Argentina

I Went Looking for a Libertarian Miracle in Argentina. I Found Something Messier.

After a week in Buenos Aires, I found Milei’s economic revolution is real—and deeply divisive.

Reem Ibrahim | 9.10.2026 3:00 PM

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(Credit: Reem Ibrahim)

"The first thing we have to understand is that the state is not the solution," Javier Milei said in his famous 2023 Afuera! video. "The state is the problem."

The world was shocked, and many gawked, as they watched a politician who espoused contempt for the state actually deliver electoral success. In the three years since, Milei has made good on his promise to shrink the size of the state—eliminating 200 departments and 10 ministries.

After spending a week in the country's capital, Buenos Aires, eating empanadas and way too much steak (if that is even possible), hanging out with strangers in bars, and meeting the libertarians who fostered the intellectual movement that put a self-described anarcho-capitalist in charge, it's safe to say that Argentines agree things have changed. There is disagreement, however, on whether these changes have been for the better.

Last week, I was in Argentina to attend the Winds of Change conference, hosted by Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this magazine), the Archbridge Institute, and Libertad y Progreso—a Buenos Aires-based think tank. The final session was a keynote address by Milei himself. Unsurprisingly, attendees were almost fanatical about the president, who spoke for over an hour, mostly about his success in curbing inflation—which has fallen from 211 percent in 2023 to 31.6 percent in 2025.

While Milei's liberalism has been staunch and successful when it comes to the economy, libertarians at the conference and abroad have raised concerns about the president's views on social issues. He opposes abortion and the "LGBT agenda," and after citing a story about a gay American couple who were jailed for abusing their children, he said that "in its most extreme forms, gender ideology is outright child abuse. They are pedophiles." Argentina's vice........

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