Journalists and police brutality activists have reacted with outrage after a police officer tear gassed a 10-year-old girl during a protest — and officials including the president disseminated a misleading video pinning the blame on protesters.

On Wednesday afternoon, police cracked down on a protest outside Congress. Inside, deputies were voting to uphold a presidential veto on increasing state pensions. Federal Police officers started spraying tear gas to disperse the protestors, one of whom repeatedly warned the officers: “There’s a girl!”

Footage subsequently posted online showed the girl with her eyes closed, watering, as people offered her lemon and other remedies against the gas.

The footage was met with disgust, sparking a fierce dispute about who had sprayed the child. “Nobody gassed a girl,” Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said the next day in an interview with LN+ TV channel. “The police are advancing, the lady is on the ground, and what she does is putting the girl behind her.” She also blamed the girl’s mother for the assault, calling her “irresponsible and violent.”

Sources from the Security Ministry distributed a video that they claimed showed a person dressed in orange spraying chemicals at the girl. President Javier Milei shared the video on social media.

“The footage was analyzed, there were no police officers at that time. Evidently, it was gas sprayed by these people who were close to her, dressed in orange,” Security Vice Minister Alejandra Monteoliva said in another interview with TN TV Channel. “It was a woman.”

The government’s account was picked up by TN journalist Jonathan Viale, who said that accusations that the police were responsible had been spread by “people on the left and Kirchnerism,” before blaming the figure in orange seen in the video.

He later retracted his statement and apologized after more video footage surfaced, clearly showing the girl being sprayed by a police officer as her mother huddles over her on the ground. The Mapa de la Policía (Map of the Police) anti-brutality advocacy group identified the officer who used the spray as Cristian Ravaldi, and Gerardo Ariel Perillo Scampini as the chief of the operation.

After the video showing the police officer surfaced, Viale and journalist Eduardo Feinmann, called for several government officials to be fired.

“I want the chief of the Federal Police out and I hope that the president of the republic also throws out Minister Patricia Bullrich, the vice minister, and her spokesperson,” said Feinmann. “They are not going to sully me, my team, or this channel. They are not going to use us for a crude, disgusting, fake news operation.” He also called them “liars.”

Some media reported that Bullrich had summoned Federal Police Chief Luis Rolle to her office, and was expected to fire him. However, this had not been announced at the time of writing. Spokespersons for the Security Minister did not respond to requests for comment from the Herald.

“I was really scared,” the girl told Radio con Vos after the protest. “I got up crying because I couldn’t breathe. We weren’t hitting them, or throwing boiling water or pepper spray as they say, it was a peaceful protest,” she explained. She added that she wanted to go to the protest because she thought Congress voting against the pension increase was unfair. 

“Those grandparents could be my grandparents or the mothers and fathers of the police officers — it’s not fair.”