- BUENOS AIRES(AFP)
- Unable to circumvent tight government rules limiting cash withdrawals,
a 54-year-old Argentine woman set herself ablaze Thursday inside a bank
branch in a northern Buenos Aires neighborhood.
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- The woman, identified as Norma Cecilia Albino, was rushed
to a hospital with serious burns, police and hospital sources reported.
-
- Albino went early Thursday to a branch of Banco Rio --
owned by Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano -- to try to access her
account. But like millions of Argentines she is limited to withdrawing
a few hundred dollars a month.
-
- After failing to convince the bank manager to let her
withdraw her money, Albino reached into her purse for a bottle of alcohol,
poured it on, and set herself ablaze inside the bank lobby.
-
- Horrified bank employees managed to put out the flames
with a fire extinguisher and with clothing, witnesses said.
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- Riots erupted December 3 after bank withdrawals were
limited to clamp down on a massive run on the banks.
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- At the time, the peso's value was tied at one-to-one
parity with the dollar. Once floated, the peso lost about 68 percent of
its value.
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- December withdrawal limits were further tightened last
week.
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- Hundreds of bank account holders march every day in the
streets of Buenos Aires demanding increased access to bank accounts.
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- Argentina is mired in an economic crisis, which has left
some 22 percent of the workforce jobless. The country is in its 48th month
of recession.
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