{"id":52379,"date":"2025-10-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=52379"},"modified":"2025-10-19T09:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:26:52","slug":"mileis-failed-revolution-from-libertarian-chainsaws-to-a-us-bailout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/mileis-failed-revolution-from-libertarian-chainsaws-to-a-us-bailout\/","title":{"rendered":"Milei\u2019s failed revolution: From libertarian chainsaws to a U.S. bailout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Javier Milei took office in December 2023, brandishing a chainsaw as a campaign symbol, he promised nothing less than a libertarian revolution. An outsider to traditional politics, he declared war on an overextended Argentine state, pledging to cut ministries, privatize industries, dollarize the economy, and slash social spending to the bone. He even proposed abolishing the central bank. Many libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts around the world welcomed his rise as the long-awaited dawn of anarcho-capitalism in power: a real experiment in turning radical free-market theory into national policy, inspired by Joseph Schumpeter\u2019s concept of \u201ccreative destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outset, Milei reinforced his global image. He dissolved the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity, threatened to remove femicide from the penal code, and attacked gender parity in politics. At Davos, he launched a fierce critique of \u201cwokeism,\u201d lumping together feminism, diversity, inclusion, equity, abortion, environmentalism, and gender ideology under one \u201cwoke ideology\u201d to be fought. Mapuche women\u2014members of one of Argentina\u2019s largest Indigenous groups\u2014denounced an increase in racist and misogynistic attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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For conservatives from Washington to Budapest to New Delhi, this was electrifying. Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a propagandist aligned with Modi, praised Milei alongside Elon Musk\u2019s failed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), seeing in both an attack on the welfare state and on the enemies of cultural traditionalism. In Milei, the global right found not just another politician but a standard-bearer of its dream to fuse libertarian economics with cultural radicalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than two years later, the contradictions of his project are exposed. Reserves are depleted, household incomes stagnant, unemployment high, and public confidence eroded. Argentina remains trapped in crisis, repeating old cycles. History warns us: Carlos Menem left massive debts and unemployment despite two terms between 1989 and 1999; Fernando de la R\u00faa resigned amid collapse; Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner governed with growing subsidies and controls; Mauricio Macri faced a currency crisis in 2018 despite IMF support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In remarkably similar fashion, Milei\u2019s political standing has weakened. His party\u2019s defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections in September, coupled with corruption allegations against his sister and closest adviser, has undermined his authority. Congress overturned one of his vetoes and is preparing to challenge others. The peso, already fragile, brushed critical levels as it approached breaking the IMF\u2019s stipulated currency band. On September 17, it crossed that threshold, trading at 1,475 per dollar, forcing the central bank to spend nearly $1 billion in reserves to defend the currency. Country risk soared, and fears of collapse grew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came an extraordinary intervention. On September 22, minutes before markets opened, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X: \u201cArgentina is a systemically important ally for the United States\u2026 all stabilization options are on the table. Argentina will be great again.\u201d He suggested Washington might use swap lines, direct currency purchases, or the Exchange Stabilization Fund to buy Argentine debt. Markets responded: Argentine bonds rose six cents to 71 cents on the dollar, the peso strengthened 4%, and stocks climbed 6%. Panic gave way to relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days later, at the UN General Assembly in New York, Milei appeared alongside Trump and Bessent. Trump praised him for \u201ccleaning up Argentina\u2019s mess\u201d and hinted at support for 2027, though he downplayed the idea of a bailout. For Milei, it was vindication: ideological affinity with Trump translated into tangible backing. But the irony was striking. A president presented as an anarcho-capitalist crusader was rescued not by markets but by the most interventionist state actor of all: the U.S. Treasury, through a classic government bailout. This echoed how Musk\u2019s DOGE and chainsaw rhetoric ended in farce\u2014like Liz Truss\u2019s mini-budget in the UK or the collapse of Lehman Brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milei\u2019s libertarian revolution increasingly resembles a recycled continuation of Argentina\u2019s old failures. Like his predecessors, he burns through reserves, begs for Washington\u2019s support, and claims credit for temporary inflation drops. His promise of \u201ccreative destruction\u201d has not rebuilt the productive base, spurred innovation, or repaired the social fabric. It has merely redirected Argentina\u2019s dependence outward, making the country once again reliant on foreign sponsorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s support adds another paradox. For a leader who proclaims \u201cAmerica First,\u201d rescuing Argentina seems inconsistent. But geopolitics explains it. With Washington straining ties with middle powers like India and Brazil, and regional powers like Colombia leaning toward Beijing or Moscow, Argentina stands out for aligning firmly with the United States. Milei has echoed Trump on Cuba, Venezuela, and U.S. wars abroad, even calling for the demolition of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Palestine\u2014the third holiest site in Islam\u2014\u201cto bring the Messiah.\u201d In return, he receives dollars and political backing. What is presented as libertarian solidarity is, in reality, a geopolitical transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the deal only postpones the inevitable. Argentina faces midterm elections on October 26, and Milei\u2019s weak performance in Buenos Aires suggests a possible Peronist resurgence. Investors are uneasy not only about the elections but also about his longer-term prospects in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some problems are structural, such as Argentina\u2019s chronic dependence on the U.S. dollar. Anchoring the peso creates a dual economy\u2014one domestic and one dollarized\u2014that leaves the currency overvalued and prone to collapse. Abandoning the peg has proved just as destabilizing. When Milei briefly allowed the peso to float, confidence collapsed, inflation surged, and recession deepened. He soon had to revert to a peg-like scheme, defended with borrowed reserves. Argentina remains trapped: pegging drains credibility and reserves, while floating exposes the economy to immediate collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation has fallen under Milei, from nearly 300% in 2024 to around 30% today. But at an enormous cost: sharp cuts in education, infrastructure, and welfare have driven poverty higher, while professional classes, shielded by an overvalued peso, enjoy cheap vacations abroad. Poverty in Argentina rose to 52.9% in the first half of 2024, up from 40.1% a year earlier, reaching its highest level in more than two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, Milei\u2019s experience underscores the limits of libertarianism in power. Libertarianism thrives in opposition, with its rhetoric of freedom and chainsaws. But in government it collides with three immovable forces: markets that demand safety nets, citizens who require protection, and political institutions that resist dismantling. Milei\u2019s struggles show that libertarianism cannot escape the state: it only reshapes its dependencies, often in contradictory and self-defeating ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Machine translation, proofread by Ricardo Aceves.<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The libertarian revolution of Javier Milei, which had promised to free Argentina from the State, ended up being sustained by a bailout from the U.S. Treasury, the ultimate symbol of the interventionism he had sworn to fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":52377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17088,16733],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-javier-milei-en","8":"category-argentina-en","9":"tag-debates"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52379"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=52379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}