Argentina’s populist president meets billionaire Elon Musk in Texas

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — One is an erratic billionaire entrepreneur and self-declared free-speech absolutist, susceptible to profanity-laden rants in opposition to “wokeness” and obsessive about making humanity a multi-planetary species.

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The opposite is an iconoclastic Latin American chief and self-declared anarcho-capitalist, susceptible to cloning his lifeless canines and obsessive about destroying state controls.

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Tech government Elon Musk and Argentine President Javier Milei lastly sealed their budding bromance Friday at a Tesla electrical automotive manufacturing facility in Texas — their first assembly after months of mutual admiration on social media.

It was a match made in free-market heaven.

In social media posts that thrilled their right-wing followers, the pair performed up their real-life friendship.

“To an thrilling & inspiring future!” Musk wrote on X, or Twitter because it was recognized earlier than he purchased it in 2022, together with a photograph of him and Milei each grinning extensively and giving the digicam two thumbs up, the libertarian president’s trademark gesture.

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“Lengthy dwell freedom, dammit!” Milei wrote in his personal X submit, which included a selfie of the pair, with the president sporting his signature leather-based bomber and Musk in his Air Power Academy navy sports activities jacket.

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The assembly was closed to the press and a press release from Milei’s workplace produced little information, saying the free-market lovers mentioned points, starting from the anticipated (learn how to promote entrepreneurship by slashing red-tape) to the random (the existential hazard posed by declining start charges).

Milei’s workplace stated that the president provided to assist Musk within the conflict between social media firm X and Brazilian authorities, which have accused Musk of obstruction for defying a choose’s order to dam some accounts.

The 2 additionally agreed to host “a giant occasion quickly in Argentina to advertise the concepts of freedom,” the Argentine presidency stated, however offered no additional particulars.

However behind the smiley photo-op — and video of Milei’s pleasure trip in a futuristic Cybertruck pickup — a lot was at stake for Argentina.

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Assist from the U.S. — significantly on the Worldwide Financial Fund, to which Argentina owes over $42 billion — is vital to boosting investor confidence within the South American nation, as Milei seeks to overtake a damaged economic system with market-oriented insurance policies.

With the revival of socialist governments throughout Latin America, from Chile to Brazil, consultants say Argentina is now poised to emerge as a key strategic companion for Washington.

“There’s an opportunity that Argentina can fill this vacuum and finally be a strategic companion for the U.S.,” stated Sergio Berensztein, who runs a political consultancy in Buenos Aires. “Musk can serve to hurry this technique of Argentina turning into a part of the (U.S.) new community of pals.”

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Final month, Musk’s firm delivered Starlink satellite tv for pc web service to Argentina, a transfer cheered by farmers struggling to maintain up with high-tech agriculture in distant components of the nation.

Gerardo Werthein, Argentina’s ambassador to the U.S., attended Friday’s assembly and informed La Nacion newspaper that Milei and Musk mentioned Argentina’s huge reserves of strategic minerals, together with lithium, an indispensable ingredient in batteries for electrical vehicles.

“He expressed wanting to assist Argentina, and had an excellent view of every thing we now have, primarily lithium,” Werthein stated of Musk.

Milei’s love without spending a dime markets and shut alignment with U.S. coverage — a serious shift after years of left-wing governments that adopted interventionist insurance policies and strained relations with Washington — has raised hopes within the U.S. that lithium and different badly wanted metals may be extracted nearer to house, breaking China’s dominance of the battery provide chain.

Analysts say {that a} profitable vitality transition within the U.S. will demand much more lithium and different important commodities than the nation is now on observe to supply.

“We would like to have the ability to localize our provide chain to the best extent so that you’re not transporting supplies all the way in which world wide,” stated Ben Steinberg, a former Division of Power senior adviser and present government vice chairman at authorities affairs agency Venn Methods. “The U.S. has a whole lot of curiosity in working domestically and with South American international locations like Argentina.”

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