You mentioned in your speech, when talking about Javier Milei, that the military dictatorship established in 1976 must be taken as a starting point. For what reason?
Milei’s victory signifies the end of a process that began with the military dictatorship in 1976. Several revolutionary organizations and trade unions managed to carry out the largest mass increase in Argentina in the 1970s, which was suppressed by the military dictatorship.

The so-called National Reorganization Process was put in charge of establishing a neoliberal economic system, and one can make a historical thread from that period to the present day. After the dictatorship, there has been a democracy in power that has responded to the interests of capital rather than the needs of the people, a structure that Milei has consolidated.

How were the conditions set for Milei’s victory in the 2023 elections?
The failure to respond to this democracy, which responded to the interests of capital, led to the strengthening of the right-wing authorities. In fact, the right grows when the resistance of the peoples is mitigated, with a brutal capitalism that stabilizes the differences that have never been seen before. After the end of the military dictatorship, this political authority, which had stabilized in neoliberal democracy, finally lost credibility, which Milei took advantage of to gain popularity, as the fascist right does in times of crisis.

In addition, they gain this reputation by taking advantage of the things that actually happen: They insist on the “political caste” and there is, but they themselves are part of it. They make illusions about a false future, the consequences of which are suffered by the working class. The brutal restructuring of the state that needed capital began in the 1990s and will culminate in Milei’s tenure.

What is the current situation of the Argentine Government with regard to social protection?
It remains strong, mostly because it is backed by political authority. He has no majority in Congress, but he gets the majority because the political authority legitimizes the current order. Milei came to the government without a political party and is forming the party once it comes to power.

It is true that there is resistance that is being detected lately, even more so with the Libra cryptocurrency scam. Not because of the fraud, but because of the credibility that Milei has lost. He is still strong and there is much to fight for. The March 12 Jubilee Protests have played a crucial role in this.

In fact, how has Milei’s protection been affected by the Libra cryptocurrency scam and retired incidents?
The jubilee protests have meant a turning point for the Milei government, which is currently the sector that is showing the strongest resistance against it in Argentina. It puts the President in a difficult position and it remains to be seen whether the incidents will escalate in the coming days.

When it comes to protection, the polls say everything, but most of them agree on one thing: that it has come down. It hasn’t come down as much as it should. Milei’s credibility has been undermined by the cryptocurrency case, and now they will have to carefully follow the investigations and litigation they will open against him in the US. At the same time, the accusation that Milei’s sister, Karina Milei, has received for influence trafficking has also played a role.

In your speech, you pointed out that Argentina is “the sum of several identities.” One of these identities is the Mapuche people. Has the repression against them increased?
Milei, like the far-right rulers around the world, sets up his opponents as soon as he comes to power. In the case of Argentina, they were first people who received the social plans of the previous government, followed by the arrival of the Mapuche people. Through the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, the Argentine Government has stated that the Mapuche people are terrorists, and in recent years they have been evicted from all the lands that the Mapuches have recovered with the complicity of the judiciary.
The government is expelling families who have been on these lands for more than 30 years and has recently carried out the six largest evictions in recent years. There is an important factor with the conflict of the Mapuche people: they are an obstacle for the projects of multinationals in the mining and tourist area. The anti-Mapuche discourse has also been gaining momentum in recent years, following the lies spread by Milei himself.

Recently, the Argentine Lawyers Guild condemned the inclusion of the Mapuche Resistance Group in the list of terrorist organizations in the country.
The Argentine Government uses the Antiterrorist Law to establish an enemy and judge him for the mere fact that he is an enemy and not for the actions that this enemy has committed. This is what is happening with the Mapuches not only in Argentina, but also in other Latin American countries. The pre-existing bourgeois legislation no longer applies to certain issues, such as the judicial repression against the Mapuches.

He mentioned that demobilization in Argentina had increased in recent years. Do you think that in the context of the Jubilee protests the opposition will start a cycle of mobilisation against Milei?
Whenever any sector of the country triggers street level protests, we fear that the opposition will not channel and institutionalize the mobilizations. We are hopeful that the retired sector, which is now beginning to take to the streets, will continue to light fire. The two largest workers’ centers in Argentina – the Central Autonoma de Trabajadores de Argentina (CTA-A) and the Central Argentinean de Trabajadores (CTA-T) – have also announced that they will organize mobilizations in the future, which we hope will not institutionalize the protests.

However, in view of the images and videos of the incidents of recent days, it is evident that the protests against the government have grown qualitatively: although the protests by university students and/or the mobilizations that Milei made during his statements at the Forum of Davos (Switzerland) were massive, it has been detected that the rebellion has grown in the country, that is, that an entire population is being pushed forward.

You said that after three decades in Argentina today you can talk about socialism. For what reason? What role does internationalism play?
This type of capitalism today has reached its limit, so we are in a time of vital importance. I say this capitalism, as we have seen in other times, because capital can remodel itself. But the situation we are living in today forces you to think that it is essential to break with the system; after all, about a welfare state that you could have thought of years ago, about the benefits that capitalism could bring... But today, no.

I don’t remember which author, but a famous phrase says: “You can’t build a hospital in a prison building. You have to destroy the prison to build the hospital.” Now we have the opportunity to break with this system, that is what we must focus our militant work on. Internationalism is of vital importance in this work, because in such a globalized and monopolistic capitalism it is necessary to build an international force, because organizing nationally is not enough, as has been seen in Venezuela and/or Cuba.

How will Milei face the midterm elections in Argentina in October?
I think he will maintain the support he has had so far. It will not be the same, of course, because of the conflicts he has had in recent weeks. But, unfortunately, in Argentina, no alternative has yet been built that defies the current neoliberal system.