Argentine police on Thursday fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters gathered outside government buildings in Buenos Aires as lawmakers debated Argentine President Javier Milei’s economic, social and political reform package.
Opposition legislators stormed out of the building at one point to observe and denounce the police action, but later went back inside to take their seats and the debate resumed until past midnight.
The drama unfolded on the second day of what is expected to be a marathon debate on Milei’s reform plans.
Photo: AFP
The 53-year-old won a resounding election victory in October last year after decades of economic crises marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit.
Milei began his term by devaluing the peso by more than 50 percent, cutting state subsidies for fuel and transportation, reducing the number of ministries by half, and scrapping hundreds of rules so as to deregulate the economy.
His massive reform package touches on all areas of public and private life, from privatizations to cultural issues, the penal code, divorce and the status of soccer clubs.
Some Argentines are upset and staged a strike less than two months into his term.
TV footage showed police firing rubber bullets and water cannons toward hundreds of people opposed to the reform package.
Local media reported that three people were injured and two arrests were made.
The Buenos Aires press union reported that at least a dozen journalists were hit by rubber bullets, including one in the face.
“We cannot hold a session under these circumstances,” Argentine lawmaker Mariano del Cano said as he and others left the building.
Argentine legislator Myriam Bregman told reporters that a group of about 40 lawmakers urged police to stop the violence.
“They hurled gas at us, they hit us, they pushed us,” Bregman said.
Argentine legislator Alejandro Finocchiaro accused lawmakers who walked out of trying to delay the debate and said the demonstrators outside “were determined to be repressed so this session will come to a halt.”
It was the second day of protests outside the Argentine Congress as the bill is debated.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
Singapore yesterday swore in Lawrence Wong (黃循財) as the city-state’s new prime minister in a ceremony broadcast live on television after Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) stepped down following two decades in office. Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, was inaugurated at the Istana government office shortly after 8pm to become the second person outside the Lee family to lead the nation. “I ... do solemnly swear that I will at all times faithfully discharge my duties as prime minister according to law, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. So help me God,” the
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for