Police repress new protest by pensioners in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires. Some 30 injured and wounded, among them journalists, was the result of the second repression in a week against retirees, who in a peaceful march, like the one they carry out every Wednesday, arrived at the outskirts of Congress and found a cordon of hundreds of police, gendarmes, naval prefects, as if ready to face a violent demonstration, and the agents were cruel with the oldest and defenseless, whom they threw pepper spray and its chemical additive directly in the face, applying the anti-picket protocol established by the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich.

There were several organizations of retirees protesting against the veto of the president, Javier Milei, to the law of pensions that provides for the increase and mobility of pensions. Last Wednesday, they were also repressed with extreme violence. What was surprising today was not only the number of security forces that seemed to outnumber the repressed retirees, accompanied by representatives of social organizations, who were key in helping the injured and wounded.

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The uniformed men began to push with their shields, hitting the pensioners with batons to get them to get on the sidewalks, which was impossible, and the protest broke out when they tried to walk around Congress. The scene of elderly people sitting blinded by the gases was more than painful.

Bullrich also ordered the suppression of a peaceful march, the protest of the Union of Judicial Employees (UEJN), in front of the courts for wage claims, which left numerous people injured and arrested. The chaos began when the Federal Police arrived as they were leaving, folding their flags, and attacked them with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets, without any conflict.

Julio Piumato, leader of the UEJN and Secretary of Human Rights of the CGT, was one of the injured and denounced the “excessive violence against those of us who were simply demanding a decent wage, and it has no justification.” He referred to the use of rubber bullets, threats and harassment with long weapons. Several injured people were sent to different hospitals, including workers who suffered burns on their faces and chests due to prolonged exposure to the gas, since if not treated immediately it causes dangerous burns.

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This is happening as the Minister of Regulation, Federico Struzenegger, is preparing the new labour reform around the so-called basic law, which would be the end of the rights acquired by workers over the years and also the possibility that “the parties” (employers and workers) can get out of the employment contract law with regard to dismissals, for which he is trying to design the scheme “they want for an agreement with the flexibility they want, at the level of large, medium or small companies.” That is to say, that workers can be fired without having to establish a cause and without paying compensation.

For his part, Milei, meeting with businessman Marcos Galperín, from Mercado Libre, stressed that “the only one who can generate wealth in this country and in the entire world is the businessman; not the politician,” and added that “for that to happen, the businessman must be allowed to be because the freedom of each person engenders common prosperity.”

He assured that his government will “fight” against the “Argentine cost”, which he described as a “many-headed monster”. All this before the meeting of the extreme right called by the Vox party of Spain, for which representatives of the extreme right, from the region and the world, are arriving in this capital, in view of which, the evident exercise of these latest repressions is understandable, trying to dissuade any movement that refutes the words of the president, about the “Argentine miracle”.

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At the same time, in recent days Milei has been praised by Elon Musk, who seems to compare him to the opposite of the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has demanded, as the Supreme Court of that country does, that he should choose a representative to operate in Brazilian territory, which the tycoon has refused to do. There have already been messages about the “freedom” that Milei invokes so much as support for his “friend” who has received him on his trips.

“We are seeing with great concern that more and more countries are restricting free expression on social networks. In Argentina there is free expression because we respect the National Constitution. One of the objectives of this first Milei government is to turn Argentina into a beacon of freedom,” said the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diana Mondino, in what was described as a clear “message” from the Argentine president.