15 Copa Flights to Panama Cancelled Due to Strike in Argentina

Some 15 Copa Airlines flights, departing and returning between the cities of Panama, Ezeiza (Buenos Aires), Córdoba, Rosario and Mendoza (Argentina) have been cancelled, the airline informed the media.

Flights have been cancelled due to a strike by workers at the now defunct Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP), which the Javier Milei government dissolved to create another tax collection and customs control agency.

The strike and protest, which began on Monday, is against the dismissal of more than 3,000 AFIP employees, something that the protesters, represented by the Single Union of Customs Personnel of the Argentine Republic (Supara) and the Association of Fiscal and Public Revenue Employees (Aefip), describe as “arbitrary and unconstitutional.”

The partial strike consists of a “computer blackout” with no attention to the public until 2:00 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT), in rejection of the “dismantling” of the tax collection agency.

Last Friday, Milei’s government dissolved the AFIP by decree and, in its place, created the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA), an entity dependent on the Ministry of Economy that will have the functions of collecting taxes from customs control.

According to news reports, this measure will allow the Argentine State to save 6.4 billion pesos ($6.3 million) annually, thanks to the 34% reduction in the current management structure of the Treasury and lower salaries at ARCA.

According to the Government, 3,155 AFIP agents who will be dismissed entered the Treasury irregularly during the Executive of Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023), which is equivalent to 15% of the actual staff of the Treasury.