Libertad is a city located in Merlo Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation. Its origin goes back to the 1870s when, by that time, a rural settlement was thriving around a pulpería (public house) called La Libertad (Freedom), from where the town took its name. During the last decades a group of prominent neighbors had been working to obtain the autonomy of the city and make Libertad a new partido in the province. According to the 2001 census [INDEC], the population was 100,476.