BUENOS AIRES A group of unemployed people held a demonstration late Saturday outside three hypermarkets in a low-income Buenos Aires suburb, demanding food donations for Christmas, AFP reported.

The group, known as the Classist and Combative Trend (CCC), said in a statement that it had organized a road block outside three hypermarkets in the La Matanza district, with a slogan demanding, "Food for Our Christmas Tables!"

One of the group's leaders, Juan Carlos Alderete, said the French-owned Auchan and Carrefour chains had already made donations of thousands of kilos of food for Christmas celebrations among the unemployed.

He said the U.S.-owned Wal Mart had declined to give food, however, and that the group would therefore picket the store in La Matanza from 29 to 31 December.

Elsewhere in the city, another group of unemployed and elderly people gathered in front of an Argentine-owned store, Coto, and secured donations of goods for their Christmas celebrations.

The Interior Ministry ordered security to be stepped up at supermarkets across the country in response to similar demonstrations Friday.