(21 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buenos Aires, Argentina - 20 December 2023
1. Various of National Gendarmerie officers in riot gear
2. Various protesters chanting (Spanish) "Unity of the workers"
3. Riot police
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Eduardo Belliboni, one of the protest organizers:
"They are not going to step over the workers' rights; they are not going to step over our freedom. Getting our freedom cost us a lot for (Security Minister) Patricia Bullrich to come and tell us that we cannot march and mobilize. People are being taken off the buses, like during the dictatorship, (police is) asking for documents and telling people that if they go to the protest they have to go back home. Is the military dictatorship back? Do the people who voted for Milei want a military dictatorship?"
5. Various of riot police pushing protesters off the street
6. Protesters covering their faces after police sprayed tear gas
7. Protesters chant UPSOUND (Spanish) "Milei dirtbag, your are the dictatorship."
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Marta Martínez, retired:
“Here I am protesting, defending my right to express myself, to demonstrate, my right to eat, to live, the right to access health and everything that is at stake today.”
9. Various of National Gendarmerie officers marching beside protesters, keeping them on the sidewalk
10. Protesters reach Plaza de Mayo in front of Casa Rosada presidential palace, background ++MUTE++
11. Gendarmerie officers and police in riot gear
12. People playing drums
13. A man holds a sign that reads (Spanish) "we are the people and we are not afraid"
14. National Gendarmerie officers
15. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alejandro Cuñarro, protester:
"The people have the right to demonstrate and live with dignity, and as the General (Juan Domingo Peron) said, 'All my policies are directed at the people so that they are a little bit happier.' I am a Peronist, and this is my shield (pointing to a photo of late Eva Peron)."
16. Various of protesters in front of Casa Rosada presidential palace
17. National legislator Vanina Biasi walks between protesters and policemen as she speaks to them
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Vanilla Biasi, national legislator of Frente de Izquierda de los Trabajadores (Workers' Left Front):
“The victory is ours, we finally arrived at the Plaza de Mayo, which was what we wanted to do. We also showed this absurd repression because no one has attacked anyone at all. They looked for that scenario; it is being provoked by Javier Milei and Patricia Bullrich, who are in a (police) operations center, trying, let's say, to look like 'Texas Rangers' at this moment."
19. Protesters
STORYLINE:
Demonstrators in Buenos Aires marched for the first time against President Javier Milei's government on Wednesday.
Just days after right-wing populist Javier Milei became Argentina's president, his government not only announced drastic economic measures that immediately drew criticism but also warned it would crack down on any protest blocking the streets.
Federal forces pushed protesters away from the street but eventually allowed them to march toward the iconic Plaza de Mayo, where the presidential palace Casa Rosada sits along with other ministry buildings.
Milei is facing the first test of how his new administration will respond to demonstrations.
Social organizations called on people to protest on Wednesday against the new economic measures.
They include a 50% devaluation of the Argentine peso, cuts to energy and transportation subsidies, and the closure of some government ministries.
They come amid soaring inflation and rising poverty.
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