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Tag: torture

  • Israeli Leaders Demand Probe of IDF Rape Video—To Find Out Who Leaked It

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    Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks during a rally in Sderot, Israel on October 26, 2022. (Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images)

    “This is what Israelis rioted to protect, what the Knesset debated—the right to rape Palestinians,” said one critic.

    While human rights groups called for an investigation of a leaked recording apparently showing Israel Defense Forces reservists gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military base and detention center, Israeli leaders including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday also furiously demanded a probe of the video—not to seek justice for the victim, but rather to find and punish whoever leaked it.

    Smotrich took to social media Wednesday to call for “an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world, and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them.”

    Israeli media on Tuesday aired footage in which Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists are seen attacking a Palestinian man at Sde Teiman while trying to hide their actions with shields.

    According to Israeli media reports, the victim was hospitalized with a severe anal injury, ruptured bowel, broken ribs, and lung damage.

    Nine alleged assailants—who include members of Force 100, the military unit tasked with guarding Sde Teiman prisoners—were arrested last week in connection with the attack. A mob of far-right Israelis including senior government officials subsequently stormed two military bases in an attempt to free the suspects.

    While many Israelis condemned the alleged rape, others rallied around the accused reservists. Smotrich described them as “heroic warriors.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called them “our best heroes.”

    Far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot—who took part in last week’s riot—joined Smotrich in demanding an investigation of the video leak.

    “Leaking and disclosure of investigative materials is a criminal offense that harms the proper legal process, the rule of law, public trust, and the principle of justice,” he said Wednesday.

    Israeli media reported Wednesday that two of the accused reservists lied on polygraph tests when asked if they had sodomized the prisoner.

    Numerous Israelis continued to express support for the accused rapists. Israel Today political reporter Yehuda Schlesinger said Wednesday on a popular morning show that “I don’t give a rat’s ass what they do to Hamas man.”

    “First of all, they deserve it,” Schlesinger said of the abuse at Sde Teiman and other Israeli military prisons. “It’s great revenge that we need to give them.”

    “It’s just a shame that we don’t do it in an institutionalized way, as part of regulations for torture of prisoners,” he added, “because then the next guys who think about doing another October 7 will say, ‘Do you see what they’re doing to [us] in Israel?’”

    Etan Nechin, the New York correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, accused the media of being the “main culprit” that “has normalized the most extreme voices, letting genocidal brutes, racists, and messianic zealots into Israeli’s TV sets.”

    Some American media critics drew attention to the scant coverage of abuse at Sde Teiman in the U.S. corporate media.

    “U.S. taxpayers continue to support this military and its torture camps,” Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer wrote on social media. “How is this not front-page news?”

    In the United States—which supports Israel’s war on Gaza with billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover—State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a Wednesday press conference that “there ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee. Period.”

    “It is appropriate that the IDF in this case, has announced an investigation, has arrested a number of people who are alleged to have been involved, and I won’t speak to the outcome of that investigation, but it ought to proceed swiftly,” Miller added.

    Critics noted the IDF’s chronic failures to credibly investigate its alleged crimes. The Israeli rights group Yesh Din said in late 2022 that less than 1% of Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza were indicted over the previous five years.

    The Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday took up a petition by rights groups seeking to close Sde Teiman, where widespread—and sometimes deadly—torture has been reported. Last month, Israel’s High Court issued a conditional order seeking to shut down the prison in response to the flood of reports of torture there.

    Former prisoners including children and Israeli whistleblowers at Sde Teiman—often called “Israel’s Guantánamo Bay”—have described rampant torture and abuse at the facility, which is used to imprison Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip. According to their testimonies, prisoners have been raped, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, burned with cigarettes, severely beaten, starved, and subjected to 24-hour shackling sometimes leading to amputations.

    The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said this week that at least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October.

    More than 1,100 Israelis and others died during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, during which more than 240 other people were kidnapped. Israel’s response—which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case—has left more than 142,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to local and international officials.

    Smotrich suggested earlier this week that it is “moral and justified” to starve 2 million Palestinians to death. So far, at least dozens, mostly children, have died from malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care in Gaza amid Israel’s crippling assault and siege.

    Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

  • UN Probe Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians Detained by Israel

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    Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Palestinian Faouzi Abdel Aal, 21, is rushed to Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip to receive treatment for his injuries, after being reportedly released from an Israeli detention center on July 25, 2024. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

    The U.N. report found evidence of sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs against detainees, many of whom were deprived of food, water, sleep, and toilet access.

