The City once again chose a well-known scenario to mark political territory: an operation to “recover” public space, with the deployment of agents, trucks and Police, and with a proper name in the center of the statement: Juan Grabois. The eviction of a property under the Perito Moreno highway, in Parque Avellaneda, used as a warehouse by the “El Amanecer de los Cartoneros” cooperative—linked to the Movement of Excluded Workers (MTE)— was not presented as an administrative procedure, but as one more chapter of the versus that Jorge Macri It has been building to organize its management identity: law and property.
The land in question, located at Ameghino 1035, was occupied without permission and, according to the official version, functioned as a warehouse. The operation was carried out early on Wednesday and involved personnel from the Ministry of Public Space and Urban Hygiene, the City Police and teams from the Care Network. The scene matters: it is not just about removing materials, but about showing operational capacity on a sensitive issue for the Buenos Aires electorate, where the dispute in the street usually translates into political capital.
In the speech of Macri A strong idea appears that seeks to be transversal: the symmetry between private property and public goods. “We respect private property as much as public goods, which belong to all Buenos Aires residents. In the City, the law is complied with,” he stated. And he finished with a line designed to establish position against Grabois and, by extension, against a political culture that the PRO associates with the occupation: “To those who usurp, know that we are going to look for them. There are no grays herenor do we confuse need with impunity.” The message is not only for the MTE: it is a signal for an electorate that demands control of the streets and for an opposition that usually discusses the border between social conflict and crime.
The Buenos Aires management frames the operation in a broader plan: they claim to have recovered “more than 550 properties taken” in two years and highlight evictions of manteros in 13 areas (Once, Flores, Constitución and parks), in addition to having dismantled an illegal market that – according to the City – moved $1.9 billion. In this list you can see the common thread: Jorge Macri’s administration is trying to consolidate a story of “organization” that ranges from usurpations to informal trade, all under the same slogan of “non-negotiable order.”
The Minister of Public Space, Ignacio Baistrocchi, reinforced this line with a more institutional formulation: “Coexistence is sustained with clear rules… the City will act every time that happens to guarantee order and tranquility for the neighbors.” Translated: there is no political exceptionality or territorial negotiation; there is state intervention.
But the most relevant political fact is not only in the eviction, but in the context. Grabois became a useful figure for the Buenos Aires ruling party: he personifies the perfect antagonist to dramatize the dispute over legality, the control of public space and the management of social conflict. In parallel, the City takes the opportunity to highlight another underlying movement: the reorganization of the recycling system and urban recyclers. There, the Government insists that it eliminated organization intermediaries, banked cartoneros payments directly and reorganized routes and logistics. That is, it seeks to separate two dimensions that are often mixed in public discussion: the social need for recycling work and the political power of the organizations that administer it.
The vacated property now returns to the State circuit: it will be transferred to the General Directorate of Property Administration, in Treasury and Finance, to define its destiny. That administrative closure completes the official narrative: recover, order and reassign.
In terms of strategy, Jorge Macri stands on a classic PRO line, but with a nuance of the era: “order” is no longer just urban aesthetics; It is an identity flag in a country where the debate about authority, streets and legality became central. Grabois, once again, is the rival chosen to make that flag look clear.
by RN
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