Angered by rising inflation, violent crime and high-profile corruption, and afraid President Cristina Fernandez will try to hold onto power indefinitely by ending constitutional term limits, the protesters marched on the iconic obelisk in Buenos Aires chanting: "We're not afraid."
Demonstrators reached the presidential residence in scorching summer heat banging on pots, whistling and holding banners that read: "Stop the wave of Argentines killed by crime, enough with corruption and say no to the constitutional reform."
"I'm marching against all the things that are going on - the lies, the inflation, (the treatment) of those in retirement. Let's put an end to the lies and the corruption," said a 73-year-old protester. The woman, who gave only her first name, Edith, said she is still working because she can't afford to live on retirement money.
Demonstrations were held on plazas across Argentina, including in major cities like Cordoba, Mendoza and La Plata, protesters also turned up outside Argentine embassies and consulates around the world.
In Rome, about 50 protesters, all Argentine expats, held a noisy protest outside the consulate on Via Veneto. Among the slogans being shouted was `'Cristina, go away."
The protests hold deep symbolism for Argentines, who recall all too well the country's economic debacle of a decade ago. The "throw them all out" chants of that era's pot-banging marches forced presidents from office and left Argentina practically ungovernable until Fernandez's late husband, Nestor Kirchner, assumed the presidency in 2003.
"We came here because we don't want Cristina," said Shirley Brener, a 12-year-old student who protested in Buenos Aires at the Obelisk next to her mother, Monica, a 48-year-old school director.
"Nobody can stand her," Shirley said.
The current president's supporters sought to ignore two earlier protests this year, but when it became clear the latest effort could turn out huge numbers, her loyalists came out in full force. They dismissed the protesters as part of a wealthy elite, or beholden to discredited opposition parties, and misled by news coverage from media companies representing the country's most powerful economic interests.
"The people don't feel represented by anyone. It's a complaint everyone has. The people are begging for the opposition to rise up, and for the government to listen," said Mariana Torres, an accountant and mother of three who is among the leading organizers of the protests.
In a speech Thursday, Fernandez didn't directly refer to the protest, but she defended policies that she said helped rescue Argentina from its worst economic crisis a decade ago and buoyed it during the 2009 world financial downturn.
"During boom times it's easy to run a country but try running when its crumbling down as it was during 2003, 2008 or 2009," Fernandez said as she asked Argentines to continue to support her campaign to improve education, industry and housing.
"Never let go, not even in the worst moments," she said. "Because it's in the worst moments when the true colors of the leaders of a country come out."
Polls suggest neither side has a firm grip on people's sympathies.
Fernandez was re-elected by a landslide of 54 percent over a divided opposition just a year ago but saw her approval rating fall to 31 percent in a nationwide survey in September by the firm Management Fit. The survey of 2,259 people, which had an error margin of about two percentage points, also said 65 percent of respondents disapproved of her opponents' performance.
Crime is the biggest concern for many marchers.
Argentine newspapers and television programs provide a daily diet of stories about increasingly bold home invasion robberies, in which armed bands tie up families until victims hand over the cash that many Argentines keep in their homes. Many people stopped putting money in banks after the government froze savings accounts and devalued the currency in 2002. Adding to frustrations, the vast majority of the crimes are never solved, while the death toll is rising.
Inflation also upsets many, as the government's much-criticized index puts inflation at about 10 percent annually, or as little as a third of the estimates of private economists. As a result, real estate transactions have slowed to a standstill, given the difficulty of estimating the future value of contracts. And unions that won 25 percent pay hikes only a few months ago are threatening to strike again unless the government comes up with more.
Many Argentines are worried mostly about their pocketbooks, angry that government decrees designed to maintain the central bank's dollar reserves and combat tax evasion have made it all but impossible to legally trade their inflationary pesos for safer currencies.
Pro-government voices say what's really at stake is the model of social inclusion that the Kirchners pursued, such as providing cash payments to the poor and unemployed, and directing billions of dollars from the nationalized pension fund to social welfare projects.
The model puts Argentina's development needs ahead of international commitments, and has made sure that the country's state-controlled oil company and airline respond first to the needs of its citizens, government supporters say.
Argentina's opposition parties remain weak and balkanized and face a credibility crisis, having lost control of Congress and nearly every other institution capable of restraining the government. Instead, much of the opposition has coalesced around social media sites created by Torres and attorney Marcelo Moran, who insist they aren't affiliated with any political organization. The eight sites and accounts they manage claim more than 200,000 followers.
Torres dismissed most opposition politicians as having lost touch with Argentines, and said she expected some of them to try to piggyback on the marches.
The march was organized on social networks and was also countered by supporters of the government on the web.
Writer Ivy Cangaro and business consultant Juan Carlos Romero launched a counter-campaign, "8-N I won't go," which has more than 27,000 followers. They, too, say they don't belong to any particular political platform, but support Fernandez.
Cangaro said the march was misguided. "The premises are false and have been imposed by the media through fear. The people assume it's real and so feel the need to go out and protest against it, but it has nothing to do with what's real and tangible."
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Associated Press writers Michael Warren and Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Italy and Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile contributed to this report.