\u201cThe Argentine president\u2019s expressions have deteriorated the trust of our nation and offended the dignity of President (Gustavo) Petro, who was elected democratically,\u201d the Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Of Petro, a former guerilla who became Colombia\u2019s first left-wing president following a 2022 election victory, Milei said, \u201cYou can\u2019t expect much from someone who was a terrorist murderer.\u201d <\/p>\n
Milei, a former television pundit with a reputation for bombast, also attacked Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador in the interview, calling him \u201cignorant.\u201d <\/p>\n
L\u00f3pez Obrador, a left-wing populist, has previously criticized Milei\u2019s policies and compared him to a dictator. On Thursday, in a post on social media, L\u00f3pez Obrador hit back, wondering why Argentinians \u201cvoted for someone who is not right, who despises the people.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the nearly hour-long interview, conducted in Buenos Aires, Milei also defended Israel\u2019s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, saying its war in Gaza is \u201cwithin the rule of law.\u201d <\/p>\n
Milei, who was born Catholic but has expressed a wish to convert to Judaism, said that his meeting in February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the warmest he had held since entering office. <\/p>\n
Milei also admitted he privately hopes former President\u00a0Donald Trump wins the US election in November, but that he intends to be an ally with the United States regardless of who will\u00a0be\u00a0in the White House next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cArgentina\u2019s allies are the United States and Israel; it\u2019s not a secret my ideas are more akin to those of the Republican party, but we have an excellent relationship with the Democrats too,\u201d Milei told Oppenheimer. <\/p>\n
Milei also reiterated his intention to shut down the country\u2019s central bank, calling the institution a \u201cmechanism of fraud.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cA central bank is a fairly recent invention. Argentina\u2019s was founded in 1925, and our country was a world power before that,\u201d Milei said, without elaborating who would be responsible for fiscal policy in the country if the Central Bank ceased to exist. <\/p>\n
Milei admitted his reform push has stalled in Argentina\u2019s Congress in recent weeks, but his government maintains the intention to close the central bank within three years. Closing the bank was a central promise of his campaign, as he sought to assure voters he could right the country\u2019s floundering economy. <\/p>\n
In the interview, Milei claimed his government\u2019s greatest success since entering office in December has been to beat the hyper-inflation and achieve a fiscal surplus for the first time in years. <\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s inflation rate remains the highest in the world at over 270% year on year, but data published this month suggests that price rises have calmed in March compared to February. <\/p>\n
Milei celebrated Argentina\u2019s fiscal surplus, achieved last month for the first time in years, and said that fiscal stability is \u201ca beacon\u201d of his government. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident that soon, inflation will go back to single digits,\u201d Milei said. \u201cIt could be May, we are not sure, but what we are clear about is that this policy is here to stay and for us, zero deficit is like the main mast for Ulysses.\u201d <\/p>\n
Milei\u2019s government achieved fiscal parity this year with a robust set of cuts to government spending, including shutting down the Argentina national press agency TELAM and reducing aid to soup kitchens in the poorest suburbs of Buenos Aires. <\/p>\n
Argentina\u2019s poverty rate is over 50%, according to a report from the Argentina\u2019s Catholic University in Buenos Aires. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Argentine president\u2019s expressions have deteriorated the trust of our nation and offended the dignity of President (Gustavo) Petro, who was elected democratically,\u201d the Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Of Petro, a former guerilla who became Colombia\u2019s first left-wing president following a 2022 election victory, Milei said, \u201cYou can\u2019t expect much from <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}