President Javier Milei was pelted with stones while campaigning in Buenos Aires Province near the capital Buenos Aires on Wednesday by demonstrators apparently protesting a corruption scandal.
But the La Libertad Avanza leader, who was whisked from the scene by his security detail, sustained no injuries after his motorcade was attacked, Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni wrote on X.
“The motorcade carrying the President was attacked with stones. No officials were injured,” said the spokesperson.
The incident comes amid a developing scandal over alleged corruption in the allocation of funds for people with disabilities.
Milei, who is on the campaign trail for his party ahead of crucial October midterm elections, was riding in the back of a pick-up truck and greeting supporters in the city of Lomas de Zamora, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Buenos Aires, when protesters began throwing plants, rocks and bottles at his vehicle.
The vehicle carrying the President and his sister, Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, along with other officials, hastily left the scene.
Afterwards, scuffles broke out between supporters and opponents of the La Libertad Avanza leader. A female Milei supporter suffered rib injuries and was taken away by ambulance.
The skirmishes arose amid a developing scandal in Argentina over alleged corruption at the ANDIS state disability agency involving Karina Milei, Milei's highly influential sister and right-hand woman, and official Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem.
Protesters hurled insults at the President and carried banners reading “Milei out.”
"Milei came to provoke. And well, he had to leave, as was fitting," said Ramón, a retiree who preferred not to give his last name, describing Lomas de Zamora as an opposition stronghold.
“What happened was that a libertarian retiree, a retiree from Libertad Avanza, was kicked in the ribs,” said Ariel Ferrari, a communications expert who witnessed the scene.
Ferrari said he came to "defend the ideas of Javier Milei...to free Latin America and the entire world from socialist, Marxist ideas which never worked."
Sister in spotlight
Minutes beforehand, the President had addressed the scandal that erupted on August 19 following the leak of audio recordings by former ANDIS chief Diego Spagnuolo.
In the recordings, which have received wall-to-wall news coverage in Argentina for days, a voice attributed to Spagnuolo claimed that Karina Milei pocketed funds destined for people with disabilities.
The scheme allegedly involved purchases from the Suizo Argentina drugstore, which distributes medicine.
“Karina gets three percent and one percent goes to the operation,” says the voice attributed to the former official, who claims to have warned the head of state about the corruption.
President Milei on Wednesday broke his silence on the affair.
"Everything [Spagnuolo] says is a lie," he told reporters in Lomas de Zamora before the protests erupted, adding: "We are going to bring him to justice and prove he lied."
Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos told Congress on Wednesday during a hearing that the scandal was a “political operation” by the opposition ahead of the October elections.
Last Friday, the courts ordered 16 raids and seized two vehicles, among other assets, but no charges have been filed at this time.
Meanwhile, the scandal has Argentines on tenterhooks, dominating the news agenda and social media debate.
Wednesday’s incident underscored the potentially damaging nature of the scandal for Milei in the run-up to the October 26 vote, as well as next week’s provincial elections in Buenos Aires Province.
Those votes will be the first major test of his support since the libertarian economist took office in December 2023 on a promise to revive Argentina's ailing economy.
The 54-year-old self-described “anarcho-capitalist” has managed to bring down stubbornly high inflation and produce a budget surplus through steep cuts to public spending, including on people with disabilities and pensioners.
“The saddest thing is that there are people who support hunger, misery, aggression, the whole disaster caused by this government,” said Ramón, the protesting retiree.
by Tomas Viola, AFP
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