Listen to Samuel Cortes' participation in Por La Libre.
By Pamela Cruz with information from Samuel Cortes. Peninsula 360 Press.
Argentina prepares for a Sunday full of mobilizations against the president's government Javier Milei, all of this in the midst of a polarized environment that has divided the country into those who support the current Argentine administration, and those who are tired and fed up with more of the same.
Thus, this Saturday, Manuel Ortiz spoke on Península 360 Press' mobile community radio station, Por la Libre, with Samuel Cortes, who, from Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, gave an overview of how the atmosphere is and is perceived hours before one of the most intense mobilizations expected in the country of Patagonia.
Manuel Ortiz: We are listening to Triste Cancion de Amor by La Renga, a recommendation from my dear friend and colleague Samuel Cortes, who is joining us from Buenos Aires. How are you, Samuel? Good afternoon.
Samuel Cortes: Very good Manuel, nice to greet you and your audience.
Manuel: Thank you very much for connecting, I think it's nighttime there, right?
Samuel Cortes: Well, not yet, but it's already around 5 in the afternoon.
Manuel: Samuel, you are there to cover what is happening right now in Argentina, particularly the massive mobilizations expected tomorrow. Tell us what is happening there.
Samuel Cortes: Exactly, well I arrived at the beginning of this month, in March, and from the first moment the social heaviness that Javier Milei's government is generating was perceived, but it is not a very easy statement to make, because there is also support for the president, finally we must remember that he won the popular majority, he gathered the largest number of votes in last year's elections, so despite the shocks that his government has generated, he still has significant social support.
And to this we must add that, as you say, March 24 is the Day of Remembrance, articulated by the victims of state terrorism carried out by the last military dictatorship in Argentina and is celebrated on that day because on March 24, 1976, the armed forces carried out a coup d'état, deposing the president and implementing a regime of terror and persecution of left-wing opposition for almost 10 years.
So, for tomorrow, social organizations, activists, memory protectors, workers' organizations, the feminist movement, grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, etc., are summoned to gather in Plaza de Mayo to address Congress. That is the general climate in which I intend to participate.
Regarding what you mentioned before, the climate, I see a very polarized Argentina, precisely because of what I'm telling you, although there is a lot of articulation against President Milei, it is also true that it is not difficult to find on the street, in conversation, in casual exchanges with Argentines a thirst for Milei's government to work on what he promised to shake up the political elite, to improve the economy through alleged cuts to public spending, which this president equates with waste, with squandering, poor functioning of the state, of public affairs.
The problem is that this discourse actually hides a privatizing agenda among the elites and that will not alleviate the social needs of the Argentine community, but on the contrary will aggravate poverty, will ruin public services, will ruin social assistance, and will benefit the richest as has historically happened in the countries of the region in the neoliberal model, more or less that is the scenario in which we find ourselves Manuel.
Manuel Ortiz: Thank you very much Samuel, how would you personally define Javier Milei? How would you explain his popularity in Argentina?
Samuel Cortes: It is a very broad question, but I have the feeling, the analysis that there are two lines that explain it: one is that the right in the region has known how to exploit this need for economic balance that the people have through very “scandalous” characters, they know how to take the microphone, the social networks, promising that the political elite will be submitted and they identify a legitimate social discontent and use it as a flag, it was the case of Yahir Bolsonaro, the case of Donald Trump, it is the case of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, so from the left, from the positions of social struggle it is shocking because it is known that, for example in the case of Trump, he belongs directly to the political economic elite, in the case of Jair Bolsonaro he belongs directly to the military elite, but you have to understand something about the voter who supports him instead of just doing the ideological analysis of where these presidents, these charismatic leaders place themselves, understand why they speak to a community.
I think Javier Milei had the cunning to be a loudmouth who knew how to stir up that discontent that is evidently one of the daily problems of all the people in Argentina, because the inflation figures are very high, the economic instability is permanent, the uncertainty is permanent, and for a long time he has been carrying his personality like a lightning bolt that promises that he will collapse the political system because of its corruption, and since those problems do exist in reality, he knows how to use them to promote himself.
But, personally, imagining him as an individual, in his particular case, I see a very responsible subject, because although he has this appetite to seduce through these speeches, it also entails frontal threats of violence. His speech is very aggressive, as you will remember he even appeared on television waving a chainsaw with the metaphor that he is going to mutilate the State, things like that, but that has emboldened the right-wing forces, the oppressive forces, the fascist groups to attack the victims of violence in Argentina, that polarizes public opinion.
There is a taste among his supporters for humiliating left-wing citizens. His presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, has the same role as a troll. Another significant aspect is that he is not a president of ideas. He is not a president who takes the floor to make political speeches, who makes analyses of the historical moment that Argentina is experiencing, but rather he is simply a shouter.
It is not that presidents have to be intellectuals, but that there is no closeness to achieving a real understanding of Latin America. Rather, he is putting forward a privatization agenda under the pretext that he is fighting against the political elite that he calls the caste.
Manuel Ortiz: A loudmouth, I like that term. I find it very interesting also with the characters you compare him, they have this whole line of loudmouths; Donald Trump, who we know very well here in the United States.
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