17A

The 17A protests were a series of massive demonstrations in Argentina which took place on August 17, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, for several causes, including defense constitutional institutions and separation of powers, against a justice reform project that would further empower the government, the quarantine legislation (Argentina had the harshest and largest quarantine in the world, though it proved futile), state indifference amidst rampant theft, and a raise on state pensions.

The main protest was in the Buenos Aires Obelisk. Demonstrations were also held in other parts of the city, such as Cabildo and Juramento (a main intersection in Belgrano), in front of the department of Cristina Kirchner (in Recoleta), and in other cities: Córdoba, Santa Fe, Mendoza, Tucumán, Mar del Plata, Lomas de Zamora, Adrogué, Avellaneda (Santa Fe), Viedma. Protests were also held in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The protests were organized mainly through social networks, by accounts that oppose the government, but with a nonpartisan focus, since no political party claimed the protests and there wasn't a consolidated opposition leader yet, and neither any party emblems were seen in the protests. Still, some politicians who oppose the government took part in the protests as private citizens, such as Patricia Bullrich, the leader of the PRO party.

The Peronist government of the time mocked the participants and accused them of being "anti-quarantine", denying pandemic containment efforts.

Causes

On March 12, 2020, a strict lockdown was established across Argentina. This, at first, caused a spike in the positive image of President Alberto Fernández during March. Several causes made it went down over the following months of "preventive and mandatory isolation", reaching in August a record-low positive image since the start of the lockdown measures.