President Javier Milei fired his Foreign Minister Diana Mondino after Argentina voted to condemn the US embargo on Cuba at the United Nations Assembly. The far-right leader’s logical vote, aligned with the United States and Israel, would have been against the resolution and contradicted the country’s historical position. Mondino has a predictable replacement in this context: Gerardo Werthein, current Argentine ambassador to Washington DC.
Milei’s foreign policy has been erratic in eleven months of government and the departure of Mondino, a right-wing liberal economist, is paradoxical: it strengthens the conservative turn. The world was shocked that Argentina did not sign the G20 declaration on gender equality and global warming and opposed the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The name “Falklands” had never before appeared in a Foreign Office communiqué; nor was this material distributed with an Argentine map on which the Malvinas Islands were not visible – which the ministry later assumed were errors.
McCarthyism to diplomats
The vote against the blockade of Cuba broke the window of the Casa Rosada with the chancellor. The presidency announced Mondino’s “resignation” and explained without doubt the reasons: “Our country is categorically opposed to the Cuban dictatorship.” According to the press release, “Argentina is going through a period of profound change and this new stage requires that our diplomatic corps reflect in every decision the values of freedom, sovereignty and individual rights that characterize Western democracies.” A sort of McCarthyism will open up within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The executive announced that it “will begin an audit of career staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the aim of identifying promoters of agendas hostile to freedom.”
What was new until Mondino’s departure was that Argentina’s zigzagging diplomacy had decided to preserve one of its historic positions. In New York, Argentina was one of 187 countries that rejected the blockade against the island. Only two countries opposed it: none other than Israel and the United States, and Moldova abstained.
In the same way that Cuba obtains strong support from the UN year after year to end the blockade, Argentina usually obtains a declaration from the Decolonization Committee for Britain to open a dialogue table on the Falklands. The Cuban government has always accompanied Argentina in its claim to sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, a flag that Milei and the foreign minister so far have downplayed during the first months of their government.
“Improvisation and inexperience”
“Improvisation and inexperience in foreign policy are reflected in the same characteristics in economic policy,” explains political analyst Atilio Boron to elDiario.es. “A foreign policy of absolute alignment with the United States and Israel, of rupture with the integration of Latin America, neocolonial, where we renounce all sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands”, affirms the professor of University of Buenos Aires and the University of Avellaneda. . And Boron adds: “Mondino was responsible for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the series of controversies that took place with Spain, China, Brazil, Colombia: Milei’s foreign policy was a means of insulting leaders who he considered “left-handers” and “communists”. ”
It is worth noting that the crisis triggered by Milei’s insults against Pedro Sánchez in Madrid last May seems to have subsided recently. The Spanish government announced this Tuesday the appointment of Joaquín María de Arístegui Laborde as ambassador to Buenos Aires.
A bridge to Trump
The vote against the economic blockade would even have logic in Milei’s ultraliberal thinking, since La Libertad Avanza (ruling party) should oppose the commercial and economic siege that the United States has imposed on the island since 1962 and which, according to the Cuban government, this cost it between March 2023 and February 2024 a loss of 5,056.8 million dollars.
Before Diana Mondino’s official and unstated statement, Milei left a clear message by sharing a tweet from PRO MP Sabrina Ajmechet. “Proud of a government that does not bank and is not complicit with dictators. “Long live #CubaLibre,” wrote the deputy and UBA professor, a great message for Mondino.
As confirmed first by the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, and then by the presidency, Gerardo Werthein, Argentina’s ambassador to Washington DC, will replace Mondino. Such an appointment goes in the direction of attracting even more good graces from the northern country. Milei has already positioned herself in favor of Donald Trump during the November 5 elections. “I hope to see you again, next time as president,” the Argentine president declared to the Republican tycoon in February, during the CPAC conference in Washington. Werthein coordinated the six private trips Milei took to the United States to meet with businessmen, including Elon Musk.
The newly appointed chancellor is a businessman with family heritage. Member of the holding company that bears his name, he has developed activities in the fields of agriculture, energy, real estate, telecommunications, agri-food and health. At the same time, he participated in public management and was president of the Argentine Olympic Committee under the governments of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Mauricio Macri and part of Alberto Fernández. He left the Werthein group three years ago and is a shareholder in the newspaper El Cronista and the Uruguayan multimedia El Observador, which now owns a radio station of the same name in Buenos Aires, linked to officialism.
