Police arrest 103 protesters in violent protest in Argentina

According to data from the Buenos Aires City Security Ministry, local police arrested 89 people, while 14 others were arrested by the various federal forces.

Among the 20 injured, at least ten are light -state police and the rest are civilians, including a serious man with a fractured skull as a result of the “impact of a tear gas capsule” in the square where Congress is located, according to an official statement from the capital’s authorities.

Wednesday’s protest was the most violent in Argentina since Javier Milei assumed the presidency in December 2023. Among the detainees are seven members of the State Workers Association (until) from the city of Buenos Aires, whose secretary general, Daniel ‘Tano’ Catalano, asked for their “urgent release” and said they were “violently detained by police after a bloodthirsty repression.”

The Argentine press highlighted the “repression” by security forces even before the protest began, as they did not allow protesters to reach the place where the protest had been called: the gates of Congress.

The Ministry of Security of the City of Buenos Aires reported in a statement that, in the afternoon, seven vehicles of this body were vandalized, as well as a patrol car and a motorcycle that were set on fire.

The mobilization was called to demonstrate support for retirees who, every Wednesday, protest the doors of Congress to demand an update of pensions, restoration of drug coverage and continuation of the social security moratorium, which ends at the end of March and allows people to retire without fulfilling the 30 years of contribution.

The Ministry of National Security had already warned last Tuesday that would prevent protesters from cutting to the streets or engaging in violence.

“Our forces are mobilized to enforce the protocol: traffic will not be interrupted, and the angry bars (organized fans) are kept on the sidewalk,” said National Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, on social networks on Wednesday.