    The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a report detailing torture and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli detention centers, including sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs.

    Israeli security forces have also used electric shocks, burned detainees with cigarettes, and deprived them of food, water, sleep, and toilet access, according to the 23-page OHCHR report, based largely on interviews with released detainees. Some detainees said they were held with their arms suspended from the ceiling; were forced to be naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers; and were blindfolded for extended periods.

    Israel security forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza since October, many of them arbitrarily; they held more than 9,400 “security detainees” as of the end of June, often in secret and incommunicado, without providing a reason for the detainment, the report says.

    “The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement accompanying the report.

    Most of the detainees have been men and adolescent boys, though some are also women and adolescent girls, and there are many reported instances of sexual and gender-based violence, the report says, including “the forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers.”

    OHCHR also said it had video evidence of detainees filmed in “deliberately humiliating positions” while handcuffed and blindfolded, and noted it received “consistent reports” of Israeli security forces “inserting objects into detainees’ anuses.”

    Some detainees also reported “cage-like” facilities and overcrowding. The report says that 13 to 20 male detainees were kept in cells designed for five people, forcing many to sleep on the floor. There were “poor living, hygiene, and health conditions, with reports of water running only one hour per day over several weeks” and detainees faced “exposure to cold temperatures due to the confiscation of blankets and removal of windows panes in cold weather.”

    At least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli detention centers since October, according to the report, which suggests that the detention system appears “to constitute a collectively punitive measure against Palestinians,” citing the words of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, who has said that “terrorists” deserve the most “stringent conditions.” Male detainees reported losing between about 55 and 120 pounds while in custody.

    The OHCHR report comes as a highly controversial case involving detention abuse unfolds in Israel. The Israeli military is investigating nine soldiers for alleged “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian detainee who reportedly had to be hospitalized and could not walk after they attacked him. Far-right Israeli groups and political figures have protested the investigation.

    Concern about Israeli detentions of Palestinians has been high for many months. In January, a Palestinian watchdog group issued a report condemning the forced disappearance of Gazans, and The New York Times found evidence of detainees being stripped and beaten.

    Not all of the alarms about the situation in Israeli detentions centers have come from abroad. In February, Israeli’s public defender’s office issued a report calling for improved prison conditions, including for Palestinians. In April, local human rights groups called for a closure of the Sde Teiman military base detention center, due to its notorious conditions.

    The calls were prompted in part by gruesome reports including amputations of detainees’ limbs due to handcuff injuries. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East then issued a damning report on detainee treatment, including of its own staff, some of whom had been detained and subjected to harsh interrogation.

    Last week, Save the Children called for an end to the Israel’s arbitrary detainment of Palestinian minors, with a regional director saying that “these children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence.”

    Experts said Wednesday that the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers. Neil Sammonds, a campaigner at the U.K.-based progressive advocacy group War on Want, said on social media that leaders of the new U.K. government haven’t spoken up about abuses at Israeli detention centers. He also said that the report could be used as evidence by the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.

    The new report also addresses abuses of Israelis held by Hamas and affiliated groups. The Palestinian militants killed roughly 1,200 people in a horrific set of attacks in southern Israel on October 7 and kidnapped about 250 Israelis, more than 100 of whom have since been released. Like Palestinian detainees, the released Israelis reported “appalling” conditions, the report says, including beatings, receiving surgery without anesthetic, and sexual and gender-based violence. The Israeli government has reported that 44 of the remaining hostages in Gaza have died.

    Both Israel and Hamas have refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees or hostages. The OHCHR called for both sides to allow such independent monitoring.

    Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Report From Gaza Aid Agencies Shows ‘Catastrophe on an Entirely New Level’

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  • Amnesty Condemns Israel’s ‘Mass Incommunicado Detention and Torture’ of Palestinians

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    Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    Israeli activists protest outside the notorious Sde Teiman prison in the Negev Desert on April 20, 2024. (Photo: Ofer Neiman/X)

    The head of the human rights group said Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law is enabling “rampant torture” of Palestinian detainees and “institutionalizes enforced disappearance.”

    Israel is using its dubious Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip—including women and children—indefinitely without charge and trial, according to an Amnesty International report published Thursday.

    All 27 former detainees interviewed by the rights group described being tortured by Israeli forces.

    Amnesty documented the cases of 21 men, five women, and one 14-year-old boy taken from Gaza and held in indefinite incommunicado detention in facilities including the notorious Sde Teiman camp in Israel’s Negev Desert for periods of up to four-and-a-half months, without access to lawyers or contact with their families.

