Argentines Take to the Streets to Defend Public Education

April 24, 2024 Hour: 6:17 am

On Tuesday, millions of citizens took to the streets of several Argentine cities to protest against far-right President Javier Milei and his policies against public education.

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The city of Cordoba was the scene of the beginning of the marches of students, teachers, professionals, and workers rejecting budget cuts. Throughout the day, millions more Argentines joined the protests, especially in Buenos Aires.

Mariela Marchisio, the vice-rector of the National University of Cordoba, explained that the university is always audited and joined the University Federal March that marched through the streets of the provincial capital.

The march in defense of public universities in Cordoba was massive. It crossed much of the city center, from the Monument to the University Reform of ’19 to the Patio Olmos.

In Buenos Aires, protesters arrived at the Congress, where the Federal Police placed barriers to prevent the passage of citizens. The gathering of students, teachers, and non-teachers was at 3:30 PM and around 6:00 PM, the central speech was read in May Square.

Even the pro-Milei press is describing today’s nation-wide marches as “massive”.
You can’t attack culture and promote tax evasion for billionaires and get away with it in the country with one of the highest bookshop-to-inhabitants ratio on the planet.pic.twitter.com/6RERJKhqKw

— Uki Goñi (@ukigoni)
April 23, 2024

During the mobilization, participants expressed their rejection of Milei’s policies and reiterated their commitment to the fight in defense of public education.

“The Buenos Aires University has always had problems but education was never questioned. The government aims to defund not only the university but also the state and boasts about it. We have to take to the streets against a state that devalues everything that has been a social construction and the educational community,” said Patricio Torres, a man who works in a brewery.

After Milei’s statements that “There is no money” for universities, Argentines reacted strongly by seeking to defend education and demand budgets for educational institutions.

“The importance of sustaining, defending, and rethinking public universities is starting to be questioned. Before Milei, you could study. Our university worked, had an adequate budget, and our teachers received their salaries. Now, however, everything is getting difficult,” said Julián Araoz, a young student who traveled from Tucuman to Buenos Aires to join the protest.

#Argentina | The streets of Buenos Aires and other major cities in Argentina were crowded on Tuesday with hundreds of thousands of people, especially students and university professors, rejecting government cuts to higher education in that country. pic.twitter.com/pPqHhEqnj6

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)
April 24, 2024