One year of Milei: the withdrawal of rights for the public and the abandonment
Lawyer Alejandro Mamani analyzes the setbacks in the twelve months since Javier Milei took office.
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It's been a year since Javier Milei's administration. To discuss his administration, it's essential to understand that, in this republican state in which we live, it's a government entering the democratic system in a novel way. With coalitions, but with a social climate of exhaustion. And this happens in a multifactorial way, in which perhaps the traditional media play a very important role, but not a defining one.
There are multiple spectrums that mean the accumulation of this anger isn't entirely unique to Argentina as a country; we're not that special. It's part of an international situation in countries where, despite having made significant progress on human rights, there has been a regression. And we can speak from Nicaragua to the United States. These are societies that haven't found answers to their historical demands on multiple issues within traditional governments.
In the Latin American case, super-strong figures have been worn down over time, and no legitimate successors have been born or built in this vein.
Towards conservatism
One year on, Milei's policies, perhaps not in a central way, but through the coalitions she has formed and indirectly, show a classic line within the structure regarding positions linked to the LGBTIQ+ community and the rights of the population.
There are lines of alliance with the government, such as the conservative sectors in the provinces. Or even conservatives within the Catholic Church, which is not uniform; and other conservative churches that have generated a sort of backlash with social movements such as feminism or the diversity movement. This is also part of what can be analyzed to understand the breeding ground in which certain issues are currently simmering.
The setbacks
On specific issues, we can analyze next year's HIV program budget, which is lower than last year, without paying attention to the increase in positive people year after year. This is part of the cutback campaign, if you will, and it seems to me to be a very specific issue because it's an at-risk population. Organizations like AHF Argentina and Act Up Argentina, among others, are constantly denouncing this.
Then we have lines that have a logic perhaps a little closer to the dynamics of the internet. And in that sense of bait, of generating stories, or of generating noise, in factual terms at the population level, the impact is confusing. For example, the statements regarding the elimination of non-binary ID cards. You may or may not agree with something, but when the State advances in terms of rights, the international principle of human rights pro homine is non-retrogression, and this is part of what is supposedly going to happen.
If this happens, people with an ID with an X would be left in a kind of helplessness, a legal orphanhood. This legal security, which is so often advocated for, is something that is disappearing precisely with the issue of non-binary ID cards. The abundant bills regarding trans people, such as the reduction of gender identity protections for children and adolescents, the issue of prepaid health insurance plans and their liberalization, are also being discussed. In addition to the services provided to people with HIV and trans people who are experiencing problems and constantly complain about the lack of coverage or about surreptitious methods, these individuals are being expelled from prepaid health insurance plans.
Being old in the Milei era
Older adults have been the biggest victims of this government. For example, with the elimination of 100% medication coverage and the freezing of pensions. LGBT elderly people are part of the elderly. Many of those who could have retired were working precariously or recently obtaining a pension, and now they see everything being cut.
It's so complex at the macro level that the constituency within the LGBTQ+ community absolutely requires a prior statement at the macro level. I can't deny that even within diversity, which isn't uniform, there have been and are diverse people who have campaigned for Milei, voted for Milei, and are part of this group dissatisfied with and angry at traditional political parties.
It is possible to go back
There are generational social groups that were born or raised with an already established structure of rights, such as marriage equality, the gender identity law, and decades of activism to destigmatize the positive population, and who currently do not accept that these rights can be lost.
Much of the population doesn't accept that rights can be rolled back, and that this is a problem. Then there's the issue of the loss of purchasing power, the loss of quality in healthcare, and the loss of institutional responsiveness, including the disappearance of INADI. Many criticisms can be made of the institutions, and perhaps quite logical ones, but the elimination of these institutions doesn't impact more rights; rather, it does the opposite. A reorganization of an institution, in any case, can be seen as strengthening the protection of rights, not its elimination.
And I believe there is a social climate that has enabled, if we want to call it that, these institutional punishments. From cuts from institutions that have failed to fulfill the purpose for which they were socially created, to budget cuts that are symbolic in terms of "baitable" because sometimes the economic impact isn't real, but the feeling of being punished by a sector of society is.
The bait as a starting point
I think it's essential to know that much of the news that's linked to diversity and trans, transvestite, non-binary, gay, and lesbian identities generates a huge amount of news traction on social media. And they're often exploited to fill one thing with news so that other things aren't as visible.
I think it's essential to understand that much of the attack on the LGBTQ+ population, while stemming from the historical context of what we might call conservatism, homophobia, homolesbotransphobia, and the like, also has an added flavor characteristic of our current times. That flavor is the instrumentalization of these actions to generate content. We can even talk about generating news.
Against the diverse population
In short, we can talk about the bills regarding the transvestite population, the reduction and circumscription of the law, the limitation of the law, the rollback of rights for the non-binary population due to the issue of documentation itself, which is extremely uncertain. This opens a door of uncertainty. If DNIs are eliminated, what is the State's response? Should they change again? Should they choose a gender? Should they render passports and documentation useless? In other words, the fact that the State has granted recognition and that it is rolled back is something that would even raise international liability.
What worries me most, at least, is the issue of urgency. And at that point, the positive population falls. And the gay community, the trans community, has fought a lot for first visibility, then destigmatization, and then coverage for medications and prophylaxis options. I find the situation we're in quite dangerous.
Then there are all the macro policies not primarily intended to affect the LGBTQI+ population, but which do affect them because diversity is a part of society. And then there are the elderly population and the disabled population. People who, in many cases, don't have support networks or have fewer support networks than other populations.
A significant situation is the institutional violence in relation to the transvestite trans population, and especially migrants, in that place.
The discredit of institutions
Added to all this is the erosion of institutional structures. While it was initially discredited, it has now transformed, in some places, into a lack of trust. In many cases, this is also logical: distrust in the justice system or the healthcare system. Today, we have a migrant population and a healthcare system in Salta with tuition fees. There are freedoms for university tuition for the migrant population, while the quality of education declines.
This year's analysis is so complex because it demands a global perspective and a specific analysis of, for example, the LGBT population. But before that, we must understand this year within the dynamics of democracy. We must understand that there is a very angry segment of the population, and that it's not that they are more or less innocent, more or less ignorant. Rather, there is a collective discontent perhaps fueled by certain factors like social media and news channels. These kinds of feelings are global, and that speaks to the complexity of what we are experiencing right now.
Alejandro Mamani is a lawyer specializing in Technology Rights and Human Rights.
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