A 73-year-old pensioner has described the terror of being caught up in a violent police crackdown on a protest in Buenos Aires, which left a photographer in a coma and hundreds injured. Liliana Morono, attending her first demonstration, said she could not understand how Argentinians voted for President Javier Milei, whom she called 'full of hate'.
More than 1,000 riot police used teargas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse the crowd outside Congress on Wednesday. The weekly protest by retirees demanding higher pensions and restored free medications swelled after football fans from Boca Juniors and River Plate joined.
Freelance photographer Pablo Grillo, 35, remains in an induced coma after being hit in the head with a teargas canister. His father blamed Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who called Grillo an activist. The Argentinian Graphic Reporters Association is demanding Bullrich's resignation.
Preliminary figures suggest over 500 people were injured and more than 100 detained. Governor Axel Kicillof condemned the 'ferocious, illegal and premeditated' repression. Bullrich defended the action, saying 'the law rules, not the hooligans or the left'.
