Milei travels to the USA and offers troops to Trump’s Peace Council amid the general strike in Argentina

The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque The Argentine President, Javier Milei, traveled to the United States to participate in the first meeting of the Peace Council created by Donald Trump, this Thursday (19), amid the general strike in Argentina. ✅ Follow the g1 international news channel on WhatsApp Target of protests in his own country due to the labor reform proposal he is trying to approve in Congress, Milei was one of the leaders who met with the US president in Washington and was praised by him in his speech. According to the AFP news agency, Milei offered Argentine troops to go to the Gaza Strip and help with the peace process, if necessary. “We make available the collaboration of our white helmets. Our trajectory in peace operations is a proven capital that we put at the service of the stabilization force. Lasting peace is not built on consensus that gives way in fundamentals. It is built on the determination to defend it. We believe in diplomacy that takes risks to achieve peace, we believe in leadership (…) like that of President Trump”, he stated. Argentina has participated in operations under the UN flag in the past, such as in the war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and in Haiti. General strike in Argentina Protest in Argentina sees confrontation between police and protesters The Argentine Chamber of Deputies begins discussing this Thursday (19) the labor reform project sent by Javier Milei’s government to Congress. The Senate already approved the text last week (see the main points). Argentina’s largest trade union federation, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), called the strike and, this Thursday, one of its leaders, Jorge Sola, celebrated what he classified as a “very significant” level of participation. The strike has “levels of participation never seen before under this government. There will be many who disagree, but the support is impressive, very significant,” the union leader told Radio con Vos. The streets of the capital Buenos Aires dawned empty due to the strike. See below. Drone shows the surroundings of the Retiro train station, in Buenos Aires, empty on February 19, 2026, the day of a general strike in Argentina in protest against President Javier Milei’s labor reform project Agustin Marcarian/Reuters In response to the strike, the Milei government ordered the press to follow “security measures”, which is an unusual attitude, and warned of “risk” situations in the protests expected in the coming days. “In order to reduce risk situations, it is recommended (to the press) to avoid positioning themselves between possible sources of violence and the number of security forces deployed for the operation. In the face of acts of violence, our forces will act, said the Argentine Ministry of Security, in a statement. Last Wednesday, thousands of people protested in the vicinity of Congress when the project was debated in the Senate. The demonstrations ended in clashes with the police and around 30 detainees. The government’s expectation is that the proposal be voted on in the Chamber plenary on February 25th and approved by March 1st, when Milei will open the period of ordinary sessions of the Legislature. Women run through tear gas during a protest in front of the Argentine Senate, on February 11, 2026 REUTERS/Cristina Sille Labor reform The text can still undergo changes in the Chamber, but it is already considered one of the biggest changes in Argentine labor legislation in decades, when revising rules which, for the most part, date back to the 1970s. Experts interviewed by g1 state that the reform is broad, brings together dozens of articles and is part of a larger package of structural changes aimed at macroeconomic stabilization and stimulating employment and investment in Argentina. To guarantee political support and speed up the process, the government negotiated around 30 changes to the original text, Milei removed the article that would allow the payment of salaries through foreign currency or digital wallets, such as those in the text. Mercado Pago. The project makes employment contracts more flexible, modifies vacation and working hours rules, facilitates dismissals and imposes limits on strikes, with the aim of reducing labor costs and encouraging the formalization of employment in a market where around 40% of workers are informal. In practice, the main points of the reform provide for: More flexible vacations, which can be divided into minimum periods of seven days and negotiated outside the traditional period (normally from October 1st to April 30th); Restrictions on strikes in sectors considered essential: the reform requires a minimum service provision of between 50% and 75%, which limits the unions’ power to strike; overtime; Changes in collective bargaining, with permission for direct agreements between companies and local unions, to the detriment of national conventions; Changes in compensation and dismissals, with a reduction in the calculation of compensation and the possibility of payment in installments (in up to six installments for large companies and up to 12 for small and medium-sized companies); work environment; Combating informality: the proposal eliminates fines for lack of labor registration and creates mechanisms for “regularizing” relationships, but prohibits the hiring of monotax workers (regime for self-employed people) in roles that should be formal work, with a dependency relationship. 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