As Trump bails out the Argentinian president, Gwynne Dyer ponders the contempt that Latin America faces from the rest of the world

Javier Milei, the Elon Musk-wannabe who became president of Argentina two years ago, chainsaw in hand, is now in deep trouble with the voters, and the mid-term elections are due this month.

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He has the same political agenda as Donald Trump, give or take a folly or two, so he asked his populist big brother for help, and Trump delivered.

Milei faces $20 billion of foreign debt repayments next year and there was no money in the kitty, so Trump bailed Argentina out with a $20 billion currency swap. But Argentines still seemed quite cross at Milei’s huge cuts in jobs and public services, and they needed a bigger incentive to vote for him.

President Donald J. Trump Welcomes Argentine President Javier Milei @JMilei to the White House. 🇺🇸🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/EJi52ta7C6

Sitting in the White House with Milei last Tuesday, Trump told the Argentine people, “You know, our approvals are somewhat subject to who wins the election. If [Milei] loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.”

Or as the real mafia used to put it: “Nice little country you’ve got here. It would be a shame if something happened to it.”

Shamefully, Milei did not reject that........

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