Javier Milei finally lugs key reforms through Argentina’s Senate

Outside Argentina’s Senate on June 12th riot police manned barricades as protesters surged forward. Some screamed at the police to take off their helmets and join them. One lawmaker staggered away after taking a blast of pepper spray to the face. Soon protesters were hurling Molotov cocktails. A journalist’s car was set alight. The government, prone to hyperbole, called the protests an attempted “coup”. Inside the Senate things were nearly as tense. Some senators demanded the session stop due to the violence outside but were slapped down. Insults flew. “Mentally ill” was the term Cristina López, an opposition senator, used to describe President Javier Milei; the combative libertarian economist, who recently shrieked out a set of rock songs to a packed stadium, calls himself “one of the two most important leaders in the world.” He has not named the other.