Ricardo Klausner looks at auctioned lots of his closed La Tekla restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 18 2020. Picture: AFP/RONALDO SCHEMIDTAfter stuttering through two years of recession and three months of grim coronavirus lockdown, many businesses in the capital Buenos Aires have had enough and are closing their doors.
Workers were taking out crates of glasses and crockery, chairs and an industrial kneading machine from the restaurant Klausner operated for 26 years in downtown Buenos Aires, employing seven people. According to a survey by the Federation of Commerce and Industry of Buenos Aires , at least 18% of the 110,000 businesses in the capital have shut down since the coronavirus began.
“By the time it is decided to resume activity, 25%-35% of businesses will have disappeared, leaving a string of unemployed, having been made defunct by the state because it was impossible to pay taxes,” said Fabián Castillo, Fecoba’s president.The streets around the Plaza Cortazar in the Palermo Viejo neighbourhood in the heart of Buenos Aires, look desolate these nights.