Faced with this tragedy, environmental organizations are pointing the finger at the under-execution of the budget and the cuts to funding by Javier Milei’s government for the forest fire management and fighting program.

The fire, which broke out on Monday, threatens to spread, reported the Provincial Fire Management Service, which also noted that more than 3,000 people have been evacuated so far, most of them tourists.

In response to the devastating fires in this Andean region, the opposition is attempting to pass a declaration of a Fire Emergency in Congress, intended to curb the government’s terrible combination of climate change denial and cuts to the fire prevention and fighting system.

Opponents denounce that the administration cut the budget for fighting forest fires by more than 70 percent and, furthermore, is not implementing much of what was allocated.

Paula Marussich reports in Página12 that members of the Union for the Fatherland party have introduced a bill to declare a Fire, Environmental, and Socioeconomic Emergency in the region, which includes Chubut, Rio Negro, Santa Cruz, and Neuquen.

In the Senate, Senator Martín Soria is also pushing for a declaration of an environmental, economic, and housing emergency in those four provinces.

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