Today Argentine scientists and affiliated scientific institutions are mobilized throughout the nation against what they call the “scientificide” carried out by President Javier Milei, who, through savage budget cuts, wage deduction, and deregulation, has dismantled his country’s renowned scientific institutions and infrastructure. At 4:00 pm local time, there will be a large demonstration, also including university and hospital personnel, trade unions and others in Buenos Aires at the iconic “obelisco” (obelisk) in the center of the city, and then in plazas in cities around the country. Participants announced they will wear the blue and white shirt of Argentina’s World Cup soccer team but “to support the brains that play for the country,” as one scientist put it, or otherwise drape themselves in the country’s blue and white flag, led by the slogan “Put on your shirt in defense of our science, our education and our sovereignty.”
Every scientific institution in the country, affiliated public universities, and hospitals have been affected by Milei’s murderous Von Hayekian economics, among them the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), the National Space Activities Commission (CONEA), the National Science and Technology Research Commission (Conicet)—the country’s premier institute, which trains and provides scholarships for young scientists and researchers—the National Meteorological Institute, and many more. According to a report by the Ibero-American Research Center (CIICTI), since Milei’s taking office in Dec. of 2023, seven scientists per day have lost their jobs, for a total of 6,400 jobs lost to date. Wages for employed scientists are so low that many are forced to take on second jobs or seek jobs in the private sector or abroad. Another CIICTI division reports that in 2026 the portion of the national budget dedicated to investment in science and technology has plunged by 9.2% and 47.5% since 2023.
