Milei government issues public transport threat to demonstators ahead of march

President Javier Milei’s government used public transport networks on Wednesday to warn protesters that violence at a march in support of pensioners would be met with repression from the authorities. 

Hours before a weekly protest march in downtown Buenos Aires, at which demonstrators will again call for improved pensions for retirees, Argentina’s government broadcast a threatening message at train and rail stations.

Stations in and around the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) aired an ominous message, aired via tannoy and shown on screens, warning commuters that security officials will “repress” violent actors.

"Protest is not violence. The police will repress all attacks against the Republic,” declared the message, which was not credited to any national authority.

Public transport users shared images of the message at Once and Constitución stations in the capital. It was also broadcast via loudspeaker at terminals and on carriages on the San Martín, Roca and Sarmiento lines by state-owned company Trenes Argentinos.

Posting an image of a screen showing the message, Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni posted on social media that “protests must never be violent.”

This is not the first time a national government has used transport terminals to voice political messages. 

Last October, during a national transport strike, Milei's government posted a message slamming union leaders and their "privileges."

In 2023, ahead of the presidential election, then-president Alberto Fernández’s government and transport union leaders posted messages on public transport warning that fares would soar under a Milei government. 

The Casa Rosada is bracing for another potentially violent demonstration after football fans joined last week’s march in support of pensioners. In running battles between violent protesters and the security forces, more than 45 people were injured, with a photojournalist left in a critical condition.

The Buenos Aires City government said Tuesday it would deploy some 900 police officers in and around Congress, where protesters will demonstrate, as part of a joint operation with federal forces.

The area in and around Congress is expected to be completely fenced off within a radius of 100 metres, restricting vehicle and pedestrian access.

In addition, 350 waste containers have been removed from the area to prevent them from being used in possible clashes.

Ruling party officials say agitators and hooligans joined last week’s demonstration, underlining the need for a large-scale security operation.

Earlier this week, Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos anticipated that demonstrators "will be repressed by the forces of order" should violence break out.

"The use of force is absolutely established and regulated,” said the official, brushing off complaints of police brutality at last week’s protest.

"If it is a march like the one the pensioners have been doing for a long time, raising a claim that is absolutely legitimate, we have no problem," he said. "But if they include violent agents who want to destabilise and use violence to express themselves, they will be repressed by the police.”

According to the Milei government, last week's protest constituted an "attempted coup d'état,” a claim that it is difficult to support.

The weekly mobilisation, called by pensioners and accompanied by different trade union and political sectors, demands an increase in pensions for retirees, in view of the sharp deterioration in purchasing power under the Milei administration. 

Currently, the minimum pension is around 280,000 pesos, a figure that the demonstrators consider insufficient.

Fearing a brutal crackdown by the authorities, left-wing national deputy Myriam Bregman said Wednesday she had filed a habeas corpus petition with the courts to "guarantee the physical integrity, the right to protest, assembly, and freedom of expression and movement of retirees and all mobilised sectors."

– TIMES/AFP/NA