The Argentine Congress voted Sept. 11 to uphold President Javier Milei’s veto of a bill that would have increased pensions that Milei had previously slashed. Several legislators who had originally voted for the bill had a “change of heart”—accepted government bribes—and supported the veto. Asked the IMF’s opinion about the fight over pensions during her Sept. 12 press briefing, IMF Communications Director Julie Kozack stressed the “importance of meeting fiscal targets"—that is, the primary fiscal surplus the Fund demands of Argentina—"to enhance overall policy credibility.” The Fund of course agrees, she said, “with the government’s objectives of strengthening the overall sustainability of the pension system,” which means keeping pensions at their current low rate.
Very disturbing were the scenes outside the Congress Sept. 11 in which four different federal police forces deployed by fascist Security Minister Patricia Bullrich beat up pensioners who had gathered to peacefully protest the veto. Videos show police using tear gas and pepper spray, as well as physical violence against elderly pensioners, many of whom told reporters that their current pensions aren’t enough to live on, forcing them to go back to work to survive. Many painful images showed medical volunteers trying to help distraught pensioners suffering the effects of pepper spray and facial burns.
Bullrich is now on the hot seat because one video, which has gone viral, shows a federal police officer walking up to a ten-year-old girl who was at the protest with her mother, and spraying her in the face with pepper spray. Bullrich has tried unsuccessfully to distance herself from the incident, claiming a protester attacked the child. But this has now spiraled into a national scandal, in which attorney Gregorio Dalbon, representing the child and her mother, has filed criminal charges against Bullrich for “abuse of power and the duties of a public official.” Pagina 12reported today that he is demanding Bullrich be investigated for “institutional violence,” and for violating human rights and the Convention on the Rights of Children. Other cases have also been filed against Bullrich and the No. 2 in her ministry Alejandra Monteoliva.
