BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Thousands of workers mobilized by powerful trade unions converged outside Argentina’s Congress on Wednesday, blocking traffic and clashing with police as senators debated an overhaul of labor laws that is considered crucial to libertarian President Javier Milei’s shock therapy program.
Security forces struggled to control the crowds in a central square of downtown Buenos Aires, firing water cannons and rubber bullets. Protesters lobbed petrol bombs, stones and water bottles. Authorities said they made at least 15 arrests, among them protesters accused of attacking police officers.
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A police water cannon sprays a fire sparked by a Molotov cocktail during clashes at a march by trade unions and opposition groups against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Protesters shield themselves with wooden boards as police spray water during clashes at a march by trade unions and opposition groups against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Police detain a protester during a march by trade unions and opposition groups protesting a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
People take cover as police and protesters clash during a march by trade unions and opposition groups against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A Molotov cocktail bursts into flames in front of police during a march by unions and opposition supporters against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The fiery standoff underscored the sensitivity of labor rights in this nation dominated since the 1940s by Peronism, a populist movement that has swung right and left ideologically but has always claimed to champion workers' rights.
Supporters of Milei's proposed labor law changes say high severance payouts and taxes makes it almost impossible to fire employees, constraining productivity and discouraging business from formal employment. Almost half of Argentines work off the books. Private sector job growth has remained stagnant for 14 years.
“With the modernization of the labor system, more people will have access to formal, legal employment,” Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party said in a statement as the debate kicked off. “We are rebuilding Argentina from the ground up, starting with employment.”
The bill is bitterly opposed by labor unions and their Peronist allies in Congress, who argue the bill would roll back important measures to protect workers from abuse and the nation’s notoriously frequent economic shocks.
“If severance pay, overtime and vacation time — in other words, all the protections workers have gained over time — are up for grabs, it won’t make things better for anyone,” said Axel Kicillof, the governor of Buenos Aires province and the most powerful elected official in the Peronist opposition.
Successive governments, as well as a military dictatorship, have promised to overhaul Argentina’s labor legislation and have failed.
“This is the most important reform in the last 50 years,” said Sen. Patricia Bullrich, leader of the La Libertad Avanza bloc in Congress. “No government has achieved it, and I believe we will.”
One far-reaching reform came tantalizingly close in 1984 only to collapse in the Senate by a single vote. Another cleared the Peronist-dominated Congress in 2000, only to be discredited by a vote-buying scandal and promptly overturned. Yet another attempt in 2017 didn’t even make it to a vote due to union pushback.
Milei himself used an executive order to muscle through an overhaul after entering office in 2023, only for it to get tied up in court after unions filed for injunctions.
But after clinching a big midterm victory last year, with help from his ally U.S. President Donald Trump, Milei has a fresh mandate to enact reforms that for decades businesses have desired and international financial institutions have demanded.
The bill under discussion would curb the right to strike, extend trial periods during which companies can fire unproductive new employees, defang national trade unions by allowing collective bargaining at company level and unwind a byzantine system of severance payments by narrowing grounds for wrongful dismissal.
Experts said that even if the government is forced to make concessions in Congress, the passage of anything called a “labor reform” would be a huge achievement in Argentina, where many current legal clauses have remained unchanged since the mid-1970s.
“I’m skeptical about whether it’s going to induce a massive formalization of workers in the labor market. That’s why I think the importance is much more political, symbolic,” said Ignacio Labaqui, a Buenos Aires-based senior analyst at risk consultancy Medley Global Advisors. “For Peronism, it would definitely be a huge defeat.”
Milei and his officials lashed out at left-wing opponents Wednesday as scuffles between protesters and police left the streets outside Congress littered with shards of glass, smoldering garbage and the remnants of rubber bullets.
“The stale old union establishment is calling to ‘set the country on fire’ because they don’t like labor modernization,” government spokesperson Javier Lanari wrote on X. “They choose to protect their sectoral privileges at the expense of harming Argentines.”
Despite the show of force, some doubted that Argentina’s old-school trade unions would put up much more of a fight.
With their Peronist backers weakened in Congress and reputation long sullied by allegations of corruption and cronyism, the trade federations are not the force they once were. Mass protests petered out in the last year as both Milei and union bosses shied away from frontal assaults in favor of negotiations.
As a result, experts say the government has watered down some initial proposals that threatened to bankrupt the unions, for instance by requiring employees to opt in to membership, rather than having members’ dues taken automatically, as is now the case.
“The unions need to protest today to reinforce their base and show them that they're fighting, but the true negotiations happened behind closed doors, and they have been very successful,” said Ana Iparraguirre, an Argentine political analyst and partner at Washington-based strategy firm GBAO. “They were smart enough to negotiate to preserve the things that were important to them.”
The heated debate in the Senate was expected to stretch into the early-morning hours Thursday. If approved, the bill goes to the lower house of Congress next month.
Associated Press writers Clara Preve and Débora Rey contributed to this report.
A police water cannon sprays a fire sparked by a Molotov cocktail during clashes at a march by trade unions and opposition groups against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Protesters shield themselves with wooden boards as police spray water during clashes at a march by trade unions and opposition groups against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Police detain a protester during a march by trade unions and opposition groups protesting a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
People take cover as police and protesters clash during a march by trade unions and opposition groups against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A Molotov cocktail bursts into flames in front of police during a march by unions and opposition supporters against a labor reform bill proposed by President Javier Milei's government in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The Pentagon allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
The confusing arc of events began as the FAA announced it was shutting down all flight traffic over the city on the U.S.-Mexico border for 10 days, stranding some travelers, but the closure ended up only lasting a few hours. The Trump administration said it stemmed from the FAA and Pentagon working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, which are not uncommon along the southern border.