    “All those interviewed by Amnesty International said that during their incommunicado detention, which in some cases amounted to enforced disappearance, Israeli military, intelligence, and police forces subjected them to torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment,” the report states.

    “Israeli authorities are using the Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily round up Palestinian civilians from Gaza and toss them into a virtual black hole.”

    Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law allows the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to detain anyone from Gaza that they suspect of being engaged in the fight against Israel or posing a threat to its national security indefinitely without charge, trial, or evidence. Last December, the law was amended to allow the IDF to hold suspects for up to 96 hours without a detention order, up to 75 days without being brought before a judge, and up to three months without seeing a lawyer.

    “While international humanitarian law allows for the detention of individuals on imperative security grounds in situations of occupation, there must be safeguards to prevent indefinite or arbitrary detention and torture and other ill-treatment,” Amnesty International secretary general AgnèsCallamard said in a statement. “This law blatantly fails to provide these safeguards. It enables rampant torture and, in some circumstances, institutionalizes enforced disappearance.”

    “Our documentation illustrates how the Israeli authorities are using the Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily round up Palestinian civilians from Gaza and toss them into a virtual black hole for prolonged periods without producing any evidence that they pose a security threat and without minimum due process,” Callamard added. “Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it.”

    According to the report, “those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients; mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called ‘safe corridor’ from northern Gaza to the south; human rights defenders, [United Nations] workers, journalists, and other civilians.”

    Former detainees at Sde Teiman said they were blindfolded and handcuffed for their entire imprisonment, forced to remain in painful stress positions for hours on end, and prevented from speaking to other prisoners or even raising their heads.

    Said Maarouf, a 57-year-old pediatrician kidnapped by Israeli troops during an attack on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City in December 2023, was detained for 45 days at Sde Teiman. He described being constantly blindfolded and handcuffed, beaten, starved, and forced to sit on his knees for long periods.

    A 14-year-old boy taken from his home in Jabalia in January was held for 24 days at Sde Teiman. He told Amnesty that he was jailed with more than 100 adults in a single barrack and was kicked, punched in the head, and repeatedly burned with cigarettes. Amnesty observed bruises and burns on the child’s body when it examined him in February. Like other detainees interviewed by the rights group, the boy said he was always blindfolded and handcuffed and was not permitted to see a lawyer or his relatives.

    Earlier this year, Israeli medics working at Sde Teiman said amputations of hands and feet due to injuries from constant handcuffing were “a routine event.”

    The five women interviewed by Amnesty were initially jailed at a military detention center in an illegal Israeli settler colony in the occupied West Bank, then at Dimon women’s prison in northern Israel. All five said they were beaten during transport.

    One woman taken on December 6 said she was separated from her two children—ages 4 and 9 months—and initially held alongside hundreds of male prisoners. She was beaten, forced to remove her veil and photographed without it, and subjected to the mock execution of her husband.

    “On the third day of detention, they put us in a ditch and started throwing sand,” she said. “A soldier fired two shots in the air and said they executed my husband and I broke down and begged him to kill me too, to relieve me from the nightmare.”

    Another woman said guards threatened: “We will do to you what Hamas did to us. We will kidnap and rape you.”

    These and other accounts are consistent with the testimonies of Israeli whistleblowers and former prisoners at Sde Teiman and other Israeli detention facilities.

    Former detainees and human rights defenders have described Sde Teiman as “Israel’s Guantánamo” and “more horrific than Abu Ghraib“—the notorious U.S. military prison in Iraq where prisoners were tortured and dozens died. Palestinians held at Sde Teiman and at other detention sites described being electrocuted, mauled and even raped by dogs, constantly beaten, starved, and subjected to other torture and abuse. Other former Sde Teiman detainees said they witnessed a prisoner raped to death, possible executions, and other atrocities.

    IDF officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last month that the IDF is investigating the in-custody deaths of dozens of detainees, including 36 who died or were killed at Sde Teiman since October, when Israel began its retaliatory war following the attack by Hamas-led militants that left more than 1,100 Israelis and foreign nationals dead—some of whom were killed by Israeli troops.

    Over 240 other people, mostly Israelis, were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. A Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday details war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and rape perpetrated by members of five Palestinian armed groups that took part in the October 7 attacks.

    Since October, Israel’s siege, bombardment, and invasion of Gaza has left at least 139,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people forcibly displaced, and starvation—sometimes deadly—running rampant.

    Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has also applied for warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “extermination.”

    Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

  • Newly Released Gaza Hospital Director Alleges ‘Almost Daily Torture’ in Israeli Detention

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    Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Al-Shifa hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya is welcomed by relatives as he arrives in the Gaza Strip on July 1, 2024, after being detained by Israel for more than seven months. Abu Salmiya said that he and his fellow detainees were subjected to torture and terrible conditions.  (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

    The hospital director, who’d been held without trial since Israeli forces detained him in November, said that he and others were subjected to torture, psychological humiliation, and severe undernourishment.

    The director of Gaza’s main hospital said at a press conference on Monday that he was tortured while being held without charges for the last seven months at an Israeli detention center.

    Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the Al-Shifa hospital, once Gaza’s main medical center, made the claims after he and 54 other Palestinian detainees were released and arrived back to the Gaza Strip.

    Israeli forces had raided the hospital in November and alleged that Abu Salmiya was involved in making it a Hamas command center. They later destroyed the hospital.

    Abu Salmiya said detention guards broke his finger and beat him to the point that his head bled—and that he wasn’t the only one.

    “Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars,” Abu Salmiya said. “There was almost daily torture.”

    There was “daily physical and psychological humiliation,” he added.

    He also said that they were severely underfed, surviving on nothing more than a loaf of bread per day. He said that all of the detainees had lost at least 30 kilograms (66 pounds).

    “Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars. There was almost daily torture.”

    Israeli forces seized Abu Salmiya from a United Nations convoy on November 22. They took him to court three times while in detainment but brought no charges and allowed him no lawyer, Abu Salmiya said.

    His detention in November followed an Israeli siege of Al-Shifa hospital, which Israeli officials said had become a Hamas control center. Though weapons were found at the hospital, an investigation by The Washington Post in December showed that the evidence fell short of revealing a command center, and that key claims the Israelis had made to justify the siege turned out to be incorrect.

    Israeli forces attacked the hospital again in late March, killing hundreds and leaving the facility mostly destroyed. Several mass graves were discovered near the hospital site in the weeks that followed.

    Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians since the war started, leading to “intolerable overcrowding” of its facilities, as Haaretz reported in February. Many detainees are held without charges in what is called “administrative detention.”

    At least 40 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention during the war, according to Addameer, a Palestinian watchdog group. Salmiya said Monday that some had been killed in interrogation cells, Al Jazeera reported.

    At least one other doctor was among those released on Monday: Bassam Miqdad, head of the orthopedic unit at Gaza European hospital in Khan Younis.

    In April, Adnan Ahmad Albursh, a 50-year-old Palestinian surgeon, died in Israeli detention, according to Palestinian officials and rights groups. He had been the head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa hospital. Overall, hundreds of healthcare workers have been killed during the war.

    Israeli officials and political figures from various parties denounced the release of the 55 detainees, which was reportedly done to make space in the overcrowded detention centers.

    Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister in charge of Israel’s police and prison service, called the release of the detainees a case of “security negligence” and blamed another ministry. Benny Gantz, an opposition figure who recently resigned from the war cabinet, said whoever released the detainees should be fired and that government offices should be made available to “free up space and budget for prisoners,” according to Al Jazeera.

    Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.

  • Argentine organizations reject attempts by Milei to silence dissent with fear

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    Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

    Police in Argentina brutally repressed a mobilization against Milei’s controversial economic reforms. Photo: UP Diputados

    Over 30 people were detained in Buenos Aires during the brutal repression of the protests against Milei’s economic reform law

    Last week, the Argentine Senate debated the bill called “Law for Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines” (Ley Bases), a set of economic and political reforms proposed by the far-right government of Javier Milei. While the Executive sought the necessary votes in the Senate to pass the law, thousands of demonstrators gathered around the legislature to demand that the law be shelved.

    The protests were called by several social organizations and trade unions, including the country’s largest trade union confederations, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the Argentine Workers’ Central Union, and the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (Autonomous).

    The action of the police, under the orders of the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, was excessive and brutal. Even lawmakers were not spared the violent repression. Peronist legislators, Eduardo Valdés, Carlos Castagnetto, Leopoldo Moreau, Juan Manuel Pedrini, Carolina Yutrovic and Luis Basterra, denounced that they were beaten by the security forces. In addition, several detainees told press that “they were stripped naked and that pepper spray was thrown at them”.

