Buenos Aires-based association, which represents the 70 biggest companies in Argentina, including the units of Bank of America Corp. and candy maker Arcor SA, said in a statement yesterday that the government can't be ``complacent'' about attacks on companies.

Television reports showed the police standing close by without trying to quell the attack on Repsol. Repsol offices are about five blocks from the presidential palace.

The attack by the jobless group, which regularly cuts the main access roads into the city of Buenos Aires, prompted Repsol to evacuate 900 employees, some of which needed to be treated for breathing difficulties, from its headquarters.

Presidential spokesman Miguel Nunez didn't return a phone call seeking comment. Kirchner has said he favors allowing the road-blocking, tire-burning activities of the unemployed groups. Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez yesterday said the government was trying to identify the persons who attacked the Repsol headquarters in order to prosecute them, Clarin newspaper reported.