Argentine riot police on motorcycles fired tear gas and rubber bullets early today at small groups of protesters hours after the end of a massive demonstration against the government's handling of a deepening financial crisis.
Tens of thousands of Argentines protested last night, banging pots and pans in the biggest nationwide protest yet against President Eduardo Duhalde - a major challenge for the new government as it struggles to turn around a four-year recession.
As the protest in Buenos Aires petered out amid torrential rain, police fought running battles with several hundred people near the presidential palace in the early hours of this morning. A few dozen people were detained and 11 protesters and five policemen were slightly injured, officials said.
Only hours before, Argentines across the social spectrum had peacefully gathered in the capital and provincial towns to demand more jobs and an end to a freeze on bank deposits that has cut the value of dollar savings by 20 per cent.
Peaceful protesters filled Buenos Aires' streets and blocked intersections with burning tires to protest the economic policies of Duhalde, the fifth president in little more than a month who has devalued the peso currency by 30 per cent and tightened an unpopular freeze of bank accounts.
The protest had been planned for days by loosely knit groups of city residents and left-wing groups with the help of the Internet and by word-of-mouth.
Many restaurants and banks in the city centre had boarded up their windows, nervous after previous protests ended in looting, fires and the smashing of store windows.
But the violence this time was on a much lesser scale than riots in December that killed 27 people and led Fernando de la Rua to resign as president as frustration boiled over at an economic slump that has impoverished thousands.