WHERE DOES ARGENTINA
WANT TO GO?
What is the
geopolitical agenda of a libertarian government, is there such a thing?
By Sidney Hey
A question that, besides
being difficult to answer, those who should be answering it don't really know
the answer. Walking around Buenos Aires as a citizen of the world, just one
more of those who swarm here, you sense that the vertigo of daily life
overwhelms the neglected and nowadays very bewildered ‘porteños’.
While this is where the
seat of national political power resides, it is hardly representative of the
gigantic and varied reality of a country of 2.80 million square kilometres.
Added to that, its administration must be quite complex and even traumatic if
we see how at a moment's notice in one of its jurisdictions a child can
evaporate without those responsible being found -or wanting to be found-
to be responsible.
As far as I know,
politicians around here call themselves democratic and respectful of the
system, which at this point means nothing. Listening to them utter this mantra
is like listening to an American, a Belgian or an Australian politician. They
have all made flesh the American discourse of ‘democracy is in danger’ as a
discursive tactic to protect their own privileges when they are caught in their
dealings. What else do you think this ‘democracy’ thing is all about?
Javier Milei's
supposedly ‘libertarian’ government is a novelty for a traditionalist,
two-party system such as Argentina's, but also for its model, the US. It is not
yet clear whether it is just him or his entire government, although the way
things look around here the answer is only one: only Milei is libertarian and
only in what is convenient for him.
But there is still
another question to be answered about this ideological condition: is he a
political libertarian or just an economic libertarian?
Although the average
citizen around here cares little about political labels, in what Milei
proclaims and does, we are noticing abysmal differences that Argentines should
begin to question if they do not want to fall into another bear trap.
First let's say what it
is to be libertarian. Briefly that would be something like a moral guideline
that does not accept state intervention in the body, in the market and abroad.
The state would only be reduced to guaranteeing bodily integrity, life and
private property. But there is a problem, Milei says he is an ‘anarcho-capitalist’,
an extreme branch of economic libertarianism that rejects the existence of the
state as a tax collector on individuals. But what is his government doing? It
is increasing and creating more taxation that is stifling its voters.
On the political side,
his conception of the ‘non-state’ seems to be applied in a curious way that
would be more a substitution of the Argentine state by the interests of other
states. How could one understand his exaggerated laxity towards the country's
enemies such as Great Britain (to which Milei has sent reserves in pure gold)
and NATO, who occupy the South Atlantic, or his regrettable and overacted
obsession with France because of his vice president's statements that were not
untrue.
If a few hours ago the
French and Moroccans booed the Argentine national team, it was not because of
this nonsense, but perhaps because of the pro-Zionist stance of the Argentine
government, which has struck a chord with French Muslims.
As for vice-president
Victoria Villarruel, never has the ideological difference with the president
been clearer than after this episode. Although for some there are more
coincidences than differences, Milei's positions have shown that these
differences are qualitatively important. While Villarruel is closer to the
interior of the country, the Mileis are more comfortable with the exterior;
while Villarruel makes explicit his respect for the country's Catholic cultural
tradition, the Mileis consider that their spiritual and also political loyalty
lies elsewhere and with another ‘flock’.
While Villarruel is
calling for the restructuring of the armed forces and the intelligence area
with his own initiatives to strengthen the country in the current complex
international context, Milei is handing them over to the external control of
other states, condemning the future of other governments' decisions to remain
under foreign-controlled arms (and intelligence agencies). And so I could go on
with other differences that strain internal relations.
It is not only for the
Mileis that Vice Villarruel is uncomfortable, but also for those who sponsor
the governmental brethren. The last thing the orthodox rabbis of the Lubavitch
sect, Netanyahu's supporters and ultimately the Anglo-American financial
interests with whom they are all connected, want is a nationalist Catholic who
interferes with their grand plans for them. Even if she starts to grow in
popularity by displacing Milei and with what we saw with Donald Trump in the
‘empire of democracy’, they will have no problem getting her out of the way and
then disguising the facts with the ever-collaborative performance of the local
media by talking about ‘mere incompetence’.
That too is part of
what the Milei's are bringing into the country and it will be too late by the
time Argentines want to react.
Perhaps it is difficult
for her without the political structure of the traditional parties such as
Peronism or Radicalism, although it is true to say that they are ideologically
discredited museum pieces that are in decline.
I believe that Victoria
Villarruel is the only hope that Argentina will be able to get back on its own
track or at least fight for political and economic decisions to stop being
subordinated to the directives of power poles that are already in decline and
that even run the certain risk of seeing the dollar collapse as the hegemonic
currency.
While Milei and his
sister ‘the boss’ seek to ensure that the national state intervenes as little
as possible to benefit the interests of other states, vice-president Villarruel
has the character and determination to ensure that this does not happen and,
beyond her ultramontane Catholic nationalism, she sees that there are options
to position herself geopolitically with alternatives that are in line with her
ideology and consistent with the interests of the state.