Under the slogan "The homeland is not for sale," several thousand Argentines defied the rain in Buenos Aires this Thursday to protest against the bill on "inviolability of private property," analyzed that same afternoon in the Senate.
Called spontaneously and also through political, union, neighborhood, guild, student organizations, and social movements, the attendees gathered in front of the National Congress to reject the initiative of the government, until the security forces proceeded to disperse them with tear gas and water trucks.
Rejection of the government's "surrendering" policy
Although the protest had been organized before the Executive announced, the day before, the withdrawal of the chapter that reduced the limit on the sale of land to foreign capital, the protesters decided to maintain the call to express their general rejection of the project.
Among the banners with slogans like "not for sale, burn or evict" was Mateo S., who attended as a self-convoked individual to defend the need to preserve restrictions on the sale of land to foreign buyers. In his opinion, this is key in a context where the country is governed by Javier Milei, whom he considers to have a marked "surrendering" tendency, especially regarding natural resources and rare earths.
"The fact that you can have a foreign private entity, whose interests may not align with the interest of the Argentine people in general, deciding on territories that are the heritage of Argentines is an indirect attack on sovereignty," Mateo stated in remarks to Europa Press.
The current legislation prevents foreign individuals or legal entities from controlling more than 15% of rural land on a national, provincial, or municipal scale, and sets the maximum purchasable area in the core agricultural zone at 1,000 hectares. The most controversial part of the project contemplated eliminating this cap.
In this scenario, the Argentine government initially proposed raising to 25% the percentage of national, provincial, and departmental productive land that foreigners can buy, according to media such as the newspaper "La Nación." However, due to the lack of sufficient political support, the Executive decided on Wednesday to finally withdraw that chapter.
Twelve detained and police charges in the square
The federal forces communicated the detention of three protesters and reported three injured agents, two of them seriously, belonging to the Gendarmería, who would have suffered blows to the head and were transferred to the Churruca Hospital, according to "La Nación". In turn, the City Police reported nine arrests for "assault and resistance to authority", raising the total balance to twelve detainees.
Between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM (local time), the security forces resorted to tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets to evict the square and disperse those gathered.
The head of Government of the city of Buenos Aires, Jorge Macri, defended the police operation and emphasized that the instruction given to the agents was "clear", consisting of "enforcing the law and defending the city from the violent who intend to destroy it".
"They burned containers, broke sidewalks, destroyed patrol cars, and attacked the Police," Macri has stated, subsequently labeling as "anarchist criminals" those who "disturb the order violently and assault the Police". "They are enemies of our way of life," he has exclaimed.