One of the people said the laser was deployed near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. Others familiar with the matter said the technology was used despite a meeting scheduled for later this month between the Pentagon and the FAA to discuss the issue.
While the restrictions were short-lived in the city of nearly 700,000 people, it is unusual for an entire airport to shut down even for a short time. Stranded travelers with luggage lined up at airline ticket counters and car rental desks before the order was lifted.
Normal flights resumed after seven arrivals and seven departures were canceled. Some medical evacuation flights also had to be rerouted.
Jorge Rueda, 20, and Yamilexi Meza, 21, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, had their morning flight to Portland, Oregon, canceled, so they were losing part of their Valentine's Day weekend trip.
Rueda said he was glad that “10 days turned into two hours.” They were booked on an evening flight out of El Paso.
The investigation into last year’s midair collision near Washington, D.C., between an airliner and Army helicopter that killed 67 people highlighted how the FAA and Pentagon were not always working well together.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the FAA and the Army did not share safety data with each other about the alarming number of close calls around Reagan National Airport and failed to address the risks.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a former Army helicopter pilot who serves on committees focused on aviation and the armed services, said the issue Wednesday was the latest example of “the lack of coordination that’s endemic in this Trump administration.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he would request a briefing from the FAA on the incident.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, said neither her office nor local officials received any advance notice of the closure. After it was lifted, she said “the information coming from the federal government does not add up."
“I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,” Escobar said at a news conference.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier that the airspace was closed as the Defense Department and the FAA halted an incursion by Mexican cartel drones and “the threat has been neutralized.”
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, FAA and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Trump administration official insisted the agencies were in lockstep to protect national security and pointed to Duffy’s statement. The Pentagon said it had nothing to add to its statement that largely mirrored Duffy’s.
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose congressional district covers an area that stretches about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) along Texas' border with Mexico, said cartel drone sightings are common.
“For any of us who live and work along the border, daily drone incursions by criminal organizations is everyday life for us. It’s a Wednesday for us,” Gonzales said.
Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress in July that cartels are using drones nearly every day to transport drugs across the border and surveil Border Patrol agents. More than 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters (1,600 feet) of the southern border in the last six months of 2024, he said, mostly at night.
What is “extremely rare” is the closure of an entire airport over a security issue, according to a former chief security officer at United Airlines.
Officials usually will try to take security measures to isolate the risk if a specific plane or airline is threatened rather than shut down the airport, said Rich Davis, now a senior security adviser at risk mitigation company International SOS.
Asked about the drone explanation provided by U.S. officials, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had “no information about the use of drones on the border.” She noted that if U.S. authorities have more information, they should contact Mexico’s government.
Mexican defense and navy secretaries planned to talk with officials from U.S. Northern Command in a meeting Wednesday in Washington attended by several other countries, Sheinbaum told reporters. Sheinbaum said the Mexican officials would “listen” in the meeting and her government would look into “the exact causes” of the closure.
El Paso is a hub of cross-border commerce alongside Ciudad Juárez. That Mexican city is home to about 1.5 million people, and some of its residents are accustomed to taking advantage of facilities, including airports, on the U.S. side of the border.
That easy access to the United States also has made Juarez, like other border cities, attractive to Mexico’s drug cartels seeking to safeguard their smuggling routes for drugs and migrants headed north and cash and guns moving to the south.
El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson told reporters that he did not hear about the closure until after the alert was issued.
“Decisions made without notice and coordination puts lives at risk and creates unnecessary danger and confusion,” Johnson said. “This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9/11.”
The airport describes itself as the gateway to west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Southwest, United, American and Delta are among the carriers that operate flights there.
A similar 10-day temporary flight restriction for special security reasons remained in place Wednesday around Santa Teresa, New Mexico, which is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of the El Paso airport. FAA officials did not immediately explain why that restriction remained.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, said in a statement that he was seeking answers from the FAA and the Trump administration "about why the airspace was closed in the first place without notifying appropriate officials, leaving travelers to deal with unnecessary chaos.”
Travel plans on both sides of the border were disrupted.
María Aracelia was pushing two roller suitcases across the pedestrian bridge from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso on Wednesday morning. She had a round-trip flight to Illinois scheduled for the afternoon.
After receiving a text at 4 a.m. telling her about the 10-day closure, she scrambled to try to find other options, even how to get to another airport. Then came a notification that the El Paso airport had reopened.
“This is stressful, and there isn’t time to make so many changes, especially if you need to get back for work," Aracelia said.
Kim, Finley, Jalonick and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Darlene Superville and Mike Balsamo in Washington; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; María Verza in Mexico City; Christian Torres Chávez in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; and Michelle Chapman in New York contributed to this report.
A plane flies over El Paso International Airport, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
People stand in line at check-in counters at El Paso International Airport, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
Rosie Leal sits at El Paso International Airport, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
Jorge Rueda, 20, and Yamilexi Meza, 21, who arrived from Las Cruces, N.M., walk through a parking lot at El Paso International Airport in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
People cross the Paso del Norte International Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026, on the border with El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Cars cross the "Paso del Norte" International Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026, on the border with El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
A U.S. Border Patrol patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, near the Paso del Norte International Bridge, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Cars cross the "Paso del Norte" International Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, bottom, and El Paso, Texas, top, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Passengers wait in line at the El Paso International Airport after all flights were grounded on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (KFOX via AP)
Passengers wait in line at the El Paso International Airport after all flights were grounded on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (KFOX via AP)
FILE - A Federal Aviation Administration sign hangs in the tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, March 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
