The Proxy-President

The election of Argentinian President Javier Milei has been widely celebrated among western conservatives, but is he all he's cracked up to be?

Written by Percy Spender, find more of his content on 𝕏 @PercySpender

While there has been widespread acclaim among western conservatives and libertarians over the election of Argentinian President Javier Milei, increasingly accusations have begun to arise suggesting that the statesman may in fact be puppet of the United States, and not the liberator of Argentina from woke socialism he presents himself as. Throughout September and October, in the lead up to the Argentinian president election, several clips of Javier Milei went viral on social media. Clips of him passionately critiquing the dominant consecutive woke-left governments and the national decay they have bought upon his country. Rich in charisma and wit, his hilarious rants tallied up to millions of views on popular American conservative accounts. An overnight star, whose spotlight in the online conservative mainstream peaked with a Tucker Carlson feature interview in mid-September, accumulating a whopping 427 million views. Milei provided a clear, concise plan to purge the poisonous Marxist features of political society and repair the economy with radical libertarian policies. He has since won his election in mid- November 2023.

Now, where critiques lie from right wing dissidents who are sceptical of Zionist American influence in the fact that he revoked Argentina’s entry to BRICS, adopted the US dollar and his obsession with Judaism mixed with his devotion to Israel; a country with little geopolitical significance to Argentina. This coupled with the swift rise in popularity from American conservatives promoting his interviews gave an impression of astroturfing.

How are these policy goals covertly in American interests? Beginning with the rejection of BRICS admission Milei has done his part to shore up the continuity of the Swift economic system, which America effectively controls, and which BRICS seeks to rival as an alternative. BRICS was catapulted into mainstream political discourse when Russia suffered the enormous sanction campaign as consequence of the Ukraine War. Ever since BRICS has steadily built a narrative that it will be capable of rivalling the Swift system imminently, just last week BRICS added Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to its coalition. This expansion will bring the combined population of BRICS nations to 45% of the global population, almost 28% of the global economy and significantly, 44% of global crude oil trade. Milei’s decision to refrain from entering has kept Argentina’s massive natural resource reserves, the world’s fourth largest shale oil reserve and second largest shale gas reserve out of BRICS.

Secondly, by adopting the United States Dollar this improves the status USD enjoys as the reserve currency of global trade and counters the decrease in demand for USD by syphoning the 45 million Argentinians into using it for daily transactions. Since being swore in Milei has cooled off on the dollarisation promise, declaring it a medium-term goal in an effort to not shock its domestic market too drastically. Experts suspect that Milei may implement this in a year or so depending on the initial success of the economic transition.

Milei articulates these policy directions as being in Argentina’s best interest, while conveniently serving American interests simultaneously. A litmus test for the puppet theory will be how relations with Russia will function and whether Milei will supply Ukraine with lethal aid, a decision to arm Ukraine against one of the US’ greatest geopolitical rivals, Russia, will give us a good clue as to how genuine Milei really is. Russia and Argentina have a reasonably significant trade relationship, Argentina exported $860 million dollars’ worth of goods to Russia in 2021, while Argentina imported $450 million from Russia. Therefore, if Milei is willing to risk this trading partner over a geopolitically meaningless conflict for Argentina’s interests, where he should be desperate to squeeze as much economic prosperity as he can to prove the success of his radical economic reforms, it will provide a clear insight into his priorities.

Presently there is a positive outlook on the future relations between the two states. Milei sent a letter to each of the original five BRICS members to officially inform them of the decision to reject admission, but also reaffirming commitment to strengthen ties in terms of trade and investment. However, in December reports arose claiming Milei intended to send old Soviet helicopters, that are capable of military operations, to Ukraine. Russian ambassador to Argentina, Dmitry Feoktistov, believes the reports are false and that Milei has committed to maintain neutrality in the conflict. It will be interesting to observe, especially if the shift in policy proves to be fruitful and Milei will feel more confident in risking upsetting the Russians.