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 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 the same thing.
Thus, this Saturday, Manuel Ortiz spoke on the PenÃnsula 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 environment is and is perceived at hours of 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 accompanies 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 night there, right.
Samuel Cortes: Well, not yet, but we are already around 5 in the afternoon.
Manuel: Samuel, you are there to cover what is happening right now in Argentina, particularly the massive mobilizations that are 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 is perceived, but it is not a very simple statement to make, because there is also a 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 is added that, as you say, March 24 commemorates the Day of Remembrance, articulated by the victims of state terrorism carried out by the last military dictatorship of Argentina and it is celebrated that day because on March 24, 76, 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, labor 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 plan to participate.
Regarding the previous thing you mentioned, the climate, I see a very polarized Argentina, precisely for this reason that I tell you, although there is a lot of articulation against President Milei, it is also true that it is not at all difficult to find on the street , in the conversation, in the casual exchange with the Argentines, a thirst for Milei's government to work on what it promised to shake up the political elite, to improve the economy through alleged cuts to public spending, which this president counterpart with waste, with waste, malfunctioning of the state, of public affairs.
The problem is that this discourse actually hides a privatizing agenda among the elites and that it is not going to alleviate the social needs of the community of Argentina, but on the contrary it is going to worsen poverty, it is going to burst public services, it is going to burst social assistance, and benefits 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 to explain its 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 characters ?shocking? very "spectacular", they know how to take the microphone, social networks, promising that they will submit to the political elite and identify 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, then from the left, from the positions of social struggle, is shocking because it is known that, for example in the case of Trump, he belongs directly to the economic political 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 it instead of just doing the ideological analysis of where these presidents, these charismatic leaders, are placed, understanding why they speak to a community.
I think that Javier Milei had the cunning of being a vociferator who knew how to stir up that discontent that evidently in Argentina is one of the daily problems of all people, because the inflationary numbers are very high, the economic instability is permanent, the uncertainty is permanent , and for a long time carrying his personality like a lightning bolt that promises that the corrupt political system will collapse, and since these 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, this also entails direct 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. to the victims of violence in Argentina, that polarizes public opinion.
There is a taste among his sympathizers for humiliating left-wing citizens, his presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, has the same role as a troll and another significant aspect is that he is not a president of ideas, he is not a president who takes the lead. word to make political harangues, to analyze the historical moment that Argentina is experiencing, if not he is simply a vociferator.
It is not that presidents have to be intellectuals, but that there is no closeness to making a real understanding of Latin America, he is rather placing a privatization agenda with the pretext that he is fighting against the political elite that he called the caste.
Manuel Ortiz: A vociferator, I like that term. I also find it very interesting with the characters you compare it to, they have this whole line of shouters; Donald Trump, who we know very well here in the United States.
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