Border Guards say gov’t trying to ‘weaken' wage claim

As they have entered the sixth consecutive day of preotests, Coast Guard and Border Guard officers said the government is trying to weaken their claims for a minimum salary of 7,000 pesos, after the government yesterday suspended at least five non-commissioned Border Guard officers who took part in the protest.

One of the officers suspended was Raúl Maza, leader and spokesman for the protest set at the Border Guard’s Centinela building Headquarters, who attributed his sanction to a "government’s strategy set to erode the wage claims.”

“They want to frighten us. But I will not let down my comrades, who appointed me as their spokesman,

Likewise, Maza alleged that the authorities “breached the agreement” as they had assured there would be no retaliation for the demonstrations.”

“There was a verbal accord with the (Economy) Minister Hernán Lorenzino and the Border Guard director General (later removed), Enrique Schenone that no retaliation measures would be taken against any staff. That was the main point of a list of demands we gave the minister,” he added.

Maza insisted that the protests were “peaceful and democratic” and not an attempt to destabilize the centre-left Peronist President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.