Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Milei administration tells Argentina's rioters they'll get their welfare benefits cut off -Updated - Monica Showalter

 

by Monica Showalter

What a wild-and-crazy libertarian idea!

 

How's this for an idea?

Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, and his new justice minister, Patricia Bullrich, have advised Argentina's rioters they can kiss their welfare payments goodbye if they go out rioting -- starting fires, spraying graffiti, breaking windows, blocking roads, and looting.

 

Bullrich, a former political rival of Milei's, and an establishment conservative, has advised rioters, known as piqueteros in that country, that they'll be sending drones in to take names for those in the act of rioting, and that will be that.

Piqueteros have been a plague for decades in that country -- when I visited Buenos Aires in 2002, they were a problem even then. I recall that one of my contacts there, either Diana Mondino (who is now Milei's foreign minister), or banker Jorge Bustamante, author of "La República Corporativa," a best-seller about how fascism evolved through Peronism to wreck Argentina, explained that the state actually paid for the always-leftist piqueteros to do what they do, as if they were a special interest group.

According to Wikipedia (and what I heard on the streets in Buenos Aires), they aren't a popular bunch:

Piquetero organizations have also been fiercely criticized at times by many in Argentina, accusing them of being associated with organized crime and alleging unconstitutionality, in accordance with Article 14 of the Argentine Constitution, which states that citizens must be guaranteed the right to;

  • "... enter, remain in, travel in and out of Argentine territory."

And, in turn, according to art. 194 of the Penal Code, provides that:

  • "Whoever, without creating a situation endangering the community, prevent, hinder or delay the normal operation of transport by land, water or air or utilities communications, water supply, electricity or energy substances shall be punished with imprisonment three months to two years"

UPDATE: This account here, from one of Di Martino's Argentinian commentators, describes how piqueteros affect daily life in Argentina, and is exceptionally good:


So they have laws on the books against piqueteros creating problems, but because the piqueteros are also a political pressure group, they've been getting away with it.

It's hideous what's been going on there all these years. 

This account, from the National Catholic Reporter, on how the poor of Argentina truly love and vote for Milei, prompting Pope Francis to throw out an olive branch to Milei, also describes well how the society works to pay its protestors as if they were a lifestyle choice. It's long, but pretty good reading, given that it delves into much about how that society is organized and how 'social justice' groups have made life anything but just for the poor who love Milei.

Based on the Wikipedia account, it appears they have the legal wherewithal to yank the checks of professional rioters and looters, and with the government coffers bare, one hopes they carry through -- they will be popular if they do even if the piqueteros rage even more.

Imagine that -- pulling welfare benefits from illegal rioters and looters. It speaks well for Milei that he's tackling this problem in such a "based" way, as Di Martino puts it. He's cutting $20 billion in government spending from Argentina's budget.

The idea has been proposed in the United States, too, back in 2020, by Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, when antifa and Black Lives Matter mobs were burning down America in the wake of the George Floyd protests. It went nowhere and the rioters got away with it.

One can only hope that with the re-election of President Trump, which looks increasingly likely, welfare benefits will be pulled similarly to those who commit crimes and act as a plague on the community as a matter of normalcy while getting government checks, not some wild new Milei idea as the media will portray it.

Image: Twitter screen shot

 

 

Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/milei_administration_tells_argentinas_rioters_theyll_get_their_welfare_benefits_cut_off.html

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