Protesters throw rocks at Argentine President Milei's convoy while he campaigns

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Demonstrators hurled rocks at a convoy carrying Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Mieli on Wednesday as his campaign caravan cut through Buenos Aires province, the cradle of the country’s left-leaning opposition movement.

Milei came away unharmed, his spokesperson said, but the attack on his motorcade cut short the high-profile rally and ratcheted up tensions just days before consequential provincial elections in Buenos Aires, where more than a third of Argentines live.

The incident comes as a corruption scandal threatens to entangle Milei's inner circle, including his sister and chief of staff, Karina Milei, who was riding Wednesday in the bed of the pickup truck alongside the president and key candidates from their governing Liberty Advances party when rocks, bottles and other objects started flying.

There was panic and confusion as cheering supporters and jeering protesters thronged Milei's caravan in Lomas de Zamora, a sprawling low-slung city and historic stronghold of Peronism, the populist opposition movement focused on workers’ rights that has dominated Argentine politics for the past eight decades.

Hecklers shoved and shouted “Out with Milei!”

Caught off guard, Milei ducked inside the vehicle as security agents scrambled to shield him from rocks whizzing just over their heads.

Milei’s Liberty Advances party is seeking to gain an edge over Peronism in Sept. 7 legislative elections for Buenos Aires Province and further expand its minority in the opposition-controlled congress in national midterms on Oct. 26.

The elections are widely seen as test of Milei’s popularity and economic performance two years after the libertarian TV pundit was elected on a bid to eliminate the country’s chronic fiscal deficits and end spiraling inflation.

Opposition lawmakers last week passed various spending measures that threaten to derail Milei’s hard-won budget surplus, underscoring the stakes of the midterms.

Milei has delivered on his flagship promise to slash inflation, pulling the monthly rate of price rises down from 25% in December 2023 to just 1.9% last month with his fiscal shock program. But he faces plenty of headwinds as purchasing power declines and unemployment ticks up.

The rock-throwing brought an abrupt end to Milei's campaign caravan, staged Wednesday as a show of political force in the battleground province. A lawmaker from Liberty Advances, José Luis Espert, even hopped on a motorcycle apparently provided by a supporter and fled the scene without a helmet.

Milei and the rest of his entourage were whisked into a secure vehicle under the hailstorm of thrown objects and evacuated from the town.

Hours later, he posted a photo on social media platform X flashing a thumbs-up alongside his sister and lawmaker Luis Espert, looking defiant and unscathed. In the caption, he blamed the attack on his perennial enemies, the followers of powerful former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015).

“Kirchnerism never again!" he wrote, using the term for Fernández's left-wing brand of Peronism.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich similarly accused Fernández's political movement of "putting the president and the people and families who went to accompany him at risk.”

Fernández remains the most influential leader in Peronism even as a corruption conviction in June banned her from politics for life and placed her under house arrest. She faces trials in several other corruption cases.

Public rage over the corruption allegations among Argentina's political elite in late 2023 helped fuel the meteoric rise of Milei, then a political outsider who raffled his monthly salary as lawmaker.

But his rants against the plunder of long-dominant Peronists and pledges to drain Argentina’s proverbial swamp have only sharpened criticism of his alleged attempts to profit from his presidency in recent months.

In leaked audio messages published last week, the president of Argentina’s disability agency can allegedly be heard discussing bribery payments made to Karina Milei and her key advisor.

One of the protesters at the rally in Lomas de Zamora cited the scandal, as well as Milei's harsh austerity measures, as driving him to demonstrate against the caravan.

“You never want violence, but there’s so much injustice and hypocrisy,” Joel Domínguez said. “I have a daughter with a disability, and he hits us directly. There’s no reflection or self-criticism because he doesn’t care.”