Argentine President Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally of 20,000 supporters Tuesday, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to a 1976 strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup. Seeking to build popular opposition to the strike against a disputed export tax increase, Fernandez urged farmers to immediately end hundreds of highway blockades. "Is it good that highways are cut so that food cannot be transported to market?" she said angrily, adding that such pressure tactics will not work in times of democracy. On the strike's 20th day Tuesday, farmers manned 300 road blockades, which for weeks have strangled the flow of farm goods to cities, emptying supermarket shelves, blocking key exports and causing the biggest crisis for Fernandez since she took office in December
See "Argentine president calls for end to farmers strike", Bill Cormier, Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 1, 2008