The Anti-Terrorist Unit arrested eight radical Lula Levy militants for campaigning near a Milei event.
The Federal Police's Anti-Terrorism Investigation Unit (UIA) detained activists from the Evolución party, the radical party for which Lucille "Lula" Levy will run in the upcoming Buenos Aires legislative elections, for approximately three hours . The incident occurred in the Belgrano neighborhood, just meters from where Javier Milei attended a pro-government event . The activists were traveling there in a van with loudspeakers that played coughing sounds, a taunt to annoy the President.
The group of university activists, aged between 20 and 27, were inside the van. Upon reaching Blanco Encalada 1500 , a PFA agent asked for their identification and detained them. They were held in the street for three hours.
The operation was carried out by the PFA's Anti-Terrorist Unit, which reports to Patricia Bullrich's Ministry of Security.
"Milei is bothered by the cough, we are bothered by the brutal adjustment," reads the banner on the van used by the Evolución activists who were detained for nearly three hours this Friday. This is in reference to the irritation Milei displayed during the debate with Sergio Massa before the presidential runoff. According to her accusations, her anger stemmed from people coughing.
One of the Anti-Terrorist Unit officers who arrested Lula Levy's militants inspects the Evolución campaign van.
They had already driven the truck past the Casa Rosada a few days ago. Now they wanted to go to the La Libertad Avanza office where Milei and Adorni had been campaigning this Friday afternoon.
Their documents were only returned to them when the case spread on social media. But as they walked away, a police officer stopped them again because, he said, a court was in session.
"At one point, after a television station arrived, they gave my colleagues their IDs back and told us we could leave. But then they kicked us out and brought us back, telling us the same thing: that we couldn't leave," Florencia Barros, a spokesperson for the group, told Clarín .
This is the coughing truck that Lula Levy wants to use to annoy Milei.
"They told us we weren't being detained or held, but they wouldn't let us go," he continued. They were only released in the early hours of the evening.
"What worried my colleagues most was that those who arrested us were from the Anti-Terrorist Investigation Unit. Is it terrorism to carry out a peaceful activity to expose the austerity and cruelty of the national government?" he asked.
"A message of intimidation on the eve of a key election for the government. It would be ridiculous if it weren't dangerous," Levy said.
For his part, Martín Lousteau criticized Milei's government for continuing to "escalate its intolerance." He compared the situation to the attacks, threats, and accusations against journalists . He added: "This is a clear attack on democracy, on freedom of expression, participation, and choice . We cannot naturalize these authoritarian advances or look the other way."
The national government continues to escalate its intolerance: they arrested Evolución activists who were promoting @lulalevy 's candidacy. First, there were attacks, threats, and accusations against journalists.
Now, in a key week for the election campaign, they arrested…
— Martín Lousteau (@GugaLusto) May 10, 2025
Another activist defended herself by calling it a symbolic act. "We were carrying out a peaceful activity, especially in defense of retirees, and the reality is that suddenly they detained us and told us we couldn't continue with the activity, which consisted of simply coughing , a symbolic act," she said in an interview with C5N .
"We didn't intervene at all in Javier Milei's event, which was just a coughing passerby and wouldn't have had the slightest influence on the event," the activist added.
Clarin
