The Supermarkets association has anticipated its members will not open their stores on Wednesday unless police forces are back patrolling the streets of Argentina's third largest city which is also an important manufacturing pole.
Television film showed mostly youngsters breaking into supermarkets and robbing food, drinks and electronics, while the stores were defenseless. Women could also be seen.
Public transport has warned that without law enforcements officers back on the beat they will not be operating on Wednesday since some of their units and passengers have been mugged.
The conflict started after negotiations for salary increases with the provincial government broke down and the police force decided to go on strike.
When the news broke out and most of the forces were in an assembly to decide how to continue the conflict, looters appeared in the streets and targeted mostly supermarkets. Small stores and shops rapidly shut down for the day.
Governor Manuel de la Sota who was on an official mission to Panama, is flying back to Cordoba and the province's Home secretary has called on Buenos Aires to send the Gendarmerie to help keep law and order.
Cordoba City, one of the oldest of the country, has a population of 1.5 million and the province is rich not only with manufacturing but also agriculture. However Governor de la Sota and President Cristina Fernandez are not friends and have squabbled for years, and as a consequence the federal government has systematically delayed delivering federal checks.
Short of funds, Governor de la Sota has faced continuous social and political unrest plus financial challenges.
De la Sota has (had) presidential aspirations and when Argentina's 2001/2002 massive default and chaos then caretaker president Eduardo Duhalde started looking for a successor and the current Cordoba governor was first choice. But somehow he never managed to take off and then Duhalde offered the opportunity to Nestor Kirchner. The rest of the story is well known.