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.
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