A United Nations study on the South American country reveals that at least 7 million children live in poverty
▲ Francis devoted several passages of his speech yesterday to the anomalies of the far right, at the Apostolic Palace in Rome.Afp Photo
Stella Calloni
Correspondent
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 21, 2024, p. 20
Buenos Aires., The words that Pope Francis spoke from the Vatican in reference to this nation had a huge impact in Argentina: They had called him a week ago because of a repression of workers, people who fight for their rights in the street and the police repelled them with the most expensive thing there is, top quality pepper spray. Instead of paying for social justice, the government paid for the pepper spray.which coincided with Retirees’ Day, which was commemorated yesterday in this capital with protest marches in front of the Casa Rosada (government house) and in other places in the country.
The Pope, Monsignor Jorge Bergoglio, spoke to social leaders and activists to commemorate 10 years of his first meeting with social movements from around the world. Referring to colonialism, he warned that They want to change the culture of the people, to bite into their history, to make them forget what they are, the sense of belonging to a people, material and ideological colonialism always go together to take away the wealth of the people..
10 years ago We planted a flag: land, shelter and work. They are a sacred right. Let no one erase that conviction. Let no one steal that hope, let no one extinguish their dreams. If the poor people do not resign themselves, organize themselves, persevere, and at the same time fight against the structures of social injustice, sooner or later things will change for the better..
Before the lawyer Juan Grabois, Argentine social leader and founder of the MTE cardboard collectors’ cooperative and the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) union, the prelate stressed that They go step by step on the solid ground of the concrete. They work body to body, person to person. Not only do they protest, which is very good, they also carry out works of the most absolute precariousness of means, sometimes without any help from the State, and other times persecuted..
Francis also referred to the issue of corruption, recalling that the devil enters through the pockets and he gave Argentina as an example, telling the anecdote of an entrepreneur “who was making investments. He presented his plans to a minister, who ended up approving his project, but when he had given him the permit, the official said: ‘And for us, how much?’”
Thus he demanded that the good, rational and equitable policies that strengthen social justice so that everyone has land, shelter, work, a fair salary and adequate social rights.
Milei, you took my money, not my dignity
Meanwhile, retirees repudiated the veto ordered by President Javier Milei against the pension reform law voted on the 12th in the Chamber of Deputies, as well as the fierce repression carried out that day, which left several people injured, after the police threw pepper spray at the protesters, including in the face of a 10-year-old girl, for which a criminal case was opened against the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich.
The oppression of the 18th was also denounced. At yesterday’s rally in front of the government house, there were people carrying handwritten signs with demands such as: Milei, I’m retired! You took my money, medicine, food, but you can’t take away my dignity to fightor also We are all retired, it is a matter of time. In all the demonstrations held in different parts of the country, the decision of the far-right president to celebrate with a barbecue –for their vote against retirees– the 87 deputies of his movement and his associates of the Republican Proposal (PRO) and five of the Radical Civic Union, which this party decided to suspend, was condemned.
It was the cruelest provocation we have ever seen.one of the protesters confessed today.
Yesterday, the march of retirees in Mar de Plata stood out, in front of the mayor’s office in the hands of the ruling party. In that province, the Peronist governor Axel Kicillof did not approve the Anti-Picket Protocol (against mass demonstrations) imposed by Minister Bullrich.
On the other hand, the Committee on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations (UN) presented a crude report on Argentina in Geneva the day before yesterday: More than 7 million children live in poverty, this is scandaloussaid Hynd Ayoubi Idrissi, an expert on the committee. She highlighted that 14 percent of children live in extreme poverty and questioned the lack of measures to address the crisis, budget cuts and public policies for children.
He also questioned the replacement of Ministries and Secretariats that watch over the rights of children through lower-ranking bodies, and the dismantling of the National Institute against Discrimination and the Ministry of Women, and othersHe also referred to the repression that has affected children.
