Argentine leftist political organizations, together with several soccer fan-run gangs, led a violent protest on Wednesday in front of Argentina’s Congress in Buenos Aires, leaving over 120 detained and dozens injured, including at least 26 injured police officers. The violent protesters also caused hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars’ worth of damages to public infrastructure, including two burned-down police vehicles. Although more than half of the detainees have “serious criminal records,” according to local Buenos Aires authorities, a judge ordered the expedited release of at last 114 of the protesters in the midnight hours of Thursday. Argentina’s Clarin newspaper reported that the protest, originally intended as the latest iteration of a recurring non-violent weekly self-styled march for the pensioned, rapidly turned “very violent” through the actions of members of different leftist factions and political organizations and members of Barras Bravas (“Brave Groups”) from roughly a dozen different groups. In Argentina, Barras Bravas are violent soccer fan groups known for their decades-long track record of involvement in violent criminal incidents. The violent protesters, the local newspaper Todo Noticias reported, attempted to advance on the streets in the middle of an anti-picketing protocol deployed by local law enforcement officials, to which the Argentine Gendarmerie responded with rubber bullets, tear gas, and hydrant trucks. According to Todo Noticias, the situation escalated minutes later after Barras Bravas members broke sidewalks and threw debris at the security forces. The violent protesters then advanced through the streets surrounding the national Congress, setting fire to nearby garbage containers before cutting through the street with burning fences. Argentina’s Security Minister announced in an official statement that a combined total of 124 individuals, 94 men and 30 women, had been arrested by Argentine federal security officials and the local Buenos Aires police force. The Ministry further stated that 26 law enforcement officials and 20 protesters were injured during the incidents, pointing out that one police officer had been injured and underwent surgery after suffering a gunshot wound. “We arrested a hundred violent picketers, militants of political groups and ‘barras bravas,’ who are members of criminal organizations that have been operating with total impunity for years,” Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said on social media. “With the new Anti-Mafia Law, the more than 100 detainees face sentences of up to 20 years in prison.” “The days of pressure, extortion, and the business of fear are over. We are going to dismantle these criminal structures. In Argentina the law rules, not the barras, not the left,” she continued. Moments after Bullrich’s post, Argentine judge Karina Andrade ordered the release of 94 of the arrested protesters under grounds that the arrests “affect fundamental constitutional rights, such as the right to protest, demonstration in democracy, and freedom of expression.” Guillermo Francos, Chief of Argentina’s Cabinet of Ministers, spoke to Radio Mitre on Thursday morning and condemned Wednesday’s violent protest and asserted that what was intended was “a kind of coup d’état.” “That generated the riots that we all saw yesterday. The use of violence as an instrument, and later, based on what was generated with that violence and the response of the security forces, generated this march, also totally organized, to the cry that ‘they should all go away,’ a cry that was used so many times, that in the end what is intended is a kind of coup d’état,” Francos said. “They do not find an element to be able to question a government that is providing solutions and with which the majority of Argentines agree after the disaster and disorder inherited, and they seek this path, which is to destabilize from the use of violence,” he continued. Local outlets reported that 35-year old photographer Pablo Nahuel Grillo underwent an emergency surgery at a local hospital after suffering a skull fracture caused by a tear gas canister that hit his head. Security Minister Bullrich reportedly described Grillo as a leftist militant of Kirchnerism. Francos described the tear gas canister that hit Grillo as “an unforeseen accident” and a “regrettable consequence” of the violent protest. “These are unfortunate consequences of these episodes, as well as the number of injured and hospitalized members of the security forces and the police,” Francos told Radio Mitre. In remarks on Thursday morning, Jorge Macri, Buenos Aires’s Chief of Government, stated that that more than half of those that had been arrested for participation in Wednesday’s violent protest “have serious criminal records” and announced that he will file a judicial complaint together with the Argentine national government with enough evidence to build a “strong” case against the protesters so that they stand trial for the damages caused to the city. Macri highlighted the actions of the Buenos Aires Police and assured that without their intervention the protesters “would have been able to destroy everything.” “They want to impose chaos, but they will find a firm government, which does not negotiate with crime,” Macri said, stressing his “zero tolerance” position against violent groups.