Cry for Argentina: [inside an economic catastrophe].

• Author: Rohter, Larry

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Even during the boom times of the 1990s, Jorge Herrera never considered himself rich. But over the last two years, Herrera, a working-class salesman with a wife and four children, has lost his job, been evicted from his rented home, forced to move from one church shelter to another, and reduced to eating in soup kitchens or foraging for food in garbage cans on the streets here in Argentina's capital.

"My situation is like that of this entire country," says Herrera, who is 40. "We have no work, no support, and no prospects. Everything has fallen apart, and we cannot believe that this has happened to us."

Only a few years ago, Argentina boasted the highest income per person in all of Latin America, and was considered a model for the rest of the region. But no more. Argentina's people are now living through the most severe economic crisis in their history. One in every five people is unemployed; others have had their work hours or wages sharply reduced. More than half of Argentina's 37 million people now live in poverty. With fewer goods being produced, and people able to buy less, the economy has shriveled by more than 10 percent.

FROZEN ACCOUNTS, STARVING BABIES

Argentina's economic decline began in the late 1990s. Over the years, the country had borrowed $141 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which lends money to developing countries, especially those in economic trouble, and from other foreign and domestic lenders. Under pressure from those creditors to run more efficiently, the Argentine government cut back its public services and the wages paid to public employees. The income cuts led people to spend less themselves, which caused the economy to slip further.

But the real collapse began a little more than a year ago, in December 2001, when it became clear that Argentina was going to default, or declare itself unable to pay, on its debt. Because the government had not made all the spending cuts it promised, the IMF refused any further loans to Argentina.

To prevent nervous bank depositors from emptying their accounts and shifting their money abroad, the government froze savings and checking accounts and decreed that depositors could withdraw only $250 a month.

People were outraged. In less than three weeks, food riots in poor neighborhoods and pot-banging anti-government street demonstrations in middle-class areas left 28 dead and drove President Fernando de la Rua from office. Political chaos followed. One president held office for a single day; another was in power for one week. Finally, last January, Argentina's Congress chose Eduardo Duhalde, a leader of a populist political party that has been the nation's largest and strongest for more than 50 years, to complete de la Rua's term.

These days, work is so scarce that contestants on a popular game show compete not for cash or merchandise, but for a blue-collar job. For the feast day of...