The retirees, epicenter of the Argentine resistance against Milei

The spirit of The Eternaluta He survived the last demonstration of retirees against the Argentine Congress. “The old works, Milei,” they wrote in protesters over 60 years. That phrase popularized by the science fiction series has penetrated in a collective that embodies the greatest focus of resistance against the chain of the Government of Javier Milei. Every Wednesday they are concentrated at the doors of the Chamber of Deputies to demand decent retirement, free access to medicines and quality medical care. They say they do not reach the end of the month. Some have to continue working despite having exceeded 70 years, even the 80s depend on the help of their children. There are first ones that first stopped going out to dinner outside, after gathering in the coffee and now there are nights that do not have to have; patients who ration the medications to last longer; and new poor people who fear that this winter is cut off by the gas for not being able to pay the invoices for the first time in their lives.

After a few minutes, the protesters begin to turn around the Congress, in a round similar to the one in 1977 mothers of Plaza de Mayo against the dictatorship. “Be careful, because now the cane (Police) attack us with gases, ”warns a retiree who sees that they participate for the first time. The tension scale quickly. The police, armed and armored The last weeks, “Cascarudos”, referring to the gigantic bugs invented by Héctor Oesterheld and drawn by Francisco Solano López in the graphic novel that inspired the series.

Medical personnel, photographers, human rights defenders and several protesters carry masks – as the protagonist of The EternalutaJuan Salvo – to protect themselves from a closer threat than toxic snowfall: the tear gas launched by riot agents to those who fall from the sidewalk. They spread rapidly and affect all those in the area.

The protests of the retirees began long before Milei came to power. They were very significant in the 1990s, when Carlos Menem frozen pensions; They rebounded with the change of the update formula propitiated by Mauricio Macri and grew again at the end of the government of Alberto Fernández, when the income lost the race against an inflation that climbed above 200% per year.

The most veterans emphasize that their situation worsened more with Milei, especially because it withdrew many medications that were previously free, authorized great increases in medical insurance and increased the price of transport, light, gas and water, which for years were hypersubented by the State. They predict a very difficult future for all those who have not quoted at least 30 years to Social Security, a reality that affects nine out of ten women in Argentina: the government closed the retirement door and can only aspire to a universal pension for older adults, today equivalent to about 200 dollars, 80% of the minimum retirement.

Another novelty of Milei’s management is the violence with which they repress protesters. “They want us to be afraid and stop mobilizing,” he suggests as Rubén hypothesis, a 72 -year -old retiree. Fernando, 75, coincides, but believes that “nobody is saved alone” and those who return every week to manifest do so because they are more afraid “of running out of silver for medications or even without a roof.”

The images of beaten retirees have outraged many Argentines and different groups have begun to join them on Wednesdays. In March they were the fans of the football clubs and then unions, state employees, teachers, and informal workers, among many others, also passed. One more Wednesday, the concentration ended with police repression and wounded protesters, including Father Paco Oliveira. The country collected the testimonies of four participants:

Carlos Dawlowfki, 75 years: “We want a retirement that allows us to live in peace”

Carlos Dawlowfki is 75 years old and has been retired to have worked for 30 years at the Argentine mail. Although he and his wife add two retirements and have their own house, they need the help of their two daughters to survive. “Retirements in this country were always bad, but now they are more than bad because they stopped including free remedies in the PAMI (the state medical insurance of retirees),” he says. Due to the cuts, its monthly medication expense shot up to 120,000 pesos (about $ 100), a quarter of what it charges as retirement.

This retiree carries the same Chacarita shirt he was carrying when the police hit him at the beginning of March and generated a wave of massive repudiation among the football fans. The scars of his wounds are still visible, but he maintains his weekly presence in the march and increases the uniformed: “You hit us, but you are not going to retire, know it.” Dawlowfki believes that it is false that “there is no money”, the motto that Milei repeats to justify the cuts, but that “the silver that is stolen all” and ensures that it mobilizes so much for him and his wife – “We want to assert our rights, we want a retirement that allows us to live in peace” – as for the future of their daughters.

Juan, 73 years: “This government is killing us”

Juan holds with a cane and with the hand that is free to raise a banner to ask for justice and return the benefits that have taken away retirees in recent months. He is 73 years old and he could retire eight after having worked in different telephone companies, but does not mean his last name for fear of reprisals from the government of Javier Milei, whom he accuses of worsening the living conditions of older adults to accelerate his death: “This government does not want the old people, it is gradually killing us.”

He lives with his son and regrets that what he charges every time evaporates before. “The previous government did not represent me, but I was better. Now they took the benefit to be able to have the dignified life that we earn as workers. We are talking that it does not reach us for food, I do not know how we are going to do this month that the light, gas and the collective (bus) increased again,” he denounces. “This is a rich country, but there are four living who steals everything, that’s why we are like that,”

Julieta Aldín, 69 years: “If it weren’t for my daughters, I would live on the street”

Julieta Aldín had seven children and alternated her upbringing with a succession of poorly payments and without contract: she has been a seller, domestic employee and caregiver of the elderly without any of her employers contributing for her to social security. Even so, as five years ago the option to retire through a moratorium was in force, he could do it and today he receives the state benefit, although he is discounted a part for the contributions he owes. What is left is insufficient and that is why, at 61, he sells donation clothing in different churches on the street. “It is the first time I come because I was selling before, but the police threw us all the manteros last week and since then it does not let us work,” he laments. “If it weren’t for my daughters, I would live on the street. What do we want us to do? It is very hard and I have less and less strength to continue,” he says.

Liliana Fonsi, 62 years: “The silver they spend to repress us is furry”

Liliana Fonsi began attending Wednesday marches as a health worker because she already sensed that she and those of her generation would also need the support of the youngest when they were time to retire. “It’s how it reminds us The Eternaluta: Nobody is saved alone, we all need ourselves to give this fight, ”he says. Fonsi is flanked by two friends he met in the neighborhood assemblies that formed when Milei won the elections and began a hard cut of public spending. At the beginning of the interview, the retirees start the return to Congress between songs against the Argentine president and the police who do not let them cross the street. effective to suppress us, the spend they are spending on these devices and that is even gendarmerie, which would have to be guarding the borders, not here hitting old for cutting a street to cross. Nor in the Macri era this level of repression was seen. There are people who are afraid to come, but we have already become a focus of sectors in struggle and every Wednesday someone joins. They will not stop us, ”predicts.