When Argentine president Cristina Kirchner nationalized the Spanish-owned YPF oil company this past April, Washington Post correspondent Juan Forero proclaimed her “the standard-bearer of populist nationalism in Latin America.” At the time, her decision played well at home: One poll found that 62 percent of Argentines supported it. Yet the YPF seizure was a desperate move by a desperate government trying to boost its domestic political standing and camouflage its economic failures. Seven months later, Kirchner’s approval rating is deep underwater, and her government is facing enormous public protests.

On November 8, an estimated 250,000 to 700,000 Argentines poured into the streets of Buenos Aires to express their grievances. The march lasted close to four hours, and the Guardian confirmed that it was “Argentina’s biggest and noisiest anti-government demonstration in a decade.” Other Argentine cities, such as Córdoba and Mendoza, witnessed their own protests, and the expatriate community held demonstrations outside Argentine embassies and consulates around the world: from Miami to Melbourne, from Madrid to Montevideo, from Montreal to Munich.