"The president has ordered us to deploy all the state's forces to be able to quickly solve the shortages that (the truckers) want to impose on the country," Security Secretary Sergio Berni told local television.

"Those people who try through force and violence to block the trucks from leaving (plants) will have to explain that in court," he added.

Gendarmerie officers were prepping halted rigs at several plants so they could be dispatched.

In Buenos Aires, some people sat in long lines wrapping around city blocks during Wednesday's public holiday to fill up their tanks with gasoline.

Government officials said patients at a hospital in the small town of Guamini, Buenos Aires province, had to be turned away because operations could not be performed.