Argentina's Fifth Federal University March Ends in Clashes Outside Congress, 31 Detained and 8 Officers Injured
Argentina's fifth Federal University March took place on October 15, with thousands of students, teachers and university staff rallying outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires and in cities across the country. They demanded that President Javier Milei's government implement the University Financing Law, which indexes public university funding, faculty salaries and student scholarships to inflation.
The main rally was largely peaceful. At around 4 p.m., a small group of hooded individuals threw stones and pieces of street furniture at National Gendarmerie officers guarding Congress, and police responded with tear gas and water cannon in clashes that lasted about an hour. Officials reported 31 people detained and eight security personnel injured, among them four gendarmes, two Federal Police officers and two Naval Prefecture members. The Buenos Aires city government put material damage at about 90 million pesos.
Congress passed the financing law in August 2025; Milei vetoed it, legislators overrode the veto that October, but the government has refused to apply it, arguing the law does not specify its funding source. Several court rulings, including a Supreme Court decision in June, have ordered the government to pay. A University of Buenos Aires research centre estimates real university funding in the first half of 2026 was 40.5 percent below the same period of 2023. Organizers said nearly one million people mobilized nationwide.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于布宜诺斯艾利斯的阿根廷国会宫，游行队伍在此集会。图片来源：Ezarate，CC BY-SA 4.0。Photo: The Argentine National Congress palace in Buenos Aires, where the march gathered. Image: Ezarate, CC BY-SA 4.0.
