No end in sight for Argentine farmers' strike

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Farmers and their supporters protested Wednesday in hundreds of rural locations in Argentina on the two-week mark of the farmers' strike against an increase in export taxes for their products.

In some places, protesters blocked roads to the capital, the U.S. Embassy in Argentina reported. On those roads, the farmers have stopped trucks transporting food and other farm-related products. Other vehicles were allowed to pass.

"There is no reason to bother the rest of the community any more than necessary," said Pedro Apaolaza, president of the Federation of Rural Associations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa.

In the more than 400 blockades he said his group has organized, "We haven't had incidents, we haven't had any problems, nothing out of the ordinary," he said.

But traffic jams still occurred, inconveniencing many people. "They have to try to resolve this as soon as possible," a woman told CNN on Tuesday. "There are kids who are trying to get to school, and they're not arriving."

The farmers' federations have said that the strike will continue for an undetermined period of time. The strike's impact already is visible on the nearly empty supermarket shelves in cities. Butchers and supermarkets were among the first hit.

Minister of Justice and Security Anibal Fernandez told Telam, Argentina's official news agency, that the government will resolve the conflict "product by product," and that "those who don't understand that will be jailed."He said, "With force, you don't resolve anything."

President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner strongly backed the new tax Tuesday night, calling the growers' demands as "extortion" and government increase of taxes up to 44 percent on agricultural product exports are justified. "It is the sector that exports almost everything," she said. "About 95 percent of soybeans are exported. They're not exported in Argentine pesos, they're exported in euros, in dollars. But the costs are Argentine costs," she said.

But Alfredo Rodes, executive director of the Confederation of Rural Associations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa, said the taxes go directly to the central government, not to the provinces where the farmers live, and he accused the government of demanding "practically half" of farmers' production in taxes.

On Tuesday night, hundreds of Argentines took to the streets of the capital and other cities, including Rosario, Cordoba, Santa Fe and Parana. They banged pots and pans in protests called "cacerolazos."

Some observers said the protests were in response to Fernandez Kirchner's speech, but the minister of justice and security told Telam that was "an enormous lie."

He said, "There were people with printed T-shirts, with posters written by computer. There's nothing wrong with that, but there was also nothing spontaneous about it, considering they'd been planning it since 4 in the afternoon," he said, Telam reported.

The noise of Tuesday's cacerolazos evoked memories of the protests in 2001 that forced then-president Fernando de la Rua from power.

"I think that after last night's response, which was resounding across the country, they should analyze their position and they should correct it accordingly so we can go back to working peacefully in the countryside like we're accustomed to," Apaolaza said.

"The one who's in a position to resolve this is the government that created the crisis."

Local media reported that Fernandez Kirchner's husband, who is also her predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, had pushed to Thursday a Peronist Party gathering originally scheduled for April to support his wife's policies. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Damian Autorino and Guillermo Fontana contributed to this report.

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