Buenos Aires Herald 
Security forces once again cracked down on the habitual protests retirees carry out outside Congress demanding better pensions. At least 82 people were injured, and at least four were arrested, including a photojournalist who was documenting the protest for Amnesty International Argentina.
Wednesday’s protest took place on the heels of a Lower House session that fell through over a lack of quorum. Deputies were set to debate a pension raise and a bill to bring back the moratorium, a system that allowed people to retire when they were missing years of social security contributions.
Police clamped down in the streets and square outside Congress following the botched session using Security Minister Patricia Bullrich’s anti-protest protocol penalizing any form of roadblock. In order to keep demonstrators from walking on the street, security forces used tear gas against demonstrators and assaulted people standing on the sidewalk.
“We registered and assisted 82 people who were injured, most of them for burn marks on their faces due to the chemical gases,” human rights watchdog Comisión Provincial por la Memoria (CPM) said in a statement published on X. They added that at least one of them needed medical attention at a hospital due to a cut on his head after being struck with a police baton.
The CPM also confirmed that at least four people were arrested, identifying them as Leandro Cruzado, Javier Iglesias, Pablo Luna, and Tomás Cuesta. Cuesta is a photojournalist who was present at the protest in order to document how security forces implement Bullrich’s questioned protocol for the Argentine chapter of Amnesty International.
The NGO published a statement Wednesday evening confirming that Cuesta had been released. The other detainees were taken to federal police facilities where they would initially be held for the night. At the time of writing, they continue to be under arrest.
“Journalism is key to exposing power abuses and demanding that those responsible for institutional violence be held accountable,” they wrote on X.
Retirees are among the hardest hit by President Javier Milei’s austerity measures. A report by the Center of Argentine Political Economy (CEPA) found that in January 2025, the government spent 19% less on pensions than in January 2023. The Milei administration also cut a program that made some medications free.
Soon after Milei took office, pensioners started to protest the cuts every Wednesday in front of Congress, in small demonstrations that often met with a heavy-handed police response.
The government has defended the cuts as necessary book-balancing, and Milei has said that planned labor reforms will make it easier for companies to hire formal workers, which will create a greater pension contributor base, paving the way to better conditions. But critics have balked at the administration’s treatment of older adults surviving on meager state pensions.