Freedom and the Argentine dilemma

For complicated reasons, Americans — Norteamericanos — usually pay more attention to European, and perhaps even

Asian, politics than to those of

South America.

Quick, name the president of Paraguay! I can't. But

I bet you can, as

I can, name the prime minister of Britain, and the president of France.

It's only when a true whack job of the left or the right gains power in all the Americas south of the border that we perk up.

So, Argentina. I was going to write this just to course-correct the prevailing opinion in some circles that Javier Milei, its new president, is some kind of massive proponent of “freedom.” For a freedom-loving fellow, he sure is in the pocket of his country's military, which within recent memory ran the government as a dictatorship, killing — “disappearing” — some 30,000 citizens there. He prefers to say they only pushed, like, 10,000 people out of planes over the Atlantic. I thought libertarians were supposed to be for personal choice, but Milei is a radical anti-abortionist. He's appointed a known neo-Nazi as state attorney. His vice president, Victoria Villarruel, comes from a military family, is openly pro-dictatorial, and says of the crimes of the military dictatorship: “What happened in Argentina was an internal armed conflict, a low-intensity war.”

But rather than pontificate about the obvious in a country I've never visited, I talked with my friend, the Altadena artist Ana Marini-Genzon, an Argentinian American who is also my Spanish teacher. She just returned from a five-week visit to her homeland, and saw much of the election unfold in that time.

She sees the real problems with electing an eccentric nut. Milei's notion of using the dollar for currency is a wild one. Problem is, with 140% inflation — compare that with our paltry 3% — Argentines are already stuffing dollars into their mattresses and safe-deposit boxes. So she couldn't face the idea of voting for Sergio Massa, either. His Peronism is responsible for the featherbedding of union jobs in the government, which helps create inflation, and with simply printing money rather than reining in spending. So Ana chose not to vote at all.

“The new generations didn't live through the struggles” with the military dictatorship's repression that “older people did,” Ana said. With the vote, “They are saying they are tired, they want something new. The last two administrations were disasters. I'm not against helping communities in need — but the instability in those governments! The inflation is so terrible! So how could people choose that guy Massa?”

But during her trip, Ana also attended a high school reunion. About 10 fellow students from her school were among las perdidas — disappeared by the dictatorship in the 1970s. The reunion began with their photos on a screen. Tears were shed. Ana fears some Argentines will favor a military government again. But the problems with the Peronists are clear. “A country with an economy that in the `50s was one of the best in the world is now devastated,” she said. “Whoever's in power uses the money for their own benefit. There is a reason many of us are not in that country anymore.”

Ana's and my mutual friend Marcelo Igonda, also an emigre from Argentina, told me: “Many voters, including ourselves, profoundly disliking the choice between Massa and Milei (Peronism versus an unknown farright candidate with divisive positions on reproductive rights and gun control and little legislative support) chose to abstain from voting.”

Argentina is a country of great beauty and high culture. Yet its politics and economy make ours look fantastic. And military government is a bad one. Que te vaya bien, porteños.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com