Protesters take to streets to tell Bolsonaro he’s not welcome in Argentina
Chanting and voicing their outrage, demonstrators gathered in Plaza de Mayo on Thursday evening to protest Jair Bolsonaro’s visit to Buenos Aires, as the outspoken Brazilian leader made his first trip to Argentina.
The demonstration, entitled “Argentina Rejects Bolsonaro,” was dominated by leftist groups, Brazilians and Argentines and saw many protesters chant slogans which grouped together Bolsonaro, President Mauricio Macri and US President Donald Trump as propagators of hate.
Malena, an activist demonstrating with the political youth organisation La Simón Bolívar, told the
Times that “Bolsonaro is for us the most clear face of xenophobia, homophobia, machismo, neoliberalism and repression and it is important to get out and show that we reject this.”
The march included representative from over 60 leftist organisations and political groups, including Movimiento Socialista de los
Trabajadores (MST), Izquierda Socialista, Movimiento Territorial Liberación and Polo Obrero, though participants with no ostensible affiliation could also be seen.
Protesters covered Avenida De Mayo in a sea of mostly red-andwhite flags – an occasional rainbow pride flag could also be glimpsed – as they marched toward the Plaza de Mayo at around 6.30pm local time. Hundreds gathered around a stage constructed out of a storage container placed on a truck, while dozens of street vendors sold beer and hamburgers, in what was perhaps the only explicit display of support for capitalism.
Soon, a series of speakers and musicians took to the stage, leading chants such as “Out with Bolsonaro! Out with Macri!” or “Racist! Racist!Racist! ”Several of the speakers were Brazilian and lead songs in Portuguese.
Though only Bolsonaro was depicted as Hitler, with swastikas surrounding him on many posters, much of the rhetoric and signage at the demonstration sought to paint the leaders as two sides of the same coin.
“Macri is included because he responds directly to international markets,” said Malena, the activist with La Simón Bolívar organisation. “He responds directly to what Trump needs..”
While Bolsonaro spoke of Latin American unity between countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and opposition forces in Venezuela, speakers at the rally offered their own interpretation of unity: between Latin American leftists and workers.
Senator Federico ‘Pino’ Solanas (Proyecto Sur-Buenos Aires City), spoke of the need for a Latin American “patriotic front” to defeat the right, neoliberalism and Donald Trump – and win October’s upcoming election.
“To triumph in Argentina [in the October elections], is to also defeat Bolsonaro,” he declared.
MST presidential hopeful Cele Fierro, whose party led a demonstration outside the Brazilian Embassy prior to the rally, told the Ti
mes that it is necessary to demonstrate that existence of a broad front Latin American unity against Bolsonaro’s form of governance.
“We want to build a relationship of solidarity between workers,” she said. “Before Bolsonaro became president, when the first demonstrations by EleNão [the movement that organised protests of hundreds of thousands of people against Bolsonaro before he became president] were happening, we replicated them here in Argentina. When there were demonstrations in the United States against the election of Donald we also replicated them here in Argentina.”
With over 60 different organisations present at the demonstration, activists hailed the unity between various leftist groups. Alex, an activist with the Movimiento Territorial de Liberación, said the differences between the manifold groups are not important.
“First of all, everyone is fighting against the government. That is the main reason we are all here,” he said. “The idea is to pressure the government to stop abusing the people.”