Argentina elects Left-basher Javier Milei; Alarm bell rings for China
Argentina elects Left-basher Javier Milei
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 21: Breaking rank with the Latin American nations, Argentina elected Left-basher Javier Milei as its president in a significant development with far reaching geo-strategic ramifications. Milie has been bashing the Communists all along his election campaign, while he unleashed an unseen attack on Left politics in part of the world.
Milei has called Left politics a sham, arguing that the Communists practice monarchical attitudes with attributes such as inheritance in political legacy. His victory in the runoff election is in contrast to the sweep of the Left in the Latin American nation. Brazil recently elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Latin America was being said to be in the grip of ‘Pink Tide’ as 90 per cent of the region was under the Left rule running through Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. But the victory of Milei snaps Argentina from the pink tide of Latin America.
Milei all along the election campaign and also as a television star had been blaming the Communists for all the ills in Argentina, which faced unprecedented inflation, eroding the value of the national currency, while unemployment rate turned the middle class into a big support group for the president-elect.
China has warned Argentina against the idea of severing ties with Beijing. This has come in response to Milei’s stated position that he would not deal with any Communist regime. Milei by accounts of his statements, which are spoken with adrenaline shooting to his brain with full energy, appears to be a sworn enemy of the Communists. China was likened to an assassin by Milei recently.
“In 2000, the Chinese market accounted for less than 2 percent of Latin America’s exports, but China’s rapid growth and resulting demand drove the region’s subsequent commodities boom. Over the next eight years, trade grew at an average annual rate of 31 percent, reaching a value of $180 billion in 2010. By 2021, trade totalled a record $450 billion, a figure that remained largely unchanged in 2022, and some economists predict that it could exceed $700 billion by 2035,” wrote Diana Roy for Council for Foreign Relations in a report.
Milei promised minimal government. He also claimed that he would abolish the central bank. However, he later explained that he meant to stop the “loot” by the central bank. Milie also has called for replacing Peso with dollar. His move is again contrary to China’s advocacy for de-dollarisation.
“I see the greatest danger in the foreseeable street fights and the poor preparation of the Argentine security forces to deal with such events responsibly and in accordance with the rule of law. Sociopolitical regression is also possible,” economist Carl Moses wrote in an article for an Argentine daily.
While Milie won the runoff election with the middle class rooting for him, experts claim that he risks facing a massive challenge from the low-income groups, which are the key support base of the Leftists.
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