Hundreds of protesters marched through Buenos Aires on Saturday (August 1) against a government bill that would eliminate restrictions on foreign ownership of Argentine rural land.

The demonstration came days before the Senate is scheduled to vote on August 6 on President Javier Milei's "Law of Inviolability of Private Property," which removes current limits on foreign land purchases.

Juan Carlos Giordano, a former national deputy, told Reuters that the reform would allow seizure of strategic lands with natural resources while serving "plunder and contamination."

Enrique Mamani from the Organization of Indigenous Peoples' Communities warned that Argentines would "lose all rights over territories that today belong to the Argentine state" if the bill passes.

The current law, approved in 2011, limits foreign ownership to 15% of rural land nationally and caps individual foreign purchases at 1,000 hectares in productive zones, according to Argentine media outlets.

Milei's government argues the reform will provide legal certainty and attract investment, while opponents say it will concentrate land in foreign hands and weaken environmental protections, including rules preventing land-use changes after fires.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (AUGUST 1, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. PROTESTERS HOLDING A BANNER READING (Spanish): “The land is not for sale, not to be burned or evicted”

2. SIGNS WITH MESSAGES AGAINST THE SANCTION OF THE LAW AND AN IMAGE REPRESENTING TRUMP READING (Spanish): “The real dangerous foreigner.”

3. PLASTIC CUPS WITH PLANTS AND MESSAGES AGAINST THE FOREIGNIZATION OF LAND

4. PLASTIC CUP WITH PLANT WITH MESSAGE READING (Spanish): “The land is not for sale”

5. PROTESTERS MARCHING HOLDING A WIPHALA FLAG, REPRESENTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

6. FORMER NATIONAL DEPUTY FOR THE LEFT FRONT, JUAN CARLOS GIORDANO DURING THE DEMONSTRATION

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FORMER NATIONAL DEPUTY FOR THE LEFT FRONT, JUAN CARLOS GIORDANO, SAYING:

"This foreignization of land has the objective of seizing strategic lands that control the border, lands that have natural resources, rivers, glaciers, minerals and so on. When the government sells Argentina as fertile land and everything else, well, it's in service of plunder and contamination, so what remains is environmental liability. And well, that land should be in the hands of those who work it, there are hundreds of thousands of agricultural working families who don't have access to land."

8. VARIOUS OF TRADITIONAL RITUAL OF PURIFICATION AND GRATITUDE TO PACHAMAMA (MOTHER EARTH)

9. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ATTENDING THE RITUAL

10. MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' COMMUNITIES, ENRIQUE MAMANI, DURING THE CELEBRATION

11. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' COMMUNITIES, ENRIQUE MAMANI, SAYING:

"More than 100 million indigenous people from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego were massacred as a consequence of the Spanish, Portuguese, English crowns, all those crowns divided up this territory and to divide it up, to make these countries, they massacred peoples who had lived for 40,000 years on this continent. Until this moment, we continue to think that the land is not anyone's property. We continue to think that our life here is to be part of the land, to live in harmony with our land, the land is not for sale, we didn't sell it, our ancestors never sold it. They appropriated it, the colonies and the crowns, and today what they want is to privatize it and have multinationals take over all those territories. These territories are in danger, not just for indigenous peoples, but also for Argentines. Argentines are going to lose all rights over territories that today belong to the Argentine state. They're going to sell them to big multinationals."

12. PROTESTERS SINGING, PLAYING MUSIC DURING THE PROTEST

13. ARGENTINE FLAG READING (Spanish): Argentina is not for sale. no to the modification of the land law.”

14. VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS PLAYING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' MUSIC

15. SIGN READING (Spanish): Argentine people vs Traitor senators. August 6, No to the law of land foreignization.

16. PROTESTERS MARCHING TOWARD THE OBELISK OF BUENOS AIRES