At the behest of President Javier Milei, Argentine police today brutally repressed a march to the federal Congress in Buenos Aires by university students, professors, administrative staff, state-sector workers, medical personnel and many others, demanding that the President implement a law passed in October of 2025 to fund tuition-free public universities, at which two million students are enrolled. This is a law passed by Congress, and upheld by the courts, including the Supreme Court, but which Milei has refused to implement, defying the Constitution.

This was the fifth nationwide march directed against Milei’s “chainsaw” economics since he took office in December of 2023. As media and other observers noted, however, he had no intention of allowing this march to take place. He is obsessed with his reelection chances in next year’s presidential election, and is desperately trying to convince people that his von Hayekian libertarian model is performing wonders in the country. In reality, the economy is failing, with record unemployment numbers, factory closings, and an unpayable foreign debt. Milei’s cabinet is rife with internal dissension, and his approval rating stands at 32%.

Preparations for today’s march had been widely publicized both in Buenos Aires and in the rest of the provinces, with the message that public education must be defended “to defend the future.” In Buenos Aires, despite sometimes heavy rain, students and allied groups started gathering before the scheduled starting time of 4:00 pm local time, marching peacefully in columns toward the Congress, carrying brightly-colored banners, signs and flags, representing different universities or political groups. It was only shortly after speakers began addressing the crowd in front of metal barricades, behind which the police waited, that masked, hooded provocateurs started throwing rocks and other projectiles over the barricades toward the police.