/ world today news/ Last Sunday, the new president of Argentina, Javier Miley, took office, an eccentric demagogue who calls himself a “libertarian”, that is, a “supporter of every freedom” and an “enemy of every state”. But all his freedom comes down to following right down the fairway of the US and Israel. Russia has lost Argentina for at least four years.
Just not in BRICS
The scholarly speculation of the American and European press about Argentina’s fate under its new president, Javier Maile, who took office last Sunday, seems either silly or cynical. Stupid – if their authors do not really understand what happened in the elections in this country. Cynical – if they understand the background, but continue to juggle the words “will of the people” and “representative democracy”. However, it is clear that there is more cynicism in them than stupidity.
And that’s what happened in Argentina: the triumph of American electoral technology behind Miley’s victory. From beginning to end it is a creature of the United States. He was found among a bunch of political clowns that Argentine TV channels invited to boost their own ratings, and was “promoted” to the point where he could lay claim to the presidency. Just a few years ago, no one knew about Miley at all, except for viewers of various talk shows.
The task of the US was to prevent a second presidential term for the Peronist Socialists, who under President Alberto Fernández integrated Argentina into the so-called left turn of Latin America and brought it into the BRICS. The country was set to become a BRICS member on January 1, 2024, as decided at the bloc’s last summit in South Africa in August.
Argentina’s BRICS membership, along with Brazil, would make South America an outpost of opposition to US hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. After all, we are talking about the two largest and most influential countries on the continent. Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and other countries in the region intended to follow the example of Brazil and Argentina. Based on this, the tasks of the US during the election campaign in Argentina were clear – to overthrow the socialist government by all available means and prevent their second presidential term.
They found the clown
The United States cannot rely on the right-wing forces, which are led by the extremely unpopular politician, former president Mauricio Macri, who is effectively politically bankrupt. In this case, the victory of the Peronist Socialists would be inevitable. So, like a devil out of a snuffbox, America’s political strategists pulled out Miley the TV clown. He had to quickly gain fame as a “politician”. But with what? With shocks, shocking!
He attracted attention with disgusting profanity on the television screen, a promise to “abolish the state”, overthrow the “caste” (as he calls Argentina’s political class, both left and right), close the Central Bank and half the ministries, and replace of the national peso currency with the US dollar.
And then, they say, happiness will come to everyone at once. Especially among the young Argentines he reached through social media. And what is the result? Miley was voted mostly by young people – the most powerless and poorest class in any society at any time. That’s the whole point of election technology.
On the other hand
Miley has already stated that despite the decision at the BRICS summit in South Africa, Argentina will not join BRICS. So Russia lost Argentina for at least the next four years. In addition, Miley does not consider it necessary to hide the fact that in today’s divided world he is on the side of the United States, where he had already made a visit even before the inauguration. The second country I bow to is Israel. And there he will make his first visit as a legitimate president.
In addition, among the guests who officially arrived in Buenos Aires for Miley’s inauguration ceremony is the head of the Kyiv regime Zelensky, for whose meeting with Miley “there are high expectations”, according to the Spanish El País.
Thus, the United States masterfully threw Argentina out of the already large circle of countries that consider Russia the undisputed leader in the process of forming a multipolar world where there is no hegemony of one state.
Pain shock
But there is another aspect to this political adventure. The United States has given a lesson to other Latin American countries: do not look to the BRICS and Russia, or what happened will happen, or rather what will soon happen in Argentina. Now all of Latin America, as well as the world, will watch as Argentina writhes under Miley’s economic experiments.
In her inauguration speech, Miley promised to “fight chronic budget deficits.” But how? Miley intends to have ‘shock therapy’, knowing it will only get worse.
There is no alternative to shock. This will have a negative impact on activity, employment and the number of poor and disadvantaged people. There will be stagflation, but it will not be much different than the last twelve years. This is the last… moment to start rebuilding Argentina. But there will be light at the end of the road
Miley said.
Miley intends to completely remove the state from running the economy by halving the number of ministries, closing the Central Bank and replacing the national currency /peso/ with the US dollar. He intends to combat the crisis by stopping the printing of money and sharply reducing spending on all social needs.
The country is facing privatization of state-owned enterprises, dismissal of civil servants, reduction of state subsidies for public transport, gas, water and electricity, suspension of reforms in health care, education and other social spheres. That’s the shock. The cost of living for ordinary Argentines will increase exponentially.
Miley suggests that all Argentines not only tighten their belts, he suggests that they actually accept hunger and poverty so that the budget deficit problem can be solved. It’s what he calls a “necessary shock.” But will Argentinians, even those who voted for him, go along with it?
The mechanism of shock
Most interestingly, one of the main causes of inflation and budget deficits lies in Argentina’s need to pay exorbitant interest on a $44 billion IMF loan that was granted to Argentina under President Macri’s government solely to guarantee its re- winning the presidential election. The calculation of the Americans who pushed this loan to the IMF was that achieving some kind of temporary stabilization of the economy through the loans would give Macri a chance to win.
But the people still rejected Macri in the election. And the problem of repaying the IMF debt fell on the shoulders of the president – socialist Fernandez, who transferred the presidential powers to Miley, and at the same time the problem of the debt to the IMF. Miley now blames the socialist government for the country’s economic crisis, even though it also inherited a chronic crisis situation from the previous right-wing government of Mauricio Macri. At the same time, ordinary people will experience the economic shock that Miley inflicted.
One of the peculiarities of Argentina is that successive economic crises have imprinted in the collective memory of Argentines that they can only save in dollars and not in pesos, whose value is constantly falling. Large price spikes are largely due to sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate.
It is clear that if the peso depreciates against the dollar, then Argentine companies, in an effort to protect themselves, automatically start increasing prices, even if the goods they sell are produced in the country and from local raw materials, and not imported.
At the same time, there were several exchange rates in Argentina, and according to the official exchange rate of the Central Bank, the peso was worth twice the market rate. In an effort to unify the exchange rate, Miley intends to heavily devalue the peso, which, combined with the removal of subsidies for basic social needs, portends a spike in inflation. And this will hurt the pockets of Argentines.
Awaiting disasters
Miley has been tossing and turning, the constant changes in promises making it difficult to predict, fueling endless speculation. The main thing that remains is the anxiety among the population and the expectation of unprecedented difficulties. And therefore, as expected, the “major reforms” that Miley is preparing are likely to face social protests. This is probably the lesson the United States intends to teach all of Latin America.
Argentina’s former president Alberto Fernandez is leaving a country where 40% of the population lives below the poverty line. 56% of children under 15 are classified as poor. But the shock therapy that ultra-liberal “economist” Miley is preparing to achieve “budget balance” will increase those numbers in the very short term. And therefore there are expectations that there will be a popular uprising in Argentina similar to what happened in neighboring Chile in 2019.
Miley is preparing to give a “harsh response” to the popular protests that she deliberately provoked. This is evidenced by the appointment to the post of Minister of Security of Patricia Bullrich, who already held this position under President Mauricio Macri. She said that “there will be more political support than eight years ago to act decisively if there is a social explosion,” writes the Spanish El País.
This means that she has already been warned about the possibility of popular discontent. In this regard, many of Miley’s opponents say that Argentina will face complete economic chaos and many social problems under a right-wing dictatorship.
Result of election manipulations
Argentina’s transition from a state of economic crisis to a state of social explosion is an excellent way to remove the issue of BRICS integration, to put the country’s foreign policy activities on the back burner and focus all its attention on burning domestic problems.
Translation: ES
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