Argentinian President Javier Milei’s far-right government’s proposal to allow foreign interests to own up to 25% of the country’s land was defeated in the Senate, in the wake of mass protests.
The plan formed part of Milei’s latest neoliberal attacks, bundled into the “Inviolability of Private Property” bill.
Also failing to gain enough support in the Senate were changes to the country’s fire management laws, restricting fire-affected land from being sold and used for tourism, agriculture or real estate.
The Senate approved aspects of the bill on August 7, after more than 10 hours of debate, with 37 votes in favour and 33 against. It now awaits debate in the Chamber of Deputies before becoming law.
As the Senate was debating the bill, thousands protested outside Congress, chanting and holding signs that read “The homeland is not for sale”.
Police unleashed water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters, injuring more than 1000 people, including a journalist and photographer who were covering the protest. The photographer was hospitalised after being shot by police in the head with a rubber bullet.
Police also detained at least 29 protesters.
Had it passed, Milei’s foreign land ownership changes would have facilitated his agenda of opening up vast swaths of the country to transnational capital, mostly for resource extraction and agribusiness.
Milei had originally proposed doing away with any limits on foreign ownership but modified this in an attempt to garner support for the bill in the Senate. Almost 5% of Argentina’s territory is already under foreign ownership, however it is capped at 15%.
The fire management laws aim to prevent the practice of intentionally burning land to convert it for grazing or monoculture cropping — which is often carried out by agribusiness interests.
The current law maintains a 60-year ban on land use following a fire in forests, wetlands and protected areas and a 30-year ban for farmlands and grasslands. Milei’s bill would have narrowed these protections to highly sensitive ecological areas, while doing away with the bans for most land categories.
Milei has systematically defunded the national fire service, slashing last year’s budget by 81%. This meant it was ill-prepared to prevent and deal with devastating bushfires earlier this year in Patagonia, in the country’s south, which burnt at least 40,000 hectares of forests, grasslands and villages.
One of the proposals the Senate did adopt expedites the eviction of housing tenants with outstanding rental payments. If it becomes law, it will raise housing stress and homelessness in a country where 57% of renter households spend more than half their income on rent.
The Senate also voted to restrict the government’s ability to expropriate private property in the public interest — for example, to build a hospital or school. Under the new law, the government would be obligated to provide compensation to the landowner at market-value, plus any profit the owner claims to have lost.
Milei’s previous attempt to repeal legislation by decree in December 2023 was defeated by protests and overturned by the Supreme Court.