The victory of Argentina libertarian President-elect Javier Milei at the weekend has sparked mixed reactions worldwide – including hostility from some Latin American leftists, tentative support from others, and a pledge from China to work with him despite his critical comments.
Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, channeled voter anger over a deep economic crisis and years of economic dysfunction to win by double-digits in Sunday’s runoff vote.
The ex-television pundit is poised to assume leadership next month, marking a significant shift for Argentina away from the center-left Peronist administration led by outgoing President Alberto Fernandez.
In response to these developments on Tuesday, Mexico’s leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed his respect for the voters’ decision. However, he also conveyed his skepticism, suggesting that the victory of Milei is not likely to bring substantial relief to Argentina’s challenges.
This is something we don’t think will help,” Lopez Obrador told reporters. He later applied a soccer term to describe the outsider’s victory: “It was an own goal.” The victory of Argentina
Bolivia’s former leftist President Evo Morales, a close ally of past Peronist governments in Buenos Aires, took to social media on Tuesday to assert that he would never “wish success to fascism, ultra-conservatism and neoliberalism.”
The leftist leaders of Venezuela and Colombia also lamented Sunday’s election results. Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the outcome in a post on X as “sad for Latin America.”