Milei rectifies and will modify the resolution that calls people with disabilities "imbeciles"

Buenos AiresOutrage escalated in Argentina on Thursday when the official government bulletin for January 16 went viral, specifying the requirements for a disabled person to apply for a disability pension. The text classified people with "mental retardation" according to their IQ in the categories of 'idiot', 'imbecile', and 'mentally weak' with the degrees 'profound', 'moderate' or 'mild'. It was the account of X Milei's regrets who has recovered the document and turned it into an object of discussion.

The resolution in question had gone unnoticed by the press and public opinion despite the fact that, on February 3, several NGOs had filed an administrative claim to the government to have it repealed.

After the controversy that this qualification has generated, Milei's government has been forced to rectify. The National Agency for Disability (ANDIS), dependent on the Ministry of Health of Argentina, has announced that it will modify the resolution and assures that it was "an error" that used "obsolete terminology." "From ANDIS we want to clarify that the publication of the terms in question had no discriminatory intention, but rather it was an error derived from the use of concepts belonging to an obsolete terminology," the agency expressed on its official page.

An "unacceptable setback"

On Thursday, in the midst of the controversy, the Permanent Forum for Disability, an organization that looks after the rights of people with disabilities, has firmly positioned itself: "The resolution not only tightens the criteria for access to non-contributory pensions, but also reincorporates obsolete and degrading terminology in the evaluation of people, to the international agreements on this subject. And it is that, until now, Argentina has adhered to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that was approved by the United Nations in 2008.

It is not new that Milei uses words like "mongoloid", "handicapped" or that "he has a mental problem". The use of these terms with discriminatory intent had already been pointed out by groups and organizations that warned about the danger of a president mocking and perpetuating the stigma and exclusion of people with disabilities.

Until now, however, it had not been reflected in any legal text. Amid the controversy, the National Agency for Disability - the competent state body - has rushed to issue a statement in which it has said that it is rectifying and that it will modify the resolution "following current medical and regulatory standards, with the aim of ensuring that the terminology used is aligned with international references", and that it has been considered a "mistake".