Javier Milei became Argentina’s president this month promising “shock therapy” to curb inflation and resolve the country’s foreign debt and currency reserve woes. Last Wednesday, the Argentine public got its first taste of what that therapy will look like. Declaring a state of economic emergency, the Milei administration issued a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) containing over 350 measures. Unless struck down by Congress, the plans will deregulate broad swathes of the economy, erode labor rights, and pave the way for mass privatization of state-owned enterprises like airline Aerolíneas Argentina and gas and oil company YPF.

The depth and breadth of deregulation has sent a shockwave through Argentina, as has Milei’s unprecedented use of executive power. Though the DNU has been used fairly liberally since the country’s return to democracy four decades ago, no DNU has ever contained such a vast array of changes. Moreover, the language of the decree declares an emergency period of two years, meaning that the administration would be able to continue passing certain measures as part of that decree well into 2025. The aggressive use of executive power, combined with repressive new antiprotest laws, seems especially troubling following an election in which both Milei and his running mate Victoria Villarruel espoused apologia for the country’s last dictatorship, responsible for over thirty thousand disappearances of activists and regime critics between 1976 and 1983.

Residents in Buenos Aires took to the streets to protest against the measures on the nights of December 22 and 23. This challenged Security Minister Patricia Bullrich’s new antipicketing protocol, which now authorizes federal forces to break up protests that block the street (known as piquetes), and mandates the creation of a national registry of organizations, leaders, and participants in such protests. Similar marches have taken place in Córdoba and Rosario, the country’s second- and third-largest cities, even as Milei and other administration officials threaten to take away or reduce social benefits and health plans of those found guilty of violating the antipicketing protocols. The waves of cacerolazos, as pot-banging marches are known, had inspired the government to organize a rally in Buenos Aires on Saturday to demonstrate support for the administration, but the decision to gather supporters was quickly reversed.