Buenos Aires, Argentina – President Javier Milei arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday to talk on the Milken Institute’s annual convention, marking his seventeenth official journey to america since taking workplace.
Michael Milken, well-known for his central position and subsequent conviction in considered one of Wall Road’s greatest monetary scandals, invited Milei to return to the convention, having already spoken there in 2024.
In his speech, the self-proclaimed libertarian president commemorated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, taking the chance to hint similarities between Argentina and the US.
“The American dream will not be useless […] It’s being reborn, and it’s being reborn in two locations on the identical time: in america, beneath President Trump […] and in Argentina, the place 48 million Argentinians selected to place an finish to a century of decline and embrace as soon as extra the beliefs that additionally led us to greatness,” Milei mentioned.
Whereas praising the liberal beliefs of the founding fathers, he additionally warned of “the trail of tyranny and socialism,” claiming that “Argentina is a harbinger of the dystopian future that awaits the West if it continues down the trail it started to tread some years in the past, seduced by the siren music of stability and safety versus uncertainty and free-market financial system.”
After itemizing off his achievements as president, Milei concluded the gross sales pitch: “The convergence between two sister republics reopens the potential for a free commerce settlement that ought to have been signed 20 years in the past […] As soon as once more, I invite you to put money into Argentina, to not change the American dream, however to make it higher, to develop it throughout the globe.”
With Argentina recording detrimental international funding final yr for the primary time in over 20 years, Milei will likely be determined for takers.
Having returned on Thursday, he now faces an more and more dire political and financial scenario.
A corruption scandal involving his chief of employees, Manuel Adorni, has continued to escalate, with a contractor testifying this week that Adorni had paid him round US$250,000 in money to do work on considered one of his properties. This follows complaints first made in March about different bills that quantity to over US$800,000.
Investigators at the moment are wanting into how Adorni can afford spending such figures on his official salary of seven.65 million Argentine pesos, equal to about US$5,480.
Milei’s continued support of Adorni all through the scandal, coupled with persistent financial woes, has led the president’s disapproval ratings to reach 63.5% in AtlasIntel’s newest polling- the best determine since he took workplace in December 2023.
The survey discovered that over half of Argentines fee corruption as one of many greatest issues dealing with Argentina, whereas unemployment and inflation trailed in second and third.
With monthly inflation on the up and economic activity having shrunk within the yr to February, Milei might want to discover options quick forward of subsequent yr’s presidential elections.
Featured picture: President Javier Milei talking on the Milken Institute’s annual convention on Could 6.
Picture credit score: Argentina’s Presidential Workplace through YouTube