    Martin Dirroco, a worker detained during the protests, recounted: “We were in Congress and we began to feel the tear gas, our throats began to burn and we began to leave. We heard more and more shots fired; we could see the repression. […] Suddenly a lot of people started to come, we tried to leave and seven motorcycles appeared. The one on the back of the motorcycle was pointing a gun at us. They got off the motorcycle and told us to stay still. They shooted and shouted ‘everybody against the wall’. They started pushing and shoving, holding me and throwing me to the ground. […] We had to sleep in a courtyard with handcuffs on”.

    On Wednesday, June 12, 33 people were arrested, with many held for several days. Carlos Lopez, a left Argentine political leader, told Peoples Dispatch that as of today there are still five people detained on alleged charges of “public intimidation” and “arson”. Lopez comments that some people were even arrested 15 blocks from the Senate, far away from the events for which they are accused. “They are trying to sow terror from the government, the State, so that the population feels fear and shuts its mouth”. In addition, López continues, the detainees did not have adequate access to water and food; some spent more than 15 hours in a police patrol car and many could not speak to their lawyers: “There was intimidation, torture and threats […] We ask for everyone’s solidarity so that this type of action does not happen again,” said López.

    Police launching tear gas canisters at protesters on Wednesday June 12 in Buenos Aires. Photo: Somos Telam

    The President’s Office celebrated the approval of the law and called the demonstrators “terrorists”: “Starting from 38 deputies and 7 senators, with terrorist groups attacking the Congress, having to deploy the Security Forces in defense of democracy, with the political caste resisting and operating until the last moment, and having to resort to the tie-breaker of the Vice President of the Nation, Victoria Villarruel, tonight’s is a triumph of the Argentine people and the first step towards the recovery of our greatness, having approved the most ambitious legislative reform of the last forty years.”

    Several human rights organizations, such as the Grandmothers and Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, the Relatives of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons, among others, called for a demonstration on Tuesday June 18 to demand the release of the 16 people that were still detained (including several students and professors) accused of “terrorism”. During a press conference, various relatives of the detainees denounced the injustice of the accusations against the prisoners and affirmed that they are not terrorists and demanded their immediate release.

    Milei’s “Ley Bases”

    At the end of the debate last Wednesday, the law was approved thanks to the vote of Vice President Victoria Villarruel, who broke the tie. The controversial law must be approved a second time in the Chamber of Deputies.

    The reforms of the “Ley Bases” propose a paradoxical transformation of the functioning of the Argentine State. At the same time that they seek to diminish the State’s capacity to control the economy, they strengthen the President’s political power to make economic and political decisions, which will no longer have to be approved by the legislative branch. In other words, the intention is to build a weaker but more agile State to execute President Milei’s neoliberal plan.

    One of the most controversial changes is the creation of the “Incentive Regime for Large Investments” (RIGI, for its initials in Spanish). The purpose of this regime is to reduce the State’s control over large companies that invest more than USD 200 million in the country. The government promises these big companies a reduction in taxes, privileges in the project approval process, and protection of capital from state control for 30 years. RIGI seeks, among other things, the exploitation of natural resources by major companies.

    According to the “Ley Bases”, the President may have “extraordinary powers” for one year if he declares a public emergency in the economic, financial, and energy fields. In this sense, Milei would have several powers that currently only the Legislative has. To achieve its approval in the Senate, the Executive committed itself not to interfere with 15 public agencies, such as the National Service of Food, Health and Quality (SENASA), the National Bank of Genetic Data (which has information on those who disappeared during the last dictatorship), among other institutions. However, the government will be able to legislate through expeditious decrees, which implies, in general, the first great legislative victory for its political project.

    In addition, the “Ley Bases” authorizes the privatization of Intercargo, a state-owned company dedicated to provide services to air travel companies, and Energía Argentina S.A., which is in charge of the extraction and exploration of hydrocarbon deposits, their transportation, and storage. Although Milei wanted to privatize more than 40 public companies, the negotiations forced him to limit his aspirations. Nevertheless, Milei’s major project in this regard seems to be aimed, at first, at the privatization of the mining, energy and fuel sectors.

    Finally, the “Ley Bases” seeks to make a discreet, although controversial, labor reform, as it proposes, among other things, to eliminate penalties for companies that use informal workers, which is currently sanctioned by law.

    While the Executive celebrates its neoliberal legislative victory, the families of the prisoners continue to pressure the justice system to free the detainees and drop the serious charges that could mean several years in prison.

    Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.