Buenos Aires (Argentina) (AFP) – Protesters in Buenos Aires clashed Thursday with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets as thousands of people demonstrated against a controversial private property bill outside the Argentine Senate. As the demonstration drew to a close at nightfall, scuffles broke out on Congress Square, with protesters targeting police with stones and other weapons, and security forces responding with their own projectiles and water cannon. At least two officers and one protester were injured, according to Argentine media and AFP footage. Ten people were arrested, some media reported, but the toll was not initially confirmed by authorities.
After two hours of sporadic clashes and standoffs, Congress Square was cleared by the police, although a handful of people remained. Earlier, thousands of demonstrators defied a massive police presence and braved wind and rain to gather without incident. The protesters, mobilized by left-wing movements and unions, were undeterred by earlier concessions that removed one change making it easier for foreigners or foreign entities to buy land in Argentina. Demonstrators carried Argentine flags and banners reading “The homeland is not for sale,” an AFP correspondent observed.
The “Inviolability of Private Property” bill being debated in Congress aims to make changes to property ownership in Argentina, such as streamlining eviction procedures, changing rural land use rules, and making it more difficult for the state to take ownership of private property. The government of libertarian President Javier Milei aims to use the bill to provide a legal framework that attracts investment. Opposition and environmental groups firmly oppose it, denouncing a risk of “colonization, fragmentation, fracture, and balkanization of the homeland.”
With only 20 seats in a 72-senator body, Milei’s party backed down and removed the chapter dealing with land purchases by non-Argentines, which would have raised the limit on land available for foreign purchase from 15 percent to 25 percent. Nearly five percent of Argentina’s territory—an area roughly equal in size to England—is under foreign ownership, according to a 2025 report from the University of Buenos Aires and other researchers. However, they note that in some districts, the percentage of foreign owners already exceeds the 15 percent limit, particularly in “territories endowed with water and mineral resources, or logistical advantages,” such as ports.
Carlos Mino, 67, joined Thursday’s protest to express opposition to the legislation, despite the government’s reversal. “Almost the entire bill is heading in the same direction. One way or another it amounts to handing over our property, what belongs to us,” he told AFP.
© 2024 AFP
