Argentine protesters admonish Milei's libertarian reforms, junta 'denialism'

Argentinians have protested right-wing populist Javier Milei's libertarian policies and views on the dictatorship-era disappearances of tens of thousands of people just four days after he won the election.

People gathered in the capital, Buenos Aires, on Thursday to express their concern about Milei’s potentially painful reforms.

"Let's not start with this nonsense that if Milei does well, then the country does well," Demetrio Iramain, a local journalist at the protest, said. "Colleagues, if Milei does well, then things go down the drain, and we need to be very clear in opposing," he added.

Milei has pledged a new political era for Argentina. His plans include shutting the central bank, ditching the peso, and slashing spending, reforms that resonated with voters angry at the economic malaise.

The President-elect is also staunchly anti-abortion, favours looser gun laws and has vowed to privatise state-controlled companies, including the media.

"For some time now, there has been a campaign of harassment and stigmatisation against public media and its employees," Gustavo Cirelli, Telam news agency worker, said.

"In recent hours, the cruelty has been even greater. What's going around is the privatisation of public media. Behind that word is a plan to silence public media, to silence the federal voice, plurality and inclusion."

Hard reset

Milei has warned of inevitable pain ahead as a result of his policies, repeatedly saying that "there is no money," noting, "it's likely we'll have to endure six tough months, but they will be the foundation for Argentina's takeoff."

He has also recognised there are likely to be protests as a response to his policies.

"The law will be applied, and I will not let myself be extorted," he said.

Argentina has a long tradition of labour unions and powerful social organisations that block roads and carry out strikes to protest as a way to pressure the government to heed their demands, and respecting the right to protest has been a hallmark of most of the governments that have ruled the country over the past two decades.

In addition, due to a history of violent responses to these protests that have included deaths, law enforcement is often hesitant to break them up.

Labour union leaders said on Thursday they are paying close attention to what the libertarian president-elect says and what they are hearing is in opposition to their interests.

"We clearly have as a central idea for the country development, with production and the creation of jobs, and it seems that all (Milei's) affirmations about cuts in the economy, about privatizations and other things do not go down this path," Hector Dear, the secretary general of the powerful General Confederation of Labor umbrella organisation, said following a meeting with labour leaders.

Views on the dictatorship-era disappearances

Human rights groups are cautiously awaiting the inauguration next month of Milei, who has questioned the official toll of up to 30,000 disappearances recorded during the country's 1976-83 military dictatorship.

The protesters joined a group of mothers, who march every Thursday in front of the Casa Rosada presidential offices.

Carmen Ramiro, 89, who still doesn't know the whereabouts or fate of her husband and eldest son, warned of the "denialism of the future government that we are going to have."

Argentina's dictatorship was one of the most brutal of the slew of military regimes that sowed terror in Latin America between the 1960s and 1980s.

Those accused of being political dissidents were killed or disappeared, some tossed out of planes into the Rio de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean, in the military's so-called "dirty war" on left-wing activists and sympathisers.

More than 1,000 people have been sentenced for crimes against humanity since 2006, when prosecutions of figures in the dictatorship resumed after a decade of controversial amnesties.

Milei has framed the era as a "war" where "excesses" were committed.

"There was a genocide. It was not a war," said Ramiro. "Many mothers have already died without knowing what happened to their children. I don't know what happened to mine either."

"I will be marching until my life is over."

Dozens of trials are still in progress.