Forget black-tie dinners or summits at picturesque locales.

The irascible leaders of some of Latin America’s biggest countries are instead taking a decidedly disdainful approach to diplomatic relations. In a region far from global conflicts, presidents here are instead embroiled in the kind of verbal spats commonly found on schoolyards—a war of words playing out on television and via posts on X.


Cutting to the chase
“Ignoramus,” Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, said last week of his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Fascist,” López Obrador shot back.

And Venezuela’s government—never apprehensive about issuing put-downs—had caustic words for those criticizing strongman Nicolás Maduro, who last month blocked popular opposition figures from running against him in July’s presidential election.

“Shove your opinions wherever you can fit them,” Foreign Minister Yván Gil said, directing his ire at two normally friendly presidents, Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after they weighed in gingerly against the measure.

Argentina’s Milei, a libertarian economist who’s not one for speaking softly and carrying a big stick, tends to find himself in the middle of most every melee.



After all, he has lashed out at leftist opponents in Argentina as “useless parasites” and “human excrement.” During last year’s presidential campaign, he deployed a chain saw to show how he’d destroy old institutions.

“This is no time for nice words and good manners,” he said.

He has carried that conviction into the presidency and foreign relations—as was on full display in an interview this past week with host Andrés Oppenheimer on CNN en Español

Milei called the authoritarian leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela—countries with no free or fair elections—“truly despicable” and Latin America’s worst presidents.



“After them, there are other cases on the same path, like Colombia, with Mr. Petro,” said Milei, entering delicate ground since Petro was elected in 2022 in a free vote. “You can’t expect much from someone who had been a murderous terrorist, a communist.”

A member of a leftist rebel group in his youth, Petro, too, has rarely held back—often insulting leaders whose policies, particularly conservative ones, he doesn’t like.

He’s gotten into a row with Israel’s ambassador over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza. And he accused El Salvador President Nayib Bukele of running concentration camps by jailing thousands of suspected gang members.

Bukele took the bait with glee, noting El Salvador’s sharp decline in homicides and Colombia’s trouble with crime. And when Petro’s son became enmeshed in a corruption scandal last year, Bukele responded: “Everything OK at home?”

Petro and Milei clashed last year when the Colombian leader compared Milei to Hitler and backed his opponent. It seems Milei hasn’t forgotten.

López Obrador—perhaps still smarting from when Milei called the Mexican politician’s supporters the “small-penises club”—entered the latest fray by branding the Argentine “a conservative fascist” and expressing surprise that Argentines had elected him.



“Thank you Andrés Manuel,” Petro wrote back. “I think Milei is looking to destroy, or at least delay, Latin American integration.”

This is hardly the first time the region has erupted in an insult-fest, although many of the past barbs tended to be aimed at the U.S. Fidel Castro, the late Cuban dictator, famously called President Ronald Reagan “a madman, an imbecile and a bum” in the 1980s after the U.S. leader included Cuba in a group of outlaw states that sponsor terrorism. Reagan described the leaders of those nations as “the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich.”

Access to social media seems to be adding fuel to the flames these days, says Michael Shifter, a longtime scholar of Latin America at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington

“You have lots of leaders in Latin America that really love using Twitter and relish sparring with other leaders,” he said. “They are naturally combative and polarizing figures. If they control their social-media accounts, the temptation is irresistible.”

The concern for some is the war of words can lead to actions that could seriously damage relations. It seems, in fact, that’s happened.



Venezuela’s regime turned off water and power to the Argentine embassy last week after six opposition activists sought refuge, leading Milei’s government to call on Maduro officials to respect diplomatic protocols.

Maduro had previously called the Argentine leader “an outlaw” after the Argentine government had turned over to the U.S. a Venezuelan aircraft suspected of carrying crew members tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“They stole our plane…Crazy Milei!” said Venezuela’s Maduro in a Feb. 15 speech. “He acts crazy, or is crazy, or both.”

After Argentina said it would take diplomatic actions against Venezuela for prohibiting access to its airspace, Venezuela’s foreign minister accused Milei of running a “neo-Nazi government” that was “submissive and obedient to its imperial master,” referring to the U.S.

Argentina, which has become a leading critic of Venezuela’s crackdown on the opposition, brushed off the insults.

“What more can you expect from a donkey besides a kick?” said Argentina’s presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni.

Eric Farnsworth, a former high-ranking State Department diplomat, is exasperated by what he’s seeing.


The Colombian government threatened to expel Argentine diplomats after the president of that country, Javier Milei, called his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, a ‘murderous terrorist.’

“A lot of it just seems so unnecessary,” said Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas policy group in Washington. “What’s the point of this?”

Héctor Fernando Córdoba, a retired accountant in Buenos Aires who backs Milei, is also wondering. He likes Milei’s free-market economic policies and tough austerity measures.

Still, he’d rather the president focus on fixing Argentina’s inflation-ravaged economy. “This fight just brings more complications for people who today need solutions,” he said.

But Milei isn’t one to back down from a verbal donnybrook. He had some choice words for Mexico’s president.

“It’s an honor that an ignoramus like López Obrador talks badly about me,” Milei said. “I’m flattered.”

LINK; https://www.wsj.com/world/insu...cb?mod=hp_lista_pos1

Nice to see the general rule of “If it angers State, do it.” Holds true…

If you can't nuke 'em, call 'em a poopy head, that's what I always say.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
“Shove your opinions wherever you can fit them,” Foreign Minister Yván Gil said

Consider this one stolen! Has a nice ring to it.

Most people in Argentina are having a rough time. Poverty is advancing at giant steps.
Very few are willing to acknowledge this is just the results of the previous decades of Kirchneristas ruling the country. We would be having pretty much the same shitstorm had they stayed in power with a Finance Minister that promised he would fix the economy once he got elected.

Milei is shutting down ministries, national and regional agencies that were pretty much useless but generously overstaffed with political activists and or appointees. No big loss. Of course there are those who did their jobs among them but they are few and less relevant.

Unemployment will naturally rise, as these State leeches are now back in the much shrunk market.

Just wondering what will happen when Milei runs out of steam… The Unions, the ones raised to live off government handouts and the now struggling workers in general, still dealing with monthly double digits inflation are hurting and the first two groups are not used to work to improve their situation.

Just my uneducated opinion.

0-0

Latin America, doing Latin America things....

Milei is a unique figure, I hope the best for Argentina but he and his administration have a tough hill to climb as much of the population has been conditioned to expect govt handouts/programs due to their failed policies. Petro in Colombia is basically undoing everything his predecessors had achieved thru minimizing/eliminating FARC and coddling the narcos, he's a former terrorist and a hard-Lefty like AMLO. Speaking of AMLO, like many previous Mexican presidents, he's spouting-off about the US now that he's in the final year of his presidency, only he's unabashedly not hiding his socialist sympathies which naturally plays well to the Cubans and Venezuelans.

Sometimes, it would be nice if the “Right-Wing Conspiracy” was competent enough to exist.