We arrived in Salta on the wrong day. Certain sections of the national police union in Argentina had been striking all over the country starting in Cordoba a week ago. They are demanding salary increases, and other improvements to the force. The government’s offer of 6,500 a month (about 600 bucks) was rejected by the union and they are pushing for 8,500 pesos a month – about 800 dollars (less with the official exchange rate). Neither amount is easy to live on in Latin America.
Going south is cheap for westerners getting paid in dollars or with a good retirement. But living on pesos in the local economy – especially in Argentina where inflation is on the rise and an ignored subject in the official government discourse – is hard. Raising a family on 800 bucks a month, even if your spouse can add another couple hundred to the pot, is not an easy task. The strike led to violent looting on Monday the 8th – opportunistic assholes who took advantage of a reduced force to steal flat screen TVs, cans of paint and baby strollers, lighting things on fire as they went.
So Salta on Wednesday … was tense. Businesses covered their shop windows with 
cardboard and newspaper – as if hiding the merchandise inside would trick looters into thinking there was nothing good to steal – and several wealthier shopowners were boarding up windows with plywood as if in preparation for a hurricane.
They stood around on the sidewalks with metal pipes, wooden sticks and even machetes, daring looters to come out and try it. It all seemed a tad dangerous and the city was covered in eery stillness even though the police were back on the job at that point. Supermarkets were packed with people buying last minute supplies in case they too closed.
“I don’t understand what they’re striking for anyways,” said Ariel, a local we met the next day. “Teachers only make two or three thousand pesos a month, it doesn’t seem very fair.” Two or three thousand? Now that’s tough.
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