Argentine President Javier Milei’s economic reform package yesterday won Senate approval after police and protesters violently clashed outside Congress.
Lawmakers debated a swath of liberalizing reforms proposed by the president, while security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at people rioting outside the day before.
Late on Wednesday, the package won approval “in general” in the Argentine Senate, an important step for Milei’s effort to get his flagship reforms across the finish line.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“For those Argentines who suffer, who wait, who do not want to see their children leave the country ... my vote is affirmative,” Argentine Vice President and Senate leader Victoria Villaruel said after breaking the 36-36 tie in the chamber.
The bill’s separate articles were addressed point by point and approved with modifications in a full vote early yesterday.
The measure now heads to the lower house for a final green light.
The Argentine presidency celebrated the “historic approval” of the economic deregulation law as the “most ambitious legislative reform of the last 40 years.”
Milei’s party is in the minority in both houses of Congress, which he has described as a “nest of rats.”
The Senate went on to discuss a parallel tax reform, which includes reinstating an income tax to tax salaries and pensions.
Scuffles broke out earlier when protesters tried to bypass a system of fences set up between them and Congress.
Officers used rubber bullets and pepper spray against the rioters, who responded by lobbing stones at the police.
Seven people, including five lawmakers among the protesters, were treated at hospital after being pepper sprayed, the Argentine Ministry of Health said.
Dozens of others received medical attention at the scene.
Later, as night fell, thick blocks of shield-bearing officers and others on motorbikes pushed back the protesters, who overturned two cars — one of which belonged to a local media organization — and set them on fire.
At least 10 people were arrested and nine police officers were injured, a spokesman for the Argentine Ministry of Security told reporters.
In one scene, a lone protester stood and held his hand in military salute as he faced a phalanx of police in riot gear, with smoke from cannisters swirling around him.
The office of the president on X denounced “the terrorist groups that with sticks, stones and even grenades, tried to perpetrate a coup d’etat.”
Inside Congress, senators were debating into the night and early the next morning Milei’s reform bill, which was approved with major changes by the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in April.
The whittled-down bill has 238 articles, including declaring a one-year state of economic emergency, allowing Milei to disband federal agencies and privatizing about a dozen public companies including state-owned carrier Aerolineas Argentina.
Others deal with reducing access to minimum retirement allowances and weakening labor protections.
The provisions also envision tax, customs and foreign exchange incentives to encourage investment in the country wracked by economic crisis.
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
RSS