Chaos in Argentina: Pensioners and soccer fans clash with police in a protest against Milei

BarcelonaA demonstration against pension cuts in Argentina erupted this Wednesday in the largest bout of police repression yet witnessed by the government of Javier Milei. What began as a protest against the Argentine president's austerity measures in Buenos Aires escalated into a pitched battle between protesters and police, resulting in 124 arrests and 46 injuries. One of them, photographer Pablo Grillo, is in critical condition after suffering a skull fracture from the impact of a tear gas canister.

The weekly demonstration of retirees, unions, and left-wing parties—who are demanding pension updates and the reinstatement of medical coverage—was joined by several football club supporters, in an unusual alliance expressing growing discontent with the government. The protest had barely begun when the police repression began. In fact, the protesters couldn't even reach the rallying point: the gates of the National Congress. Minutes before the protest was set to begin, the police repressed the demonstrators with tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets. Some abandoned the demonstration, but others tried to resist by throwing all kinds of objects and setting fire to containers, tires, and police cars. "How ugly, how ugly, how ugly it must be, hitting retirees so you can eat," they chanted in front of the riot police.

Football club supporters, many of whom hate each other, began joining the protests a week ago, when at another retiree demonstration, a 75-year-old man wearing a Chacarita Juniors shirt was sprayed with tear gas and beaten by police until he was killed.

Retirees have been one of the sectors of the population most affected by Milei's public spending cuts since He became president in December 2023.Now, retirement pay is just over $300, and they also have to deal with skyrocketing inflation. Every Wednesday, retirees take to the streets to demand an update to their pensions, the reinstatement of medical coverage, and the continuation of the "pension moratorium," a measure that guarantees retirement benefits to those who haven't contributed enough years to qualify, and which expires this month.

The Argentine government downplayed the protest and attributed the unrest directly to soccer ultras. Prime Minister Guillermo Francos said the insurgents "used the few retirees who were demonstrating, who do so with every right, and turned it into a violent expression typical of the hooligans [a name used in Latin America for an organized group of fanatics within a football fan base], who we know are a mafia financed by political sectors, too."

Argentina's Minister of National Security, Patricia Bullrich, tried to dissuade her club fans from blocking any streets or participating in any disturbances before the demonstration. According to the minister, the police had merely neutralized an attempt to "destabilize the government" and arrested "about a hundred violent demonstrators, militants from political groups and hooligans, who are members of criminal organizations that have been operating with total impunity for years."

Clashes outside and inside Congress

While clashes with the police were growing outside Congress, within the opposition there was an attempt to force a commission of inquiry against Milei for the Libra scandal, cryptocurrency that the president was promoting and that was a scam.

The dispute took place within the same group of La Libertad Avanza, Milei's party, between representatives Lilia Lemoine and Marcela Pagano. When the president of the chamber, Martín Menem, called a recess, the former tried to pressure the latter to leave the chamber and thus avoid the quorum necessary for the Impeachment Committee. Then another colleague, Rocío Bonacci, threw a glass of water at them, accusing them of pandering to the opposition.

A few meters away, another representative from the same party was trying to push a former party colleague out of his seat. It all ended with shouting and shoving, and the session had to be suspended.