{"id":52504,"date":"2025-10-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=52504"},"modified":"2025-10-24T11:43:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:43:45","slug":"braden-or-peron-a-recurrent-agonizing-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/braden-or-peron-a-recurrent-agonizing-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Braden or Per\u00f3n? A recurrent agonizing dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes the electoral game reaches its peak when the issue to be decided becomes simplified. Faced with a scenario in which multiple options compete, each loaded with its own level of complexity, the situation that opposes only two possibilities proves to be more efficient. If, in addition, high doses of emotion are added, the outcome can be even more impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the range of electoral processes, those that involve a consultation where only a \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d answer is possible belong to this category. It also occurs when the decision is to be made between individual candidates. Moreover, when the prevailing logic is that of an absolute majority, which normally forces a final confrontation between two contenders, the issue becomes even clearer. In each of these situations, the opposing positions combine a plurality of circumstances \u2014 personal traits, political programs, the careful crafting of convincing narratives, socioeconomic context, and more \u2014 that shape the options upon which the electorate must base its succinct decision. Nor should the constituents of the demand itself, their legacies, and their environment be overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Since their independence, the countries of Latin America have seen how the assessment of the role of the United States has been a fundamental factor in shaping the political identity of their societies. Antagonism has been a constant feature that has often defined the decisive character of political struggles. The work Ariel<\/em> by the Uruguayan Jos\u00e9 Enrique Rod\u00f3, the Ode to Roosevelt<\/em> by the Nicaraguan Rub\u00e9n Dar\u00edo, and Anti-Imperialism and APRA<\/em> by the Peruvian V\u00edctor Ra\u00fal Haya de la Torre, among others, at the dawn of the 20th century, laid the intellectual foundations for the confrontation that would intensify during the Cold War. Then, milestones such as the triumphs of the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions, the spread of the doctrine of national security among regional armies with the backing of various coups d\u2019\u00e9tat, the invasions of the Dominican Republic and Grenada, and the Torrijos\u2013Carter treaties defining the handover of the Panama Canal to the country that had gained independence during its construction, all deepened this dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1946, after a long decade of military tutelage and social mobilizations amid profound transformations \u2014 and having moved beyond the global wartime context \u2014 Argentina held elections. A talkative military officer, socialized in Benito Mussolini\u2019s Italy thanks to his diplomatic post there, with ministerial experience in a military government that had allowed him to put into practice a blend of statist programs with certain social and nationalist components, emerged as a candidate with a real chance of winning. His growing popular appeal was countered by the activism of the U.S. ambassador to Argentina, who, echoing the Truman administration\u2019s stance, saw him as a threat to the new international order then taking shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan Domingo Per\u00f3n was that presidential hopeful, and Spruille Braden the American diplomat. It mattered little that Per\u00f3n\u2019s opponent from the Democratic Union was a well-known politician and that his coalition enjoyed broad support across the spectrum opposed to the military dictatorship. Per\u00f3n managed to impose in his campaign the narrative that would ultimately lead him to a clear victory. He simply drew upon the anti-American sentiment that had simmered in prior decades \u2014 fueled by the ideas expressed in the works mentioned above and by reaction to Washington\u2019s policies of \u201cmanifest destiny\u201d and \u201cthe big stick and the carrot,\u201d heirs to President Monroe\u2019s proclamation. \u201cBraden or Per\u00f3n\u201d became the winning slogan that Per\u00f3n posed to Argentine voters to rally them around his cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eighty years have passed, and that slogan seems to regain its relevance ahead of Argentina\u2019s legislative elections this Sunday, the 26th. The alliance between Javier Milei and Donald Trump, grounded in the shared sympathy of two narcissistic showmen with common values surrounding libertarian capitalism \u2014 and complementary needs: Argentina\u2019s battered finances and the U.S. interest in curbing Chinese presence while securing Argentina\u2019s rich mineral deposits \u2014 has led to an unbearable level of interference by the northern country in the southern nation\u2019s electoral process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American friend appears willing to invest enormous sums in the Argentine economy. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has announced a $25 billion investment to build a data center in Argentina\u2019s Patagonia region. For its part, the U.S. government is reportedly prepared to contribute another $20 billion to Argentina\u2019s coffers through an unusual financial mechanism. But in this case, there is a crucial condition: Milei\u2019s option must win \u2014 or at least achieve an honorable electoral result that allows him to continue the political program designed in the Casa Rosada. Otherwise, the White House will withdraw its support, and Argentina may once again slide into one more of the crises that have plagued it for half a century. The dilemma thus seems to be reborn \u2014 but this time, it is not \u201cTrump or Milei.\u201d How will Argentine voters process it? Trump and Milei against national sovereignty?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However obsolete this concept might seem today, President Trump\u2019s authorization of covert actions on Venezuelan territory marks a step forward in a strategy inaugurated with an attack that caused the deaths of around twenty people and the destruction of at least five boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean \u2014 that quintessential sea defining the U.S. backyard. A lamentable and agonizing epitome that sketches an unmistakable path toward an old polarization, now reestablished. This situation is gradually shaping the Latin American political landscape \u2014 something already visible in Brazil, where President Lula da Silva has earned evident public support for his firmness in confronting the U.S. government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Machine translation\u00a0proofread by Jana\u00edna da Silva.<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The historic tension between national sovereignty and US influence is once again setting the tone for contemporary Argentine politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":52521,"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":[17470,16733],"tags":[17180],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sovereignty","8":"category-argentina-en","9":"tag-ideas"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52504","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52504"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=52504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}