(2 Aug 2002)
1. Looters breaking open doors of supermarket
2. People run toward supermarket
3. Fire in the street
4. Boy walking away with a computer hard drive
5. Another looter runs by with basket of goods
6. People running away
7. Police van drives up
8. More police arrive
9. Police arresting looters
10. Presidential palace
11. Former president Luis Alberto Lacalle arriving
12. Vice president Luis Hierro Lopez arriving
13. Economic minister Alejandro Achugarriy arriving
14. Cutaway press
15. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Guillermo Stirling, Interior Minister
"It's impossible to believe that spontaneously in the same area, in thirteen different places, the same thing happened. What we need to know is who is behind this."
16. Wide shot map of Montevideo
17. Push pins indicating where looting took place
STORYLINE:
Looters raided supermarkets and small shops in a poor district of Uruguay's capital Thursday, as unions protested a government decision closing the country's banks for most of the week.
About 100 people threw rocks and pried open metal gates at one supermarket and carted away food before police dispersed them. Authorities said 16 shops were vandalized and attacks on 14 other stores were thwarted.
There were reports that two other small supermarkets, along with a pizza shop and bakery, were also targeted, two days after President Jorge Batlle ordered banks closed in efforts to slow a run on deposits that was threatening Uruguay's financial system. Interior Minister Guillermo Stirling blamed the looting on "organised groups," but did not name them. He said 20 people had been detained and were being questioned.
Elsewhere, thousands of union supporters turned out for a noisy but generally peaceful four-hour protest in Montevideo. The unions all but shut down the city's public transportation in hopes of forcing talks with the government about Uruguay's worsening economic crisis.
Long lines formed outside working cash machines as Uruguayans tried to get their money during the bank shutdown. The banks were to remain closed through Friday. Batlle and his economic planners were scheduled to met with other political leaders Thursday to discuss the crisis and the consequent lootings and protests.
The government decision came after weeks of massive capital flight from the nation's banks, as Uruguayans and Argentines withdrew money they had deposited here when Argentina's economy foundered last year. The amount of capital in many Uruguayan banks has fallen dangerously low in recent weeks, causing fears of widespread bank closures. In the first seven months of 2002, total bank deposits have fallen 40 percent.
Authorities said they were now preparing reforms to fortify the weakened banking system but ruled out any banking freeze like that imposed in Argentina in December 2001. The crisis comes as Uruguay, long considered one of the region's most economically stable countries, undergoes its fourth straight year of recession. Uruguay's peso, which was valued at 17 to the dollar a month ago, is now trading at about 28 to the dollar.
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