Argentine police fire tear gas at university funding march

Police in Buenos Aires fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators outside Argentina’s Congress on Oct. 15, and at least 25 people were detained, after thousands marched against the government’s refusal to pay for a university funding law.

The march was the fifth over the issue since President Javier Milei took office in late 2023. Congress overrode Milei’s veto to pass the 2025 University Funding Law, and courts have ordered the government to comply, but presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier said the law is “suspended” while the government pursues legal action, AFP reported.

The main rally of students, university staff, trade unionists and opposition activists stayed peaceful, AFP reported. Dozens of mostly hooded people split off and threw stones and other objects at police, and the clashes lasted about an hour. Eight police officers were injured, AFP said, citing sources at the National Security Ministry. Al Jazeera reported that police also used rubber bullets and that several people were hurt, including members of the security forces.

Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva said the protesters were “wanting to sow chaos”. She wrote on X that “the right to protest is not a right to exercise violence”, according to AFP.

Francisca Staiti, general secretary of the teachers’ union Conadu Historica, said: “We are demanding that they pay us what they owe us.” Victoria Coronel, a student at the University of Matanza in Buenos Aires province, said teachers are leaving because “their salaries are not enough” and that “broken things don’t get fixed”, AFP reported.

The law calls for inflation-linked salary increases dating to December 2023, restored student scholarships and more money for university operations. AFP, citing the Center for National Economic Research at the University of Buenos Aires, reported that public university spending fell 41 per cent in real terms in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2023. A federal judge has begun fining the government 100,000 pesos a day, which Al Jazeera put at about $70, for not carrying out parts of the law.

The dispute has moved onto campuses. Students held an assembly in the central hall of the University of Buenos Aires’ Exact and Natural Sciences building and announced a one-day occupation, Al Jazeera reported. Emiliano Gato, a physics student, told the broadcaster: “Our best professors are leaving en masse.” Maria Teresa de Jesus, a chemistry professor, said she earns about $700 a month and added: “I shouldn’t be here.”

Milei says his spending cuts are working. According to Al Jazeera, he has cited inflation of roughly two per cent a month and 27 consecutive months of economic growth. The government says it cannot fund the law without undermining its economic plan, while critics say the cost is falling on public education, disability programs and pensioners. A protester’s placard at the march read “Let’s occupy the streets, like in France”, a reference to student protests over classroom conditions in that country, AFP reported.

For Canadians in or bound for Argentina, the federal government’s travel advisory, last updated Oct. 14, tells travellers to take normal security precautions. It warns that demonstrations occur often, can turn violent and can block roads and disrupt public transit. Travellers are told to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings and never to try to cross a blockade.

The unrest is part of a wider run of street protests across Latin America. Colombia’s president said 62,000 people marched there this week, as we reported, and Brazil’s Senate voted on a shorter work week ahead of its runoff, as we reported on Oct. 15.

Neither AFP nor Al Jazeera reported a date for the next march or whether the government will comply with the court orders or pay the daily fine.

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Via AFP and Al Jazeera.