With a government emboldened after the half-sanction in the Senate of the slave labor reform promoted by Milei, on Thursday night the Chamber of Deputies also approved the reduction of imputability at 14 years of age. While they reduce the rights of working parents, destroy health and education, they expand the repressive power of the State over poor children and youth.
The liberals of LLA and Macriism shouted “adult crime, adult sentence“That this argument comes from these sectors is not surprising: they are the same ones who applaud repression and adjustment. But it reeks of hypocrisy: They are the same ones who bank the robberies in disability, those of the 3% and the Libra case, those who bank drug traffickers like Espert and those who defend the genocidaires.
But the support of Esteban Paulón, of the Socialist Party of Santa Fe, caught the attention of many. Paulón is not a representative of the punitive right; built its profile as a reference in the defense of freedoms, in line with the demands of the LGTBI+ collective and progressive causes. In his last publication on networks, he stated that lowering imputability does not solve anything; Today that same publication was filled with angry comments. The Transvestite Trans Community of Rosario issued a statement questioning their vote. This contradiction is not new: it is anchored in its alignment with provincial power.
To understand Paulón, you have to look at Santa Fe and its government
The Socialist Party of Paulón is part of the Unidos coalition, with Maximiliano Pullaro as governor. In the last two years, with socialist support, they promoted the pension reform that increased the retirement age of women. Resisted by teachers and the state, the law was imposed with repression, raids at dawn and arrests of union leaders, including our colleague Franco Casasola: something like this had not been seen in Santa Fe since the dictatorship. Clara García, from the PS, presided over the session and directed the vote.
One of the first measures of Unidos was reform the Criminal Procedure and Justice Code for minors. Pullaro, with socialist support, eliminated the traditional Juvenile Justice and transferred powers to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, toughening the regime against young people. Months later, the landings of federal forces agreed with Milei and Kicillof, also supported by Socialism, arrived.
Pullaro publicly advocates for tougher penal reforms, including support for the national juvenile penal regime. In this context, Paulón’s vote is not an isolated fact: it is consistent with the punitive and adjusting orientation of the provincial space to which it belongs, where “progressivism” is left for the networks.
But the integration of socialism into the ruling front in Santa Fe not only ties it to its policies of adjustment and penal hardening, but also to alliances with evangelical sectors that are the ones who promote a reactionary agenda against gays, transvestites, lesbians and women. The provincial government empowered leaders linked to pastor and deputy Walter Ghione, to the point that after the elections allegations arose that the government diverted funds to religious associations amounting to almost $4 billion from the “Care Networks” program. As Octavio Crivaro pointed out, the posters in the Chamber of Deputies with which Paulón became known seek to “hide that the PS became a puppet of Milei and the cowboy Pullaro. It is relieved to know that many socialists reject this.”
What a shame to see @EstebanPaulon voting in favor of putting children in prison. The funny signs are a loincloth to hide that the PS has become a puppet of Milei and the cowboy Pullaro. It is relieved to know that many socialists reject this. https://t.co/FTGJAWmaZx
— Octavio Crivaro (@OctavioCrivaro) February 13, 2026
The left denounces that the lowering of the age of imputability is a brutal attack on children, while the government cuts health and education and seeks to impose a counter-labor reform. Myriam Bregman questioned the support for the government and called for rebellion: “to the boys and girls who rebel, who do not bank on this, who organize from their places of study, from wherever they can, but they do not have to accept that this is the only thing they have left, absolute job insecurity, confinement or being captured as drug soldiers. These are the options that are being given to the youth today.”
Esteban Paulón voted on the opposite side.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
