The government of Argentine President Javier Milei eliminated the undersecretary to which the former Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity had been reduced, a measure that, he said, seeks to reduce the size of the State and removing the “politicized organizations” from the scene, but which has generated the repudiation of the combative feminist collective in their country.
In a statement titled “The closure of the former Ministry of Women was finalized,” the government of the ultraliberal and far-right leader argued that the Undersecretariat for Protection against Gender Violence was used “to propagate and impose an ideological agenda, hire militants , and organize talks and events.”
“None of their actions led to a reduction in the crime rate. On the contrary, the Argentine people witnessed their ideological bias in the discriminatory defense of the victims,” stated the statement released Thursday night by the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, on his X account, formerly Twitter.
According to the ruling party, an audit detected that in said undersecretary there was an overlap of functions with different government agencies that are dedicated to the same task, which implied expenses to maintain buildings and more than 800 employees “that the Argentine State does not have enough.”
The statement noted that the definitive closure of the agency was resolved after remembering that in December, a few days after taking office, Milei decided that the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversities created during the administration of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) with the main objective of combating gender-based violence, was transformed into an undersecretary “while its closure was completed” and that the latter later passed into the orbit of the Ministry of Justice.
Feminist militants affirmed that the measure of Milei—who carries out a sharp reduction in public spending within the framework of his adjustment policies—supposes the eradication of the only institutional area of the State to prevent and combat gender violence, which today is It takes the life of a woman in the country every 35 hours.
They noted that it took place three days after a new march in Buenos Aires in commemoration of the birth on June 3, 2015 of the feminist movement “Not one less” against sexist violence, which was a pioneer in Latin America.
Milei has made public statements questioning feminism and rejects equality and non-discrimination policies. Feminist and LGTBI+ groups see in the pronouncements and measures of her government a setback in the rights that took decades to achieve.
“We demand that the State fulfill its duty to guarantee the human rights of women, girls, boys and LGBTIQA+ because they continue to kill us,” said the Casa del Encuentro, which in 2009 created the “Adriana Marisel Zambrano Femicide Observatory in Argentina” and It is dedicated to “defending the rights of women, girls, boys and other people who find themselves in situations of sexist violence.”
That and other organizations warned that the measure taken also implies ignorance of the international commitment on the matter assumed through the ratification of the different treaties and conventions.
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