Police Strike in Argentina Sparks Looting, One Dead

An outbreak of looting overnight during a police strike in the Argentine province of Entre Rios has left one man dead and 25 others injured, officials said Monday.

The man was electrocuted after entering an appliance store during looting in the city of Concordia, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Buenos Aires, authorities said.

Most of the injured suffered cuts from broken glass in shops and businesses ransacked during the night, Entre Rios governor Sergio Urribari said.

"There is no social justification for what is happening," he told Radio La Plata. "This is sedition, these acts are being politically instigated."

The violence came as provincial police were on a strike for higher pay, one of a rash of similar job actions that has hit other provinces.

Riots and looting first erupted in the city of Cordoba last Tuesday after police there refused to go on patrol. A 20-year-old male was shot and killed.

Argentine cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich said the violence was an attempt to discredit democratic rule, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in Argentina.

"These are groups who are trying to generate chaos and anxiety," he said.

Governors in Cordoba, Neuquen, San Juan, Catamarca and Rio Negro have defused police protests in their provinces by doubling and tripling police salaries.

But unresolved tensions with provincial police remain in Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chubut.

In northeastern Chaco province, there were attempts to loot supermarkets, governor Marco Verbeek said.

In Mar del Plata, a beach resort on the Atlantic 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, 17 people were arrested for looting stores, Mayor Gustavo Pulti told reporters.

The police strikes have been confined so far to provincial forces and have not spread to the 60,000-strong federal police.

Inflation in Argentina is running at a rate of 30 percent a year, according to private analysts, fueling the social tensions.