Thousands of people took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Wednesday to protest against the government's economic shock measures, in the first real test for Argentina's new libertarian president, Javier Milei.For years it has been common for protesters in Argentina to block streets for long periods of time; while Milei's administration has said it will allow protests, it threatened to cut off public aid payments to anyone who blocks thoroughfares.Marchers began gathering in Buenos Aires, the capital, and set out toward the iconic Plaza de Mayo, the scene of protests dating back to the country's 1980s dictatorship. Police struggled to keep marchers from taking over the entire boulevard.
Eduardo Belliboni, one of the march's organisers, said demonstrators faced an enormous repressive apparatus. Belliboni's left-wing Polo Obrero group has a long history of leading street blockades.Belliboni claimed marches wouldn't fit on the sidewalks. This (the street) is where people move around all over the world ... where are we going to fit 50,000 people?, he said.Milei, a right-wing populist, is facing the first test of how his administration responds to demonstrations against economic shock measures, which he says are needed to address Argentina's severe crisis.
The shocks include a 50% devaluation of the Argentine peso, cuts to energy and transportation subsidies, and the closure of some government ministries. They come amid soaring inflation and rising poverty.Protesters "can demonstrate as many times as they want. They can go to the squares .. but the streets are not going to be closed, Milei's security minister, Patricia Bullrich, told local media.Bullrich announced a new protocol to maintain public order that allows federal forces to clear people blocking streets without a judicial order and authorises the police to identify through video or digital means people protesting and obstructing public thoroughfares. It can bill them for the cost of mobilising security forces.Some groups say the protocol goes too far and criminalises the right to protest.Hours before the protest, police officers were deployed in downtown Buenos Aires and other parts of the city but mainly at the entrances to the capital and some public transportation stations.