Amnesty International said on Monday it will bring President Milei’s remarks about journalists to the UN and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a regional body, citing escalating hostility toward the press.
The group pointed to Milei’s speech on Friday night at a dinner of Fundación Faro, a libertarian think tank, hours after the judge dismissed the $LIBRA case. He named five journalists, including Hugo Alconada Mon and Carlos Pagni of La Nación, and called them corrupt “mercenaries of the lie.”
Later in the speech he attributed to the economist Adam Smith the idea that mercy toward “sons of bitches” is unfair to good people, and said that “those who must be burned at the stake are the sons of bitches.” He did not name the journalists in that line, but Amnesty and other critics read it as aimed at them.
Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, said that when a president singles out reporters and uses images of violence, he “helps create a climate of intimidation that can enable new attacks.” She added that the office he holds “demands heightened responsibility.” Amnesty cited the monitoring of the journalists’ forum FOPEA, which counted 278 cases of attacks on journalists in 2025, a record that includes stigmatizing speech, lawsuits and access restrictions, and named Milei as the author of 119.
The criticism has also come from inside his coalition. Patricia Bullrich, who leads Milei’s party group in the Senate, said on Sunday that the burning remark crossed a limit, while defending his right to answer critics. “Criticism is answered with arguments,” she said in an interview with the television channel LN+. The day after the dinner she had posted a photo of herself with Milei there, calling it “a night of ideas and freedom.”
The Frente Renovador, the party of former economy minister Sergio Massa, said the bonfire “is not an innocent metaphor.” María Eugenia Vidal, a former governor of Buenos Aires Province and a leader of the center-right PRO party, an ally of Milei’s, wrote that freedom “is not defended from a bonfire, but with respect and coherence.”
La libertad no se defiende desde una hoguera, sino con respeto y coherencia. Tener convicciones firmes también implica aceptar que otros piensen distinto. De eso se trata vivir en libertad.
Translation: "Freedom is not defended from a bonfire, but with respect and coherence. Having firm convictions also means accepting that others think differently. That is what living in freedom is about."
Milei has also said he is weighing legal action against the journalists over their coverage of the $LIBRA case.