By ISABEL DEBRE (Related Press)
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.
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.
Tech government Elon Musk and Argentine President Javier Milei lastly sealed their budding bromance Friday at a Tesla electrical automobile 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 digital camera two thumbs up, the libertarian president’s trademark gesture.
“Lengthy stay freedom, dammit!” Milei wrote in his personal X publish, 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.
The assembly was closed to the press and a press release from Milei’s workplace produced little information, saying the free-market fanatics mentioned points, starting from the anticipated (the right way to promote entrepreneurship by slashing red-tape) to the random (the existential hazard posed by declining start charges).
Milei’s workplace mentioned that the president supplied 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 “an enormous occasion quickly in Argentina to advertise the concepts of freedom,” the Argentine presidency mentioned, however supplied no additional particulars.
However behind the smiley photo-op — and video of Milei’s pleasure journey in a futuristic Cybertruck pickup — a lot was at stake for Argentina.
Help from the U.S. — notably on the Worldwide Financial Fund, to which Argentina owes over $42 billion — is important to boosting investor confidence within the South American nation, as Milei seeks to overtake a damaged financial system with market-oriented insurance policies.
With the revival of socialist governments throughout Latin America, from Chile to Brazil, specialists say Argentina is now poised to emerge as a key strategic accomplice for Washington.
“There’s an opportunity that Argentina can fill this vacuum and ultimately be a strategic accomplice for the U.S.,” mentioned Sergio Berensztein, who runs a political consultancy in Buenos Aires. “Musk can serve to hurry this strategy of Argentina changing into a part of the (U.S.) new community of pals.”
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 instructed La Nación 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 all the pieces we’ve, primarily lithium,” Werthein mentioned of Musk.
Milei’s love without spending a dime markets and shut alignment with U.S. coverage — a significant 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 might be extracted nearer to dwelling, breaking China’s dominance of the battery provide chain.
Analysts say {that a} profitable power transition within the U.S. will demand much more lithium and different important commodities than the nation is now on observe to provide.
“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 all over the world,” mentioned Ben Steinberg, a former Division of Vitality senior adviser and present government vp at authorities affairs agency Venn Methods. “The U.S. has loads of curiosity in working domestically and with South American international locations like Argentina.”
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Comply with AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america