Amnesty International criticises Argentina's handling of protests

There are 4 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 195 times. The latest Post (January 16, 2025 at 1:37 AM) was by Rice.

    Whilst I admire the work done by the organisation, it clearly doesn't see the big picture or seen how this country has been dragged into the mire by protesters who are paid to attend, fined for not attending and block roads indiscriminately. Not to mention the corrupt 'social groups' who steal from those that they force into protests.

    Security minister, Bullrich, has rightly hit back.

    Quote

    “They don't understand anything, a country that 25 years ago had picket lines, with people extorted, going to get a salary, prisoners of poverty managers. We managed to put an end to that, with minimum violence, that they come out with a report like that, they are on the side of the criminals, it is that clear.”

    TN, being an awful rag mag, never gives a link to important sources, so I had to find the report, which I think is this one among many others.

    Argentina: 33 People Criminalized For Protesting In Argentina
    We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.
    www.amnesty.org.uk

    I don't know all the details, but a couple things in that report stood out to me. First off, if only 33 people out of thousands of protesters were arrested, it doesn't look like a case of police mass arresting everybody they could put their hands on. Nor does it appear the 33 were "arbitrarily" arrested. My guess is they were ringleaders.

    And that they were charged with, among other things "incitement to violence". I am 100% on the side of people peacefully protesting whatever in the world they want to protest. But if they are violent, or inciting violence, I have no use for them.

    Quote from daveholman

    I don't know all the details, but a couple things in that report stood out to me. First off, if only 33 people out of thousands of protesters were arrested, it doesn't look like a case of police mass arresting everybody they could put their hands on. Nor does it appear the 33 were "arbitrarily" arrested. My guess is they were ringleaders.

    And that they were charged with, among other things "incitement to violence". I am 100% on the side of people peacefully protesting whatever in the world they want to protest. But if they are violent, or inciting violence, I have no use for them.

    My main point here is that previous to Milei taking the reins and with Bullrich as security minister, the streets in central Buenos Aires were owned by these people and everything ground to a halt. People couldn't get to work and chaos ensued. I couldn't even get past the pickets on my bike because the protesters wouldn't allow it.

    The then mayor of CABA let all this slide, ignored the problem, the police did nothing and the K government at the time enjoyed the spectacle.

    Quite rightly, on December 10th 2023, Milei and Bullrich said enough is enough and these people were forced to protest on the pavements/sidewalks. Whoever was lifted by the police was grabbed legitimately.

    Since this huge change, protests have dropped considerably, so perhaps Amnesty should revise its thinking.

    Derrota piquetera en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires: las marchas bajaron a la mitad y en el 77% no se cortó el tránsito
    El cambio en el control de las protestas ya se nota en las calles: ahora, los manifestantes solicitan autorización para movilizarse. “No hubo acampes en 2024″,…
    www.infobae.com

    You'd think AI would have more serious breaches of human rights going on in the World to concentrate their resources on. I can think of a few elsewhere in S America alone.

    Poor show. :thumbdown:

    If they arrest ringleaders on the charge of "incitement to violence,” they should have been in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

    Why choose Argentina, when they seem to have no idea of context? I like Amnesty International and contribute to them. But this doesn’t make sense, given the nature of paid protests and union strong arming. Could Amnesty Int’l have gotten this wrong? Or are we all missing information that would change our minds?