Milei’s wild adventure just beginning

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/12/2023 (957 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Argentina now has its own version of Donald Trump — in the form of libertarian populist Javier Milei of the far-right Freedom Advances Party. He secured the votes of just about every province in Argentina save Buenos Aires in the mid-November presidential runoff.

But with the country’s economy in tatters and roughly 40 per cent of the population living in poverty, to say nothing of a runaway inflation rate north of 140 per cent, he will surely have his hands full. And because he has so few seats in the Argentine National Congress, he will have to find some way to negotiate a working arrangement with members of the centre-right parties. This, of course, will not be easy given the fact that Milei is a one-person show and likes to think of himself as the smartest person in the room.

I have to say, Milei is one odd dude. In fact, he was known to wield a chainsaw (as a sign of his intent to slash public spending and to cut various government departments) at many of his campaign events. He has also pledged to permit the sale of human organs, loosen the country’s stringent gun laws and abolish abortion rights.

In addition, he has spoken fondly of adopting the U.S. currency instead of the near-worthless Argentine peso, eliminating Argentina’s Central Bank and privatizing YPF, the country’s state-owned energy company. “Everything that can be (put) into the hands of the private sector, will be in the hands of the private sector,” the self-professed anarcho-capitalist said defiantly.

Sometimes dubbed El Loco (the crazy man) by his harshest critics, Milei has heaped praise on former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (no doubt for her devastating privatization campaigns in Britain), who once gave the order to invade the Falklands/Malvinas island in 1982. He has also attacked Pope Francis, Latin America’s first pontiff, as an “imbecile” — even though he hails from Argentina.

Moreover, it bears repeating that his vice-presidential running mate, Victoria Villarruel, cast doubt on the conventional figure of 30,000 Argentines who were killed or “disappeared” at the hands of a vicious military during the 1976-83 Dirty War. Not only has she called for the dismantling of a museum that commemorates the victims of the Dirty War and callously dismissed human rights activists and critics of the military regime, but she has also defended those officers charged with crimes against humanity.

Long known as a popular and outrageous television “talking head” rather than a successful politician, Milei’s government is also certain to shake up Argentina’s foreign policy orientation. And without sufficient legislative control of the Argentine Congress, international affairs is one policy domain where he can have virtual free reign.

I would expect the Trump-loving Milei to place relations with left-leaning governments in Peru, Bolivia and Honduras in a diplomatic deep freeze, and eventually to downgrade them. You can expect similar treatment of Lula da Silva’s Brazil and Petro’s Colombia and perhaps even the left-of-centre government in Chile.

As for Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Milei will undoubtedly make a point of singling them out for special scorn and opprobrium. It remains to be seen, however, how the mercurial new Argentine president will handle relations with leftist firebrand Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

It will certainly be interesting to listen to the hallway chatter at the next Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit gatherings. Chances are, and not unlike Trump himself, Milei will not even bother to show up.

He is already starting to rock the boat with his neighbours and Mercosur trade partners. Evidently, Milei is not happy with a pending European Union-Mercosur trade agreement, which has been in the works for more than 20 years. As an avowed climate change denier, he was angered by the recent inclusion of additional commitments by the bloc to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

During the Argentine election campaign, he labelled Mercosur as a “customs union of poor quality that creates trade distortions and hurts its members.” So, in a fit of pique, he has now threatened to cut all ties with the South American trade bloc.

The main problem with someone of Milei’s ilk is that international politics is typically not receptive to impulsive and irrational thinking. Take the example of his sworn pledge to shun “communist” countries like Brazil and China. He clearly does not have the slightest clue that those countries are actually Argentina’s two largest trading partners.

So hold on to your hat, the wild adventure with Milei is only just beginning. One can only hope that his rise to the Argentine presidency does not presage a Trump victory in November 2024.

Peter McKenna is professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.