BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's government sent military police to take control of fuel plants and get trucks back on the road on Wednesday, the first day of a truckers' pay strike that could cause widespread shortages.
The country's powerful truck drivers union defied a government order for talks and launched the three-day protest, disrupting fuel distribution in areas throughout the country.
Labour disputes are common in Argentina due to double-digit inflation and the truckers are at odds with President Cristina Fernandez, raising tensions further.
"The president has ordered us to deploy all the state's forces to be able to quickly solve the shortages that (the truckers) want to impose on the country," Security Secretary Sergio Berni told local television.
"Those people who try through force and violence to block the trucks from leaving (plants) will have to explain that in court," he added.
The government has the power to reroute trucks to areas where fuel is urgently needed and the military police, known as gendarmes in Argentina, were prepping halted rigs at several plants so they could be dispatched.
Argentina is one of the world's biggest exporters of grains and the vast majority of farm goods are sent to port by truck. Farmers, who are nearing the end of this year's soy and corn harvest, are also major consumers of fuel.
In Buenos Aires, some people sat in long lines wrapping around city blocks during Wednesday's public holiday to fill up their tanks with gasoline.
Government officials said patients at a hospital in the small town of Guamini, Buenos Aires province, had to be turned away because operations could not be performed.
The leader of the truckers' union, Pablo Moyano, vowed to send truckers to demonstrate in the country's most famous square, the Plaza de Mayo, if security forces crack down on striking workers.
"If they try to force us out, things will get ugly. We hope the government has common sense and doesn't do this," Moyano told local media.
The trucker leader's father is Hugo Moyano, the country's most powerful union chief as head of the CGT Labour federation.
Hugo Moyano used to be a close ally of the president's but their strategic alliance has all but collapsed over the last year or so, increasing the threat of Labour unrest as inflation seen at roughly 25 percent fuels wage demands.
Fernandez cancelled her speech at a U.N. conference in Brazil on Wednesday to return to Argentina early to oversee the response to the fuel strike.
The truckers, who have threatened to stage a series of protests, want a 30-percent pay rise as well as lower taxes.
(Reporting by Hilary Burke; Editing by Ed Davies)
