Argentina’s libertarian president goes on defense as a corruption scandal spreads

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — President Javier Milei of Argentina on Thursday fired back at his political opponents and defended his influential sister against claims that she and other close associates profited from a bribery scheme within the country’s disability agency.

In his first major remarks on the corruption scandal, Milei accused his rivals of orchestrating a smear campaign against him and his libertarian party.

“This week’s operation is nothing more than another item in the long list of schemes by the ‘caste,’” Milei said, using his preferred term for Argentina’s left-leaning Peronist opposition that has dominated politics for decades. “Like all previous schemes, it’s another lie.”

The crisis swirling around the government has put Milei on the defensive and threatens to sap popular support for his party just as the political maneuvering is heating up in advance of two key electoral challenges.

Argentina’s most populous province of Buenos Aires — a long-standing stronghold of Milei’s Peronist rivals — will elect local councils and provincial lawmakers on Sept. 7. In October, the country holds national midterm elections in which Milei seeks to expand his party’s minority in the opposition-controlled Congress.

Both votes are widely seen as a referendum on the self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist,” who has won praise for eliminating Argentina’s chronic fiscal deficit and taming severe inflation but faces growing pressures as economic growth sputters, foreign currency reserves dwindle and average salaries lag behind pre-Milei levels.

The corruption scandal erupted last week when local media published leaked audio messages in which the former director of Argentina’s disability agency, Diego Spagnuolo, can allegedly be heard discussing a kickback scheme in his organization benefiting the president’s sister and closest advisor, Karina Milei, and other senior officials to the tune of up to $800,000 a month.

Milei fired Spagnuolo from the disability agency after publication of the audio messages. Authorities are investigating the recordings. Prosecutors have not yet filed charges.

The president first broke days of an unusual silence on the issue Wednesday, denying the allegations to a reporter during a campaign event shortly before being evacuated as protesters hurled stones at his motorcade.

In more extensive remarks at a trade conference Thursday, Milei told business leaders that it would “be up to the courts to clarify this, and we are at their disposal.”

“We regret that judges have to waste their time on the most rancid political tricks instead of pursuing crime,” he added.