Human rights watchdog Comisión Provincial por la Memoria presented a report on Tuesday on their monitoring of police actions at public protests during the first semester of 2025.

Among the most damning findings, the document revealed what the organization called an “exponential rise” in police violence, with more people injured and arrested in the first semester of 2025 than in all of last year. 

Furthermore, the percentage of gatherings that saw some form of crackdown also surged compared to 2024.

“These findings are evidence of the government’s decision to deepen the repressive path to the detriment of dialogue and democratic building,” the human rights watchdog said in the report. They added that these policies are “imposed with no care for the costs and damages they inflict on society.”

The Comisión Provincial por la Memoria (CPM, by its Spanish initials) is a public and autonomous organization that promotes and implements public policies of historical memory and human rights. According to its website, the NGO’s objectives are a “commitment to the memory of state terrorism and the defense and advancement of human rights in democracy.”

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“An institutionalization of violence”

The report includes monitoring of 39 public protests carried out between January 1 and June 30, 2025, in Buenos Aires City. The reason for this is that Argentina’s capital is the predominant location in which Security Minister Patricia Bullrich’s controversial anti-protest protocol allowing federal security forces to clamp down on protests or marches carrying out roadblocks has been enforced.

According to the report, in 2025 there has been some form of police crackdown in 21 of the 39 protests. This is significantly higher than the previous year, when security forces carried out repression in 17 of 60 public rallies.

These incidents have resulted in at least 1,251 people being injured. The vast majority of them were wounded during the protests demanding higher pensions that happen every Wednesday in the area surrounding Congress. As a matter of comparison, the document states that at least 1,216 people were hurt in similar incidents in the whole of 2024. 

The report notes that the most violent incidents took place at the retiree march on March 12. At least 672 people were injured, including Jonathan Leandro Navarro, who lost an eye after being struck by a rubber bullet, and photojournalist Pablo Grillo, who suffered brain damage after being hit in the head with a tear gas canister.

Journalists represent a staggering percentage of those targeted, as 179 press workers (over 14%) have been injured during protests this year. 

The number of people who have been arrested has also surged. In 2024, 93 individuals were detained during public protests. In the first six months of this year, that figure already sits at 130. 

“The majority of these arrests have been arbitrary, abusive, and illegal considering security forces’ guidelines for actions,” the report said. It added that most of these detentions have been justified under legal figures like resisting authorities and damages. The list of people arrested includes street vendors, homeless people, and retirees. 

The report closed by saying that the “institutionalization of violence strongly degrades the democratic system and its institutions,” as the tactic of “anything goes” employed by the government reinforces the idea that “demanding rights is illegitimate” and discourages political participation. 

“It is the invalidation of politics as a terrain where conflict and disagreements can be processed.”