Argentina’s Trump-loving president was whisked away from a rally by his security goons when protesters started lobbing rocks and bottles at him.
Javier Milei, who ingratiated himself in MAGA circles when he presented Elon Musk with a chainsaw in Washington, D.C. in February, is embroiled in a corruption scandal.
“Milei came to provoke. And well, he had to leave, as was fitting,” one protester said, after Milei, seen as Argentina’s own mini Trump, was forced into a hasty exit as bottles, rocks, and even plant pots were launched.
Tempers boiled over as the 54-year-old, vying for success in the country’s October midterm elections, was passing through a neighborhood in the city of Lomas de Zamora, 12.5 miles south of Buenos Aires, on Wednesday.
Minutes earlier, Milei had spoken about the scandal engulfing Argentina. The former head of the country’s disability agency, Diego Spagnuolo, has leaked audio recordings that accuse Milei’s influential sister, Karina Milei, of receiving kickbacks from pharmaceutical sales to Argentina’s disability services agency.
She was made General Secretary of the Presidency of the Argentine Nation by her brother in December 2023.
He broke his silence on the scandal minutes before the skirmish around his vehicle, which then led to clashes between protestors and supporters. “Everything [Spagnuolo] says is a lie,” he told reporters. He added, “We are going to bring him to justice and prove he lied.”
Make Argentina great again. pic.twitter.com/MEFzP84RIW
— Manuel Adorni (@madorni) February 24, 2024
The president and his sister, who was also in the convoy, were unhurt in the ensuing crowd trouble, according to presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni. He wrote on X, “Militants of the old politics, pure Kirchnerism, and a model of violence that only the cavemen of the past want: they attacked with stones the caravan where the President of the Nation was located.
“There are no injuries. The only thing there is, is many who are heading toward the most absolute of oblivions: Kirchnerism never again.”
Sharing an image of a huge rock zipping by Milei’s head, he added, “They could have killed anyone. They don’t care about human life, much less are they going to care about the country. End.”
Milei, who has dramatically slashed public services in Argentina, including decreasing disability services funding, has a close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump hailed him as “a great gentleman” and “one of the few people in politics who is actually getting things done” backstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., in February 2024.
“He’s MAGA, Make Argentina Great Again,” Trump added. The friendliness between the two has continued since, with POTUS saying in March this year that Milei is “great.”
At CPAC in February of this year, Milei gifted then-Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk a chainsaw, representing the brutal approach both men took when cutting state spending. Musk told attendees it was “the chainsaw for bureaucracy.”
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