President Javier Milei downplayed the confrontation between his government and public universities, saying that he will not start applying fees to public higher education, while dozens of universities continued to join nationwide protests against severe budget cuts and tensions continue to rise.

“Universities will continue to be public, with no fees. We won’t touch that,” Milei said during an interview with LN+ news channel on Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, Milei vetoed a bill approved by Congress that granted a budget and salary increase for universities, something the community has been demanding since the start of the year. The Lower House upheld his veto in a session last Wednesday, which led to protests outside Congress and student occupations in dozens of university buildings all over the country.

“Cutting university budgets unfortunately directly affect the correct functioning of universities because they cover from teachers salaries, which are well below the poverty level, to general supplies,” said Lucius Cabral Zenardo, a law school delegate at the National University of Tucumán (UNT for its Spanish initials), where students and teachers have occupied the building since Monday ahead of a nationwide strike planned for Thursday. 

Cabral Zenardo described having no internet access, classrooms in disrepair, and toilets being cut off this year because there wasn’t enough money for cleaning supplies. He told the Herald it’s not the first time UNT students have occupied the building.

“These fights are cyclical in a way, and there are details we can trace through Argentine history when we look at this resurging student movement. But we’re also coming out of a pandemic, and we’re in a hyper-individualistic moment. I think the fact that professors, non-teaching staff, and students are standing shoulder to shoulder, recognizing that we’re talking about a working student class as well, is something specific to this government,” he said.

Local media reported varied regarding how many universities have been occupied: an Instagram page created by students touted it as “over 40” on Tuesday afternoon.

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Isolated incidents

While the occupations themselves have been peaceful, there have been isolated standoffs that have resulted in some violence. On Tuesday night, the occupation of the National Quilmes University was interrupted by Milei supporters. According to a university communiqué, students were holding an assembly to decide the next steps when they arrived with an “intimidatory” attitude. When asked to leave following a vote, the interlopers started spraying tear gas inside the building, affecting most of the 500 attendees.

“The government’s systematic attack against the futures of our youth and the politics of hatred implemented by Milei and his entire cabinet is unacceptable. These are the consequences, take some responsibility for once,” said Mayra Mendoza, the mayor of Quilmes, following a press conference on Tuesday. 

Cabral Zenardo told the Herald that the occupation at the UNT has been very well organized and peaceful, with many open classes in keeping with other occupied universities — and said tensions came from outside instigators. Police forced them to take down posters with the names of the deputies who voted in favor of the veto, claiming “orders from above.”

“We’re worried about the advances of the police. Why are they intervening with posters on walls? Students from other universities here in Tucumán have been stopped and searched after assemblies in a move to intimidate us into not taking action. We have a security committee because we understand that we’re possible targets. And with the Security Minister’s anti-protest protocol, we’re expecting things to escalate further,” he said. 

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‘Auditing isn’t the real issue’

The government has consistently viewed the discussion as an issue of scarce resources and lack of accountability. The president insisted that universities refuse to be audited, something the education community denies. 

“They refuse audits because their hands are dirty. They are using a noble cause to hide their dirty businesses,” said Milei.

Public universities carry out regular audits and publish their results to guarantee transparency. However, they can also be audited by the General National Audit Office (AGN, by its Spanish acronym), which functions as an autonomous regulator responding to Congress and is currently auditing six public universities. 

However, on Tuesday, Treasury Prosecutor Rodolfo Barra signed a resolution authorizing the Executive Power’s internal audit body (SIGEN by its Spanish initials) to carry out the same tasks.

“This narrative of ‘for or against’ audits is distracting from the discussions that actually matter. Universities keep saying this, and I guess I have to repeat it, too: universities are audited. I have 21-year-old friends who count every little cent of their spending through their scholarships to get the books they need for research. Auditing isn’t the real issue; it’s the fact that education is our right as Argentines,” Cabral Zenardo told the Herald.

“Argentine citizens and taxpaying residents have the right to primary, secondary, and higher education. It’s a right: not a service or an essential service; it’s a universal human right,” they added.

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