A group of Greenpeace activists were arrested in Buenos Aires on Thursday after staging a toilet-themed protest on the steps of Congress over a bill authorising mining in areas with glaciers, authorities said.
The activists scaled the gates of the National Congress building and unfurled a banner reading: "Senators, don't shit in the water, don't touch the glacier law!" on the steps of the building.
Some of the protesters sat on plastic containers resembling toilets, with their pants around their ankles, a video shared by Greenpeace showed.
Ten people were arrested over the protest, which lasted just a few minutes, the head of President Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza caucus in the upper house group, former security minister Patricia Bullrich, told reporters.
Authorities later confirmed that another two individuals had been arrested.
Greenpeace Argentina complained on X that its activists were arrested "for peacefully demanding" that the 2010 law on the protection of glaciers be left unchanged.
A TV cameraman for the A24 new channel was also arrested during the protest.
Images on social media showed he was fiercely apprehended by police, thrown to the ground and led away in handcuffs, his face covered in blood.
Bullrich said the incident would be probed to see if the police's actions had been "excessive."
Glacier debate
The so-called "glaciers law" set to be debated by the Senate on Thursday would make it easier to carry out mining activities in periglacial – permanently frozen – environments in the Andes mountains.
At press time, the bill was still being debated, but the Casa Rosada was confident it would win approval.
The bill gives greater latitude to provincial authorities to greenlight mining for metals such as copper, lithium and silver.
A number of provincial governments – including San Juan, Mendoza, Catamarca, Jujuy and Salta – support the bill.
Environmentalists say the reform would weaken protections for crucial water sources.
Milei's government is promoting the bill as part of its drive to boost large-scale mining projects.
After the Senate debate the bill will be taken up in the lower house Chamber of Deputies.
The bill delegates to provincial authorities the exclusive authority to identify glaciers that must be protected through environmental impact studies and to authorise mining and hydrocarbon exploitation projects accordingly.
However, it changes the criteria for protection by limiting it to those glaciers that serve as strategic water reserves – which in practice expands the areas available for exploitation.
The current regulations, which date from 2010, protect both visible glaciers and periglacial formations that are made up of a mixture of frozen soils, fresh water, rock and sediments.
Bullrich says the reform "respects the environment and delimits those areas that are suitable for productive tasks."
She also highlighted the imminent ratification of the Mercosur-European Union trade agreement that the Senate will discuss on Thursday.
"The Senate is going to vote on an agreement that increases Argentine exports by 75 percent. It's historic," she said.
– TIMES/AFP
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