Two years after the implementation of the anti-picketing protocol launched by then Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, Amnesty International presented a report documenting a scenario of growing state repression against social protest in Argentina. According to the survey, at least 2,557 people were injured by unlawful or disproportionate use of force by security forces in 2024 and 2025.
The report said the injuries included rubber bullet impacts to the head and face, exposure to tear gas and pepper spray, being hit with a stick and various episodes of physical violence. The data also reflects a significant year-on-year increase in repression, both in the number of people injured and in arrests during demonstrations.
According to Provincial Memory Commission records cited by Amnesty International, 1,341 people were injured and at least 165 were imprisoned in 2025. In comparison, there were 1,216 injuries and 93 arrests in all of 2024. This means that the number of people deprived of their freedom, largely arbitrarily, without sufficient evidence and with immediate release, increases by 77%.
Authoritarians don’t like that
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a mainstay of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe that they are the owners of the truth.
One of the most serious cases is the report that four people were hit in the eyes by rubber bullets, with irreversible consequences. On March 12, 2025, Jonathan Navarro lost vision in his left eye after being shot with a kinetic weapon by a Marine Prefecture agent during a mobilization to support pensioners. In November of that year, 24-year-old Rodrigo Troncoso reported losing his left eye after being hit by a rubber bullet during a demonstration near Congress.
Attacks on the press. The report devotes a separate section to the situation of the press and warns that the anti-picketing protocol also has a direct impact on the practice of journalism. At least 184 press workers were injured while covering the protests, and others were arbitrarily arrested.
Amnesty International notes that journalists have been hit by rubber bullets, tear gas and physical attacks and have faced restrictions in carrying out their work. Some reported having to incorporate personal protective elements as if it were a safeguard in wartime scenarios. According to the organization, these practices aim to create a silencing effect with the aim of stopping both the protest and its public appearance.
The most serious documented case is that of photographer Pablo Grillo, who was hit in the head by a tear gas cartridge while covering a march for pensioners on March 12, 2025. The attack caused an open skull fracture and resulted in him being hospitalized in critical condition. Grillo continues the recovery process with a cautious prognosis. As part of the judicial investigation and on the basis of the material provided by the police card, the gendarme who fired the shot was identified and prosecuted by the judiciary. Given the scale of the events, the report highlights the security ministry’s poor institutional response. In response to requests for access to public information, the department reported that only two administrative summaries had been opened for excessive use of force. One of them, linked to the events of March 12, 2025, near the Congress, was later closed without disciplinary sanctions, which for Amnesty International reveals its purely formal nature.
The document concludes with a warning about the deterioration of guarantees for the exercise of the right to protest and freedom of the press, and points to the need to review the security forces’ intervention criteria, strengthen control mechanisms and ensure effective investigation of human rights violations.
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