Police and demonstrators clashed downtown last Thursday on the same day as a general strike against the labour reform pushed by President Javier Milei, as established by AFP news agency.
The incidents involved several dozen people in a protest outside Congress, which had begun peacefully at noon with the participation of several thousand demonstrators gathered by trade unions and leftist parties.
Most demonstrators had already withdrawn when bottles and stones started to be hurled at the police cordon shielded by metal barriers blocking access to Congress.
The security forces responded with water cannon and tear gas.
Following the relatively brief incidents, a few dozen demonstrators and rows of policemen, some of them in vehicles, kept their distance in the late afternoon, glaring at each other tensely, reported AFP.
Three women and three men were injured during the Thursday afternoon protests. Sources from SAME emergency services informed Noticias Argentinas news agency that a woman of 75 broke her hip from a fall, for which she was attended on the spot.
A second woman aged 46 entered into convulsions and was transported to Ramos Mejía Hospital while a younger woman of around 30 had a skin allergy.
Meanwhile three men aged 34, 36 and 37 suffered abrasions, for which they were treated by doctors.
From noon onwards demonstrators began to gather around Congress as part of the general strike against the labour reform being debated in the Chamber of Deputies, despite the CGT leadership having called for a strike without rallies.
There were also demonstrators from both CTA labour groupings and far left sectors such as Partido Obrero, the MST, Polo Obrero and the MTR.
Security Ministry sources indicated that the Federal Police arrested four persons, two men and two women, while the City Police reported eight more arrests for a total of 12 during the protests.
Meanwhile the Chamber of Deputies was debating the bill to deregulate labour in a marathon session running deep into the night. The initiative had already been approved in the Senate.
The previous week a demonstration against the reform had led to much more violent confrontations with stones and Molotov cocktails hurled and rubber bullets and tear gas on the other side. Around 30 people were arrested.
The protest occurred in the context of a CGT strike with a "very important" level of adhesion, according to secretary-general Jorge Sola.
The strike, with the crucial support of transport, was "90 percent" successful, according to Sola, and the biggest of the four against the Milei government.
After the historic tyre manufacturer Fate announced the definite closure of their industrial plant in San Fernando along with the dismissal of 920 employees, workers last Thursday cut the Panamerican Highway in the downtown direction, together with trade unions and leftist organisations, around the zone of Ramal Tigre.
The same protest was staged on the Buenos Aires-La Plata highway —also in the City’s direction— and on the Pueyrredón Bridge, which leftist groupings tried to cross with the intention of marching on Avenida 9 de Julio and Avenida de Mayo but they were blocked by security forces in a climate of strong tension.
The Federal Police confronted the workers to clear the bridge uniting Buenos Aires City and Province. There was jostling with tear gas forcing the demonstrators back onto the Avenida Mitre in Avellaneda where they awaited the arrival of two buses with more demonstrators.
Hundreds of demonstrators later tried to cut the Western Access route at Kilometre 36 in Moreno. Border Guards prevented them and there were some tense minutes with the security force themselves blocking traffic.
– TIMES/PERFIL/AFP
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