17A | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date | August 17, 2020 | ||
Location | |||
Caused by |
| ||
Goals |
| ||
Methods | demonstrations, civil disobedience, online activism, protest march, cacerolazos, car marches | ||
Resulted in |
| ||
Concessions |
| ||
Parties | |||
| |||
Lead figures | |||
Non-partisan protesters | |||
Number | |||
|
The 17A protests were a series of massive demonstrations in Argentina which took place on August 17, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, for several causes, among which: the defense of institutions and separation of powers, against a justice reform announced by the government, against the way quarantine was handled, the lack of liberty, the increase in theft, and a raise on state pensions. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [ excessive citations ]
The main protest was in the Buenos Aires Obelisk. Demonstrations were also held in other parts of the city, such as Cabildo and Juramento (a main intersection in Belgrano), in front of the department of Cristina Kirchner (in Recoleta), and in other cities: Córdoba, Santa Fe, Mendoza, Tucumán, Mar del Plata, Lomas de Zamora, Adrogué, Avellaneda (Santa Fe), Viedma. [3] [5] [6] [7] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Protests were also held in Punta del Este, Uruguay. [15]
The protests were organised mainly through social networks, by accounts that oppose the government, but with a nonpartisan focus, since no political party claimed the protests, and neither any party emblems were seen in the protests. [16] [17] [18] [13] Still, some politicians who oppose the government took part in the protests as private citizens, such as Patricia Bullrich, the leader of the PRO party. [18] [19] The government of the time accused the participants of being "anti-quarantine" and mocking the pandemic containment efforts. [20] [21] [22]
On March 12, 2020, a strict lockdown was established across Argentina. This, at first, caused a spike in the positive image of President Alberto Fernández during March. Several causes made it went down over the following months of "preventive and mandatory isolation", reaching in August a record-low positive image since the start of the lockdown measures. [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] Opinion Polls showed a sharp decline in economic expectations of the population, primarily in the future employment and prices expectations. [28] [25] [27] [24]
People who approved the handle of the pandemic went from a 91.7% in March to a 62.4% in June, while disapproval went from a 5.5% in March to a 35.8% in June. [24]
On the 9th of July, protesters rallied against the government on the Buenos Aires Obelisk and in several other points of the country. [29] [30]
On the 30th of July, the President sent the Congress a Bill for Justice Reform with the objective, according to Fernández, of being able to "better organize the Federal Justice and overcoming the crisis affecting the credibility and well-function of the Federal Criminal Justice. [31] [32] [33] This project foresaw the unification of Criminal and Economic Justice and the creation of 23 new courts, what would dilute the influence of the country's 12 federal judges, as well as the merger of appeal courts and imposing several new procedure rules for Federal Judges. [31] [34] Also, an Advisory Board was created to propose reforms on the Supreme Court and the Council of Magistracy. [35] [36]
In August, negative image of Alberto Fernandez surpassed, for the first time, the positive one. [23] [26] Only one poll, conducted by the state-owned UBA School of Social Sciences, showed a larger positive than negative image on the President. [37]
In the Buenos Aires Province, primarily the Greater Buenos Aires, an increase in crimes committed by people with no previous record was seen, qualified as "survival crime" by the Minister of Security of the province, Sergio Berni. [38] [39] [40] This increase on crime was heavily covered by mass media and was one of the protesters claims. The National Ministry of Security, Sabina Frederic, stated: "There are not so much robberies [...] we are seeing violence acts during crime happening, which are being alerted, mainly, by mass media, which make them visible and follow-up the cases". [41] [42] After this statements, the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers (Santiago Cafiero) added: "What I know is what the Ministry of Security, Frederic, is proposing according to a statistics comparing with the last year. Now, comparing with March, there are obviously more cases". [43] [44]
By the 17th of August, the day protests took place, the lockdown measures (officially known as "preventive and mandatory social isolation") had been on for 151 days in both the City of Buenos Aires and its Greater Area, while most of the rest of the country had gone to a less-strict phase called Social Distancing.
Several public figures from Argentina participated in the protests:
Alberto Ángel Fernández is an Argentine politician, lawyer, and academic who is the President of the Justicialist Party since 2021. He was previously the President of Argentina from 2019 to 2023. He was also the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers from 2003 to 2008. His tenure as Cabinet Chief remains the longest since the post was created in 1994.
