A campaign caravan for Argentina’s La Libertad Avanza party, led by President Javier Milei’s sister, Karina Milei, culminated in a violent brawl in the city of Corrientes on Sunday, forcing the event to be abruptly canceled. The incident occurred in the capital of the northeastern province of the same name, which is holding a gubernatorial election.
This follows an attack on President Milei himself just a day prior, where he was pelted with stones and subjected to verbal abuse at a campaign rally in Lomas de Zamora, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. These events underscore the highly charged political atmosphere in the South American nation ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections on October 26th, which will renew 127 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate.
In Corrientes, a city of 430,000, a group of protesters awaited Karina Milei and her entourage at an intersection. They held signs branding her a “bribe-taker” (“coimera” in Spanish), alluding to a recent scandal at the Argentine Agency for Disability that has implicated the Milei government.
The situation escalated dramatically when the demonstrators began assaulting official vehicles, kicking them and hurling projectiles. Provincial police responded with force, making at least two arrests and evacuating the electoral caravan from the scene.