It wasn’t since Argentina last won the World Cup in 2022 that the streets of Buenos Aires were as packed as they were on April 23, when hundreds of thousands marched to the seat of the federal government — as well as in dozens of cities across the country — demanding a higher budget for public universities, in the largest protest Argentina has seen in at least one decade.
The trigger of the protest was clear: Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has almost fully frozen funds for universities since he took office in December 2023, despite inflation figures that hovered close to 300 percent over the last twelve months.
Without a budget approved for 2024, the government opted to extend the same peso-denominated 2023 budget into this year, meaning universities would only have one-third of last year’s funds when measured in inflation-adjusted terms.
The decision quickly sounded the alarm among teachers and administrators, and the penny also began to drop for students in March, when news spread through the hallways at the start of the semester. Soon, the matter went viral and reached the broader public.
Images of students reading in the dark or sifting through human bones with their phone flashlights at the prestigious University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine reached everywhere from TikTok to traditional media, as authorities turned off lights, elevators, and air conditioners to minimize electricity spending.
While many of Mr. Milei’s decisions have caused backlash...
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