The announced visit to Mexico by Argentine President Javier Milei to participate in a summit of the far right has strained relations with the Mexican president, the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Milei is scheduled to participate in a forum of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on August 24 in Mexico City. The organizers of the event and the Argentine government confirmed this week the attendance of the president, a recognized voice of the global far right. Milei will close the event with “a firm message about the urgent need to continue fighting for freedom in Latin America and the world,” according to a statement from the CPAC. This Tuesday, López Obrador said that Milei, like any person, has the freedom to visit Mexico to attend any agenda, but he has refused to meet with him due to political differences. “I do not agree with his way of thinking and his way of being,” said the Mexican president.
This is the second time Milei will visit Mexico to attend a CPAC summit, which brings together conservative and far-right leaders from around the world (the first time, in 2022, he was not yet president of Argentina). In Mexico, the most recognized leader of the conference is the politician and former soap opera actor Eduardo Verástegui, who in the last presidential elections tried, unsuccessfully, to become an independent candidate by waving the ultra code. The CPAC statement highlights the “direct style and commitment to libertarian values” of the Argentine president. “Milei will address the importance of the unwavering defense of individual rights, the reduction of the size of the State and the promotion of an economic system based on market freedom,” it states. “It is expected that he will once again emphasize the central line of his thinking: the fight for freedom is not an option but an obligation for all those who aspire to a future of prosperity and development,” the text adds.
López Obrador has acknowledged the right of the far-right forum to meet and the presence of conservative leaders in Mexico. “It is normal, in our country there are freedoms, anyone can come: president, opposition leader, representative of the right-wing blocs that exist in the world,” he said. “This is a free country, there is no censorship, there is no persecution, there are full freedoms. There is no problem.” Regarding the new visit of his Argentine counterpart, López Obrador has specified: “He is free, and one thing is the Government of Mexico and another thing is the people of Mexico, and our people have always been very hospitable, fraternal and respectful.” The relationship between Milei and López Obrador is going through a moment of tension, which until now has remained at the level of verbal disqualifications, without harming diplomatic ties. While the Argentine called his Mexican counterpart “ignorant” in an interview, López Obrador said that he did not understand how Argentine citizens had voted for a politician who “disdains the people.”
This will be Milei’s 14th trip abroad since he took office as president last December and the third to participate in the CPAC meetings: he was already in Washington in February, where he met with Donald Trump, and in July in Camboriú, Brazil, where he met with former president Jair Bolsonaro. Milei’s repeated trips outside his country, financed by public coffers, have been strongly questioned for their private nature, less linked to the interests of the State than to the installation of his figure as a leader of the global right. In fact, in most of the visits he has made to other nations he has not met with local authorities. To defend itself from criticism, the Executive usually organizes meetings with businessmen to justify Milei’s trips. This Tuesday, the spokesman for the Casa Rosada, Manuel Adorni, announced that on August 23, the day before the conservative conference, the Argentine president plans to meet with businessmen in Mexico.
Source: elpais
