Buenos Aires residents staged a raucous “ruidazo” on Friday (September 12) night, banging pots, pans and blowing car horns to protest ultraliberal President Javier Milei’s spending cuts to health and education and his veto of laws to restore funding for public universities and pediatric hospitals.

The ruidazo followed a mass rally downtown earlier on Friday and came after Milei vetoed two bills passed by Congress to bolster university budgets and pediatric emergency care.

Unions and hospital workers, including staff from the emblematic Garrahan pediatric hospital, have declared a crisis and plan further strikes and demonstrations next week as Congress weighs an attempt to override the vetoes.

One protester, Susana Villalba, said she opposed the vetoes and accused the president of “disrespecting” citizens and ignoring those “left outside the system.”

“We can’t make it to the end of the month, they’re destroying public health and education,” said Julieta Ferreyra, another protester banging a pot in the Caballito neighborhood.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (SEPTEMBER 12, 2025) (REUTERS – Access all) (NIGHT SHOTS)

1. VARIOUS OF SELF-ORGANIZED CITIZENS BANGING POTS AND MAKING NOISE AGAINST ARGENTINE PRESIDENT JAVIER MILEI’S VETO OF UNIVERSITY FUNDING AND PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY LAWS PASSED BY CONGRESS

2. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARGENTINE WORKER, SUSANA VILLALBA, SAYING:

“I disagree with the president’s vetoes. Education and health are fundamental in our country, and I’m also tired of being in a country where a president continuously disrespects us and tramples over us, and does not take the people into account, where we are all going through a very tough time. Some of us may have jobs and so on, but what happens? There are other people left outside the system. There are many people on the street.”

3. VARIOUS OF NEIGHBORS IN THE CABALLITO NEIGHBORHOOD BANGING POTS AND BLOCKING STREET

4. TAXI DRIVER FILMING WITH MOBILE PHONE AND JOINING IN WITH CAR HORN

5. WOMAN CHANTING (Spanish): “KARINA IS A BIG BRIBE-TAKER” IN REFERENCE TO THE BRIBERY SCANDALS INVOLVING THE PRESIDENT’S SISTER, KARINA MILEI

6. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARGENTINE WORKER, JULIETA FERREYRA, SAYING:

“Well, I am here today at the ‘Ruidazo’ because I am against this government, above all because it is imposing a ferocious adjustment on the working class. Workers cannot make it to the end of the month. They are destroying national industry, public health, education… a patrimony that belongs to all Argentines. And today we are here to defend the homeland, to defend what is ours. And I hope that today the Argentine people wake up, because we cannot continue enduring so much cruelty.”

7. VARIOUS OF NEIGHBORS PROTESTING IN THE CABALLITO NEIGHBORHOOD WITH POTS

8. CAR DRIVING DOWN STREET AND SOUNDING HORN

9. VARIOUS OF NEIGHBORS PROTESTING IN THE CABALLITO NEIGHBORHOOD WITH POTS