Republican Proposal is a right-wing political party in Argentina. It is usually referred to by its abbreviation, PRO. PRO was formed as an electoral alliance in 2005, but was transformed into a national party in 2010. It is the major component of the Juntos por el Cambio coalition, and its leader is former Argentine president Mauricio Macri.
Patricia Bullrich is an Argentine professor and politician who is serving as Minister of Security since 2023 under president Javier Milei, having previously held the office under president Mauricio Macri from 2015 to 2019. She is the chairwoman of Republican Proposal.
The following lists events that happened in Argentina in 2018.
The Frente de Todos was a centre-left political coalition political parties in Argentina formed to support President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
Santiago Andrés Cafiero is an Argentine political scientist and politician, currently serving as a National Deputy elected in Buenos Aires Province. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship (2021–2023) and as Cabinet Chief (2019–2021) in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández.
Claudio Bonadio was an Argentine judge, who was in charge of Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 11 since 1994. In that role he intervened in causes of strong impact, some of which involved important government officials and politicians since his appointment, among other causes of high impact on public opinion, including former Presidents of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa, Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. As of 28 April 2024, a total of 10,130,896 people were confirmed to have been infected, and 130,851 people were known to have died because of the virus.
Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta is an Argentine lawyer, professor and politician. She was the first Minister of Women, Genders and Diversity of Argentina, serving under President Alberto Fernández from 10 December 2019 to 7 October 2022.
Sabina Andrea Frederic is an Argentine social anthropologist, university professor and politician. A specialist on military and security personnel, she was Argentina's Minister of Security from 2019 to 2021, in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández.
Marcela Miriam Losardo is an Argentine lawyer and politician. She served as the country's Minister of Justice and Human Rights from 10 December 2019 to 29 March 2021, in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández. In 2021, she was appointed as Argentina's representative to UNESCO.
Encounter for Democracy and Equality, more commonly known as New Encounter is a Kirchnerist political party in Argentina founded in 2004 by then-mayor of Morón, Martín Sabbatella. The party now forms part of the Unión por la Patria, the coalition which supported former president Alberto Fernández and Sergio Massa's presidential campaign.
The 2020 Delta del Paraná wildfires is a series of wildfires that are burning across the Delta del Paraná in Argentina, affecting mainly the Entre Ríos and Santa Fe provinces, but also Buenos Aires, including major cities as Rosario.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina affected the human rights situation in the country.
Popular Unity, officially registered as the Electoral Instrument for Popular Unity is a left-wing nationalist political party in Argentina, founded by trade union leader and former CTA secretary-general Víctor De Gennaro in 2010. It was part of the Frente de Todos, the coalition formed in 2019 to support the presidential candidacy of Alberto Fernández. It is now part of the Union for the Homeland which was formed to support Sergio Massa's 2023 presidential campaign. From 2011 to 2013 it was part of the Broad Progressive Front (FAP).
The Argentine COVID-19 vaccination scandal, known in Argentina as vacunatorio VIP, is a political scandal related to the application of COVID-19 vaccines in the Ministry of Health of Argentina to citizens who, due to the limitations established in the vaccination protocol, were not authorized to receive these vaccines yet.
Federico Fagioli is an Argentine social activist and politician of the Patria Grande Front. Since 2023, he has been a member of the Senate of Buenos Aires Province, representing the Third Electoral Section. From 2019 to 2023, he was a National Deputy for Buenos Aires.
Eduardo Félix Valdés is an Argentine politician, currently serving as National Deputy elected in the Federal Capital. A member of the Justicialist Party, Valdés served as the Argentine ambassador to the Holy See during the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The Presidency of Alberto Fernández began on 10 December 2019, when Alberto Fernández was sworn into office to a four-year term as President of Argentina. Fernández took office alongside vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner following the Frente de Todos coalition's victory in the 2019 general election, with 48.24% of the vote against incumbent president Mauricio Macri's 40.28%. Fernández's victory represented the first time in Argentina's history that an incumbent president had been defeated in a re-election bid. In 2023, he was later succeeded by Javier Milei.
A series of protests against the government of the Jujuy Province in Argentina started in June 2023, sparked by the amendment of the constitution of Jujuy. The demonstrators temporarily stormed into the Jujuy legislature and burned part of it.