Fito Páez and Cecilia Roth, among more than 20,000 signatures against Milei reforms

Charlie GarciaFito Páez, León Gieco, Cecilia Roth, Claudia Piñeiro and Leonardo Sbaraglia are some of the more than 20,000 figures of Argentina who signed a letter published this Sunday rejecting the reforms in the cultural sector in Argentina by the libertarian president, Javier Milei.

The letter to the Argentine Congress is titled ‘Culture is in danger’ and is addressed to the deputies and senators who are debating these days the ‘omnibus law’ sent by Milei, which proposes deregulation of the economy, reduction of the public sector and achieving fiscal balance.

“The National Government intends, through the Omnibus Law, to repeal laws vital for the survival of the cultural industries, the arts and sciences, and the cultural heritage of our country,” says one of the fragments of the text.

The letter adds that “there is no mere hint of participation or interest in cultural activities in the letter of its development (of the ‘omnibus law’), and on the contrary, the text has a mercantilist perspective that aims unceremoniously to defund and annul the development of the activities of our national culture.”

Furthermore, they warn: “Culture is identity. Culture is the only thing that cannot be imported. The people make it. We want to continue having our own identity as a Nation. Otherwise we will only be left with the sad destiny of not being. That’s what this fight is about. “A country is as big or as small as the measure of its cultural project.”

And they ask legislators to reject the defunding of the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), the closure of the National Fund for the Arts and the National Theater Institute, the defunding of popular libraries and the National Institute of Music (INAMU) and the repeal of the law for the defense of book activity.

This letter is one of many demonstrations from the sector against Milei’s proposal to dismantle several cultural institutions and reduce the financing of others, because, they understand, it will result in a loss of promotion of Argentine cultural production.

Although Milei faces opposition at the political level in Congress; judicial, for more than a dozen complaints and appeals for protection; and social, with a general strike called for next January 24, she is negotiating with a wing of the opposition certain modifications in the ‘omnibus law’, which include the cultural section, to obtain an opinion from the commissions before the general strike.