Wall Street Journal - August 7, 2002
Michelle Wallin, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

In May, Mr. Bidetti was posted at the door to give customers bad news. The bank's Canadian parent company was halting most operations in Argentina.

Since December, depositors had access to just a small portion of their savings. Throughout the banking system, the government has limited weekly withdrawals by individual depositors to just 300 pesos, about $85.

One agitated bank client threatened to get a gun unless Bank of Nova Scotia returned the $40,000 he had on deposit, Mr. Bidetti and other bank workers say. Then the depositor pulled out a syringe and stabbed Mr. Bidetti twice in the arm with the needle. Mr. Bidetti says the depositor told him the syringe contained HIV.

Mr. Bidetti has now twice tested negative for the AIDS virus, but he is still shaken. "I understand his problems, but it's just not my fault," says Mr. Bidetti.

These days in Argentina, once Latin America's wealthiest nation but now an economic disaster, bankers' hours are full of woe. Unable to vent their wrath over the deposit freeze on the five Argentine presidents who have served since December, bank customers are reaching out and throttling the neighborhood teller. In April, an enraged customer at a branch of Credicoop bank hurled a 10-inch glass vase that hit operations manager Gustavo Labitzke just above the left eyebrow. The cut required four stitches. The scars have healed, Mr. Labitzke says, but he is worried about post-traumatic stress. "They always say that these things come out much later," he says. In the port city of Bahia Blanca, an angry elderly depositor pulled a knife on Oscar Maldonado, a bank administrator working at Nuevo Banco Industrial de Azul, according to Mr. Maldonado and the local bankers' union. "The bank workers suffer for the government's sins," Mr. Maldonado says, sighing.

Desperate Grab

The government's imposition of withdrawal limits, a policy known as the corralito, or little fence, came after Argentines made a desperate grab for deposits at the end of 2001. Argentines feared -- prophetically as it turned out -- that the government would resort to seizure of deposits and a currency devaluation to try to stem a prolonged recession and crisis of confidence. After freezing deposits, the government compounded the damage in January by devaluing the peso, which had been pegged to the dollar since 1991, in the aftermath of an economic crisis in the late '80s.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, having visited Brazil and Uruguay, arrived in Argentina Tuesday night to discuss regional economic problems.

In downtown Buenos Aires, where depositors regularly gather for clamorous protests, banks have covered sleek glass facades with corrugated metal sheets and plywood. Graffiti -- much of it calling bankers thieves, or chorros, in Argentine slang -- is scrawled all over bank buildings.

The bank workers union says the number of employees seeking psychological assistance has tripled since December. Fundacion Salvat, a nonprofit job-training institute, has been holding group-therapy sessions at international banks. "They went from being people who sell products to being people who tell people they can't have their money," says Graciela Filippi, a labor psychologist.

Norberto Roglich, a 64-year-old pensioner, who is diabetic, had been worried about having hard cash for insulin supplies, according to his lawyer, Martin Navarro. So, in January, Mr. Roglich bought a replica of a World War II hand grenade and strolled into his branch of Banco Bansud in the heartland town of Tandil, according to Mr. Navarro. Brandishing his weapon, Mr. Roglich got bank officials to hand over cash -- exactly how much neither Mr. Roglich nor the bank will disclose. Before police could arrive at his house with an arrest warrant, Mr. Roglich had hidden the money, his lawyer says.

The government dropped a weapons-possession charge against Mr. Roglich after determining the grenade was fake. Prosecutors are now considering extortion charges. "This is someone who had never run a red light in his life," says Mr. Navarro, the lawyer.

Even bankers themselves had trouble imagining how bad things could get in a country where the peso and dollar had been used interchangeably since 1991 and banks appeared solid until last year. Horacio Gallo, a 35-year veteran of a Banco Nacion branch in the town of San Andres de Giles, says family members had asked him for several years whether it was safe to keep their money in Argentina's banks. He had always assured them that it was.

Now Mr. Gallo is guilt-ridden and stressed out. "My family trusted me," says Mr. Gallo, who is 57. Finally, Mr. Gallo decided to seek psychiatric help, taking a two-week leave and making the 60-mile trip to a Buenos Aires clinic. "The way I feel now, I don't think I can return to work," he says.

Making matters even harder for bank workers, judges have granted injunctions allowing certain depositors, claiming exceptional circumstances, to make extra withdrawals. More than four billion pesos of approximately 60 billion pesos in total deposits have trickled out of the banking system as a result of such court orders. Jorge Luis Illanes, an employee of Banco Nacion in the city of San Juan, said the injunctions favor a rich few who can afford lawyers. "Ninety percent of people will be left with nothing," he says. Carlos Martinez, the manager of a Banco Rio branch in La Plata, ended up spending the night in jail after he refused to recognize the validity of several court orders.

On Edge

When a group of about 50 lawyers representing depositors and armed with injunctions marched into Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in La Plata in April, a larger group of bank employees ganged up on them. They pushed and shoved the lawyers off the premises, the lawyers claim in a criminal complaint. The bankers even turned two fire extinguishers on the lawyers, sending smoke billowing into the intruders' ranks, says Carlos Andreucci, head of the La Plata bar. "A banker had been punched in the face recently, and they were on edge," says Salvador Villano, the leader of the local bank workers union. The bank wouldn't comment.

Norma Ordones, 81, and her husband, Roberto, 86, arrived at the branch of Banco Nacion one morning in early May carrying an injunction granting them access to $32,000 of their savings, according to family members. After the bank refused to honor the injunction, the Ordonezes hunkered down in the lobby and posted handwritten signs on windows explaining their predicament. Their daughter, a journalist, phoned other reporters who appeared on the scene. A crowd of demonstrators showed up, beating pots and pans and chanting, "Thieves!" and "Give the old folks their money." (Banco Nacion wouldn't comment.)

Finally after an extended standoff, the bank agreed to pay the couple within 48 hours. The resolution came too late for one young bank worker, who suffered a panic attack, according to bank employees. Protesters outside the bank saw him being removed in a wheelchair to a waiting ambulance with his hands covering his ears.

Write to Michelle Wallin at michelle.wallin@dowjones.com
020807
WJ020805

Copyright © 2002 - The Wall Street Journal. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the WSJ Permissions Desk.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2002. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2002. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .