At the end of the last century, Latin America faced serious problems caused by the economic policies of neoliberalism, which led to the de facto dictatorship of transnational corporations and the World Bank in a number of countries. The consequences of this were terrible — from mass poisoning due to the privatization of water supply and the collapse of strategic enterprises (with subsequent purchase dirt-cheap by external players) to a sharp jump in unemployment and mass riots.
Although some states, especially those with energy reserves, managed to fight their way free from this trap after a while, thanks to rising hydrocarbon prices and a change of governments to socially oriented (leftist) ones, there are now obvious signs of a return of external control over a number of countries. A striking example is Argentina, where inflation is skyrocketing, and former banker and self-proclaimed anarchist Javier Milei as president, is taking measures to alienate national assets and strengthen foreign capital controls.
Thus, over the past 13 months, the country’s national debt has grown by 97.114 billion US dollars. This is a record figure: no government, as well as the government of Mauricio Macri in 2018, had an exorbitant debt to the IMF, and would have increased it by such an amount over such a period. For comparison, the debt of the governments of Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernandez increased by $ 147.971 billion. At the time of the end of the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the national public debt amounted to 222.703 billion US dollars (60% of it was accounted for by the public sector, which was at the disposal of the ANSeS Sustainability Guarantee Fund, official banks, various Argentine trust funds, etc.) and as of December 2023, it had grown to 370.674 billion US dollars (mainly the creditors are the IMF and Manhattan-based Financial Capital). Since debt is directly linked to bonds, this indicates that someone has received good dividends.
The government, which generates such debt, in turn, has spent at least $22 billion on maintaining the balance sheet as of February 2025. Last year, it spent almost $16 billion on the so-called “dollar mix” according to the system that the IMF provided for financing and continues using at the present time.
The trade surplus in 2024 was $18.889 billion, but the Central Bank’s net reserves are negative and amount to at least $6 billion.
Desperate to increase exports, the government even allowed the sale of big cattle abroad, and in order to facilitate the inflow of US dollars to the Central Bank, banks were allowed to issue dollar loans to any customer (dollars are exchanged for pesos at the official exchange rate of the Central Bank), both companies and individuals.
And Milei is actively and intentionally continuing this strategy. On March 10, the final version of the decree by which Javier Milei’s government signed a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund was distributed to government officials. According to this five-article text, the president issues a decree “of necessity and urgency” (DNU) approving “public lending operations contained in a new Extended Fund Facility program ” between the government and the IMF, and has indicated that they will have a ten-year “repayment period.” The decree also states that the President must use his “powers” to ensure compliance with the agreement, which he may eventually delegate to the Ministry of Economy.
The DNU also highlights the critical condition of the country’s Central Bank and this is presented as an argument to which the president refers to justify that this mechanism does not “follow the usual procedure of laws.” In other words, we are talking about a de facto dictatorship.
For its part, the direct intervention of the Central Bank, which sells dollars from international reserves and the Treasury, is increasing, and since February 2025, the ANSeS Sustainability Guarantee Fund, after appointing as its head Fernando Bearzi, associated with the Noctua offshore structure in the Cayman Islands, has been selling securities in dollars.
Analysts point out that this is not done because of the mere Milei’s stupidity, but because of his connections with international financial institutions, which he actually came from. Just as George Soros educated the political elite in a number of countries (the current Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are vivid examples in the former Soviet Union landscape), international banking capital also pushes forward its henchmen (another example is French President Emmanuel Macron, who worked for the Rothschild entity).
Therefore, the sectors that have benefited can be grouped into a number of interrelated interest groups. This is, first of all: 1) foreign capital, led by large financial funds (BlackRock, Vanguard, PIMCO, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, Greylock, etc.), which are united by the Argentine-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) and to which the economic team led by Caputo and Bausili reports;
2) The Association of Entrepreneurs of Argentina (AEA), headed by Jaime Campos, affiliated with the U.S. Embassy. The main managers and vice presidents of AEA are Paolo Rocca (Techint), Héctor Magnetto (Clarín) and Luis Pagani (Arcor), as well as Cristiano Ratazzi (FIAT), Alfredo Coto (Coto Supermarket), Sebastián Bagó (Laboratorios Bagó), Luis Perez Company (Molinos Agro), Eduardo Elsztain (IRSA), Alejandro Bulgheroni (PAE), etc.;
3) The Argentine Agroindustrial Council (CAA), which was formed in July 2020 with more than 40 chambers and organizations such as CONINAGRO ((The General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives), the Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA) and the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA), and covers almost all members of valuable agricultural, grain and meat, poultry, vaccines and pigs producers’ networks; industries and enterprises related, in particular, to the production of soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, peanuts, cotton, timber and fisheries; and exporting companies established at the Grain Exporters Center (CEC), which includes Deheza General Oiler, COFCO, Cargill, Viterra, Louis Dreyfus, Molinos Agro, and others. Added to this are Grain Exchanges and pickers across the country, bringing together producers, pickers, marketers, industrialists, biofuel producers, and exporters.
All these sectors (which are interconnected with each other) have benefited and are benefiting from the exodus of capital from the country and the switch of the debt burden on the Argentine people.
Cristina de Kirchner, commenting on the situation, said bluntly: “Stop lying to people Milei… nobody believes you. In fact, you are so desperate because you lack dollars that you are going to end up making a terrible deal for the interests of the country by exchanging a “cheap” and controllable debt for another “more expensive debt” that, in addition, subjects Argentina to permanent extortion…”
However, no one raises the question of how to fix the situation. The next presidential election is not coming soon, and the country continues to slide into the abyss.
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