Argentina’s Don Quixote

“Thou hast seen nothing yet!” … Miguel de Cervantes, “Don Quixote”

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has started his presidency much like Don Quixote, tilting at various windmills in the hope of changing Argentina and joining the conservative world.

He has already forged excellent ties with Italy’s right-wing government, has committed to moving Argentina’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and has a close friendship with former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Some believe that he is a madman, others a genius.

At home, Milei is tilting against the windmill of the disastrous economic and social policies created by seventy-five years of “Peronism”.

Argentina has suffered poverty as a result of this pseudo-socialist economic and political philosophy. Milei is trying to resolve this legacy through extreme austerity measures that will undoubtedly cause wide-spread short-term pain for long-term gain.

These policies are reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s strategy in 1979 to correct years of socialist misrule after which the U.K. emerged stronger than ever.

However, unlike the late British leader, Milei does not have a majority in Congress, and may be forced to use presidential decrees to implement his program. Already there have been massive street demonstrations against his economic program, and these are reminiscent to those Thatcher faced early into her administration.

Many in Argentina are rebelling at this strong dose of economic medicine but, as Don Quixote said, Milei’s response is “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.

In foreign policy, he is tilting against leftist governments around the world and those who support them, people that Peruvian author Alvaro Vargas Llosa has labelled “the perfect Latin American idiots”.

Milei has come out strongly against Colombian president Gustavo Petro and his neighbor Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, not to mention the Cuban and Nicaraguan regimes. He has also had some choice words for Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

As Milei told CNN recently, “Not much can be expected from someone who was a terrorist murderer”, a reference to Petro’s past as a member of a guerrilla group.

In the same interview with CNN that fueled tensions with Petro, Milei also took shots at Mexico’s president, calling him an “ignorant.”

López Obrador, a Petro ally and Milei critic, jumped to Petro’s defense, writing on social media that “I still do not understand how the Argentines, being so intelligent” elected someone like Milei.

With respect to Venezuela, the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas hosts a number of Venezuelan opposition personalities who have sought refuge. The Maduro government has refused them safe conduct out of the country.

Milei’s latest diplomatic battle has been with the Spanish socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

According to the Buenos Aires Times, for most heads of state, it would be unthinkable to visit another nation, skip meeting its leader and, instead, attend an opposition rally.

But for President Javier Milei, it’s just another poke-in-the-eye trip. To a historic ally, no less.

Milei, who spent his campaign bashing his nation’s top trading partners, arrived in Madrid recently for a visit that did nothing to improve fast-deteriorating relations with the Spanish government.

The pair didn’t meet during Milei’s three days in the Spanish capital.

Instead, the libertarian Argentine leader spent a day at a rally for Vox — the far-right party that is Sánchez’s fiercest critic and that seeks to make significant gains in June’s European parliamentary elections. He publicly and forcefully accused Sanchez’s wife directly of corruption, and criticised the ruling Socialist Party’s policies from the podium of Vox’s convention.

One of Don Quixote’s musings was “to dream the impossible dream”.

Can President Milei achieve the impossible dream of ending the hold the traditional 20^th century left has had on Latin American leaders and create a new socio-economic model that really serves the public interest by implementing an economic system that works?

That is the question.

Time will tell if Milei will be the leader who reaches the impossible dream and shows us what we haven’t yet seen in Latin America’s tumultuous history — a democratic government that can achieve social justice and economic growth for all.