Alicia Ceresoli yearns for the smell of new leather shoes and her mouth waters when she imagines sinking her teeth into a steak, two indulgences the 80-year-old Argentine can no longer afford. Pensioners have taken the most pain in a year of budget-slashing by maverick "anarcho-capitalist" President Javier Milei, whose austerity measures have tipped an additional five million people into poverty since he took power last year. "For someone to come and say 'Don't eat, don't buy medicine, just die'," Ceresoli says bitterly. Ceresoli is one of nearly five million retirees trying to eke out an existence on a pension of around $320 a month, a third of what the average elderly person needs to live, according to Argentina's Ombudsman's office. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES