Turmoil in Argentina

[Ravenlocke]

From DD Geopolitics,

🇺🇸🇻🇪 US Naval Deployment Escalates Near Venezuela

The U.S. Navy has officially deployed USS Lake Erie (CG-70), a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, and USS Newport News (SSN-750), a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine, toward Venezuelan waters.

📍AIS data confirms USS Lake Erie activated its transponder as it transited the Panama Canal, en route to the southern Caribbean. The vessel’s last recorded course places it just west of Panama City with an expected arrival on August 28.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1961110876326617134

[Ravenlocke]

🇦🇷🚨 Argentine police have launched raids on firms linked to a growing corruption scandal involving Karina Milei, sister and top advisor of President Javier Milei.

Investigators are reportedly probing irregular contracts and alleged influence peddling tied to Karina’s inner circle.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1961798563874373946

[Vicus]

The "Purge" began...

A Strategic Defeat for Milei

The election result in Buenos Aires has enormous political symbolism. The province concentrates more than a third of the national electorate and is the country’s productive heartland. Javier Milei’s defeat in this district not only weakens his political project but also opens up cracks within his support base.

Milei’s speech after acknowledging the setback was ambiguous: he accepted the defeat but reaffirmed that he would not change the course of his economic program or his austerity policies.

While some analysts suggest that Milei could double down on the liberal gamble, others believe that this scenario favors the opposition, which is already beginning to emerge as a real alternative for 2027.

What is certain is that Buenos Aires marked a clear limit to the libertarian experiment.

Will Milei Endure His Mandate Until 2027?

The question that is growing on the streets and among political analysts is whether Javier Milei will be able to withstand the next two years of government.

The defeat in the country’s largest province is an early symptom of his political wear and tear.

Although he retains support in urban and rural sectors, his credibility is rapidly eroding when promises of “austerity” turn into brutal cuts that affect food, health, education, and social programs.

Social patience is running out, and, as the cycles of Argentine history teach us, popular mood can change in a flash.

A Historic Opportunity for Progressivism

The victory in Buenos Aires should be interpreted not as a destination but as a starting point. Argentine progressivism has the responsibility to renew its project, democratize its structures, and propose a transformative agenda for the new decade.

A Country in Dispute

The 2025 elections in Buenos Aires made it clear that Argentina is going through a historic battle over its direction as a nation.

Between a savage neoliberalism that punishes the weakest and a progressivism that seeks to rebuild a horizon of dignity and social justice, the future of democracy is at stake.

The task today is not only to defeat Milei’s project at the polls but to build a national project capable of inspiring, including, and convincing those who feel abandoned today.

The challenge is enormous, but so is the opportunity to write, from the South, a new page of hope.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/2025-...-a-new-decade/

Vicus comment:

Buenos Aires Province Gov. Axel Kicillof not only called the Victory in the provincial legislative elections but now is the number 1 man candidate for next Presidential elections representing the "progressive" Peronism line, eliminating once and for all differences.

[Ravenlocke]

Ben Norton

The US government is preparing a $20+ billion bailout of Javier Milei's failed libertarian experiment in Argentina.

This is a form of election meddling. Trump desperately needs Milei to win the election in October, and he's planning to use large sums of US government money to do it.

Scott Bessent, the billionaire hedge fund manager from Wall Street whom "populist" Trump appointed to run the Treasury, revealed the US plans to give $20 billion in a swap line to Argentina's central bank, so it has the dollars it needs to pay the debt it owes to wealthy bondholders.

Bessent said the US government is also willing to directly buy Argentine bonds in both the primary and secondary markets. This is an attempt to save Argentina's bond market and reduce borrowing costs for Milei, a self-declared "anarcho-capitalist".

Bessent even revealed that the Trump administration is pressuring US companies to "make substantial foreign direct investments" in Argentina "in the event of a positive election outcome" -- ie, if Milei wins.

This is actually existing libertarianism: Milei has destroyed Argentina's economy, but he's made a lot of elites very rich, so the US government is bailing him out and blatantly meddling in a foreign country's election to make sure he stays in power.

Viva la libertad, carajo!

Source: https://reuters.com/world/americas/u...ys-2025-09-24/

https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1971003365103734845

[Ravenlocke]

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇦🇷 Trump congratulated Milei on his party's triumph in the legislative elections today and his upcoming $40 billion bailout.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1982666064413741514

[Ravenlocke]

Russian Market

Javier Milei is celebrating the victory in the Argentine elections — and in Washington, the mood is just as jubilant. According to President Donald Trump, the result has “made the United States a lot of money.”

Markets wasted no time responding. Argentina’s main stock index jumped nearly 20 percent at the opening bell on Monday. The peso surged 12 percent against the dollar, and the country’s dollar bonds gained up to 13 cents across the yield curve. On Wall Street, the Global X MSCI Argentina ETF soared 17 percent, while Banco Macro (BMA) shot up 41 percent and BBVA Argentina (BBAR) climbed 35 percent — all in a single trading day.

Washington’s bet pays off

The US wager on Milei, engineered by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has paid off handsomely. In early October, Bessent orchestrated a $20 billion currency swap between the Federal Reserve and Argentina’s central bank to stabilize the peso ahead of the vote. The intervention calmed markets and helped preserve confidence in Milei’s reform agenda.

“The market will take it from here, with growing confidence in Milei’s direction,” Bessent said on Monday. “The Argentine people have spoken — and they’ve voted for stability.”

A political breakthrough

With 94 percent of votes counted, Milei’s party La Libertad Avanza secured 40.8 percent — outperforming every poll. In Buenos Aires province, a traditional Peronist stronghold, Milei narrowly led with 41.5 percent. Politically, the result gives him more than one-third of the seats in both chambers, enough to push through reforms and defend executive decrees.

Trump’s geopolitical jackpot

In Washington, Milei’s victory is being hailed as a strategic triumph. Trump, who had long praised Milei as a “true fighter against socialism,” now sees him as a key ally in reshaping Latin America’s political and economic order. “If he wins, we stand with him. If not, we walk away,” Trump said back in October.

That bet has paid off. The United States, through a $40 billion mix of public and private capital, has profited from the rally in Argentine assets. Between bond gains and peso exposure, US investors and the government itself have likely pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars on paper.

The chainsaw with a market rally

Milei, who brandished a chainsaw during his campaign as a symbol of his austerity drive, called the election “a victory of freedom over corruption.” But Argentina’s social reality remains harsh: inflation, joblessness, and poverty continue to bite. The country must still service roughly $48 billion in debt by 2027 — a Herculean task even for the self-styled libertarian savior.

For Trump and Milei, however, the election is more than just a political win. It’s a cross-continental alignment — capitalism as a campaign platform, the dollar as the common language.

And while Argentines cheer their new beginning, Washington is quietly counting — not the votes, but the profits.

https://x.com/runews/status/1982809501150400974

[Ravenlocke]

Truth_teller 🇷🇺

Milei has won the midterm elections in Argentina, after introducing the new electoral cheat proof system and while wrecking the economy and needing a $40 billion Trump bailout.

Trump had warned he could axe the aid package if Milei fares poorly in Sunday’s vote, when half of the seats in the 257-member lower house are up for grabs as well as 24 seats in the 72-member senate.

The majority of people in Argentina (53%) are now living in poverty. Their purchasing power and standard of living have been crushed by Milei’s brutal austerity.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Argentines said in June 2024, after half a year of Milei’s rule, that they were worse off economically.

Check out Milei’s JP Morgan alumni advisors giving him great advice:

https://x.com/Truthtellerftm/status/1982718878389051459