Here’s why Argentina’s public universities are paralyzed by protests

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — After 11 months in office, right-wing Argentine President Javier Miley has fulfilled his major pledge to eliminate the country’s massive deficit by trimming public salaries, cutting subsidies and cracking down on already low wages for state employees.

Austerity has generated misery. But with the country’s leftist opposition in disarray after the economic disaster that Miley inherited, Argentina has not witnessed the kind of widespread social unrest that has characterized past economic crises.

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That could change. The country’s teachers are fed up.

Miley’s recent veto of a bill boosting spending on college budgets struck a collective nerve in a country that has long viewed free education as a crucial driver of social progress, drawing the broadest demonstrations since the libertarian leader took office.

The outdoor classes held last week in Plaza de Mayo, the main square of the government headquarters, were the latest in a new wave of protests in support of public universities that has swept Argentina over the past month. Students will take over university campuses in the coming days before another mass protest.

Here’s a look at what the students are protesting and what it means for Miley’s efforts to turn crisis-prone Argentina into an economic success story.

What do the protesters want?

Professors and faculty at public universities across Argentina are demanding wage increases to compensate for high inflation, which they say has reduced their purchasing power by 60% this year.

After a student-led march that attracted half a million demonstrators in April, Miley’s government compensated universities for operational costs but not teachers’ salaries.

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The average associate professor salary is now $320 per month. For teaching assistants, the cost is only $120 per month.

The university funding bill that Miley vetoed would have increased employee salaries to compensate for 2024 annual inflation — which now exceeds 200% — and adjust it for future inflation.

Even if Miley’s recent radical measures succeed in pushing inflation below 5% on a monthly basis, the number of Argentines living in poverty has swelled to more than 50%.

The public university system has not seen this kind of budget shortfall since 2004, according to the Civic Association for Equality and Justice, an Argentine nonprofit.

“Our living conditions have clearly worsened,” said Nicola José Lavagnino, a researcher in the philosophy of biology at Conecite, the leading research body in Argentina that reported the loss of 250 scientists this year due to budget cuts.

Unions reject the government’s offer of a 6.8% wage increase as insufficient. The University of Buenos Aires – one of the largest and most prestigious universities in Latin America – has warned of mass resignations due to low salaries. At least 30 teachers have resigned from UBA’s Faculty of Agriculture alone.

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Miley pledged to prevent any action that would jeopardize the budget balance. In September, he vetoed a bill to increase pensions – which would have cost his government more than 1% of Argentina’s GDP – for the same reason.

But the education bill would have cost just 0.14% of GDP, raising doubts about the economic significance of Miley’s fight.

“We consider this a direct attack on the philosophy of public education in our country,” said Matias Bossi, a 25-year-old student at Argentina’s University of La Plata.

What does Miley say?

The irascible president criticized universities and described them as leftist indoctrination camps.

“How productive are scientists?” He said in 2023 during his election campaign that he called for defunding the Conisit research institute. While Miley has promised not to get rid of free public education, she is demanding that universities submit to government scrutiny and do more to root out corruption.

“If they don’t want to be audited, it must be because they’re dirty,” he said.

Miley’s party has also in recent weeks revived an unpopular attempt to impose tuition fees on non-resident foreigners, who make up nearly 4% of total enrollment.

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Argentina’s public education system is rare because there are no barriers to entry – foreigners who cannot obtain a bachelor’s degree in their own country can enroll for free at top-tier public universities such as UBA, where all five of the country’s universities Nobel Prize winners have studied. Even half of Miley’s cabinet graduated from public universities.

Some say Milley is justified in demanding more financial transparency, pointing to the alleged misuse of funds and creeping politicization of what was once a globally respected institution.

“There were contracts with figures in the public sector in which ridiculous things were funded,” said Argentine political consultant Sergio Bernstein, referring to scandals that erupted during the term of former leftist President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over large-budget research projects that audits revealed at the time. Later it was never implemented. existing. “They were just mechanisms to transfer money for political interests.”

What is the political context?

After Miley’s government mustered enough votes to prevent the opposition from overriding his veto of a university funding bill on October 10, more than 250,000 Argentines — from the far left to the center right — poured into the streets.

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The student-led movement attracted a group of Argentine protesters affected by austerity that has deepened the recession and pushed poverty to its highest levels in 20 years – retirees desperate for better pensions, doctors angry at meager wages, and artists against the closure of the National Film Institute. Scientists are angry at the wasted money, and pilots are concerned about Miley’s plans to privatize Argentina’s leading airline.

Santiago Gandara, a professor of social sciences at both the University of Pampa and the University of La Pampa, said he believes Miley made a miscalculation in going after Argentina’s proud symbol of publicly funded education for the masses.

He added: “It’s like someone coming and saying: We will get rid of Plaza de Mayo,” referring to the historic Buenos Aires square that was filled with demonstrators last week. “Miley understood this too late. …You cannot decide the fate of Plaza de Mayo. It belongs to all of us.”

The question of whether the demonstrations will turn into a real threat to Milley remains open.

“I think these protests do not pose a threat to Miley’s life, but they are clearly harmful,” said Ana Ibaraguirre, an Argentine analyst and partner at Washington-based strategy firm GBAO. “When students mobilize, you never know where the movement will end up